ALTAMONT — A quorum of the Altamont Board of Trustees at its monthly meeting named the new members of the village zoning board of appeals. 

In April, the village board had voted to do away with both the planning and zoning boards. The newly-created zoning board is made up of members from each of the dissolved boards.

On May 3, Mayor Kerry Dineen along with Trustees Nicholas Fahrenkopf and John Scally approved the board’s seven new members and an alternate, with one alternate yet to be named. Trustees Tresa Matulewicz and Michelle Ganance were absent for the vote. 

The zoning board members and their terms aare:

— Chairwoman Deborah Hext, former planning board chair, three years;

— Danny Ramirez, former chair of the zoning board, three years;

— Barbara Muhlfelder, former planning board member, two years;

— Simon Litten, former planning board member, two years; 

— Robert Freeman, former planning board member, two years;

— Sal Tassone, former zoning board member, one year;

— Laura Murphy, former zoning board member, one year; and 

— Alternate James Sullivan, former zoning board member, three years. 

Dineen, in January, initially proposed abolishing the two boards and replacing them with a single board that had “powers and duties” encompassing both. 

The local law as proposed in January and early February would have created a seven-member board with an alternate serving seven-year terms; however, the mayor’s intention was actually to have the new zoning board made up of five voting members and two alternates, which is what was noticed in mid-February for a March public hearing. (Village attorney Allyson Phillips had said she incorrectly numbered the members of the new zoning board in the proposed local law.)

The mayor’s intention was not made clear until late in the Feb. 1 public hearing, which drew the ire of some of the meeting’s attendees, leading trustees to ultimately decide to keep the public hearing open and draft a new law that clarified the makeup of the new zoning board.

During their March meeting, trustees heard from board members who’d be impacted by the new law. The then-planning board members who spoke were in favor abolishing their board, but asked — along with Ramirez — that the new zoning board be made up of seven voting members instead of five. 

The new zoning board is scheduled to meet, if needed, on the fourth Tuesday of every month.