To the Editor:
I am not a Marvel movie fan. It’s not my genre.

But I do have to say that reading Sean Mulkerrin’s article, “Jonathan Phillips versus the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth,” in the May 26 Altamont Enterprise and having experienced firsthand the spectacle that was the zoning board of Appeals’ continued public hearing on the installation of signage for Phillips Hardware on May 4, did make me feel as if I had entered the multiverse of madness.

The whole of what brought Mr. Phillips before the zoning board and the ensuing public hearings were applications for variance requests on signage. Requests in many incarnations, requiring multiple meetings, that were contested by residents from the community where his businesses are located as well as residents from the town at large.

At issue from those who voiced opposition, was the negative impact that the excess in signage would have on the neighboring environment and the precedent that would be set for what would then be seen as an accepted standard for any business wanting the same leniency from the town code.

The common theme in the opposing arguments was this: These requests cannot be looked at as personal and unique to Phillips Hardware and the Phillips Mobil/Dunkin’/Minimart venture because of their farther reaching implications. Please note: not personal.

The approvals that the zoning board ultimately granted Mr. Phillips were a far cry from what were the original requests. Telling, in that it would appear that from the zoning board’s standpoint, there were indeed some viable concerns.

You would have thought, that would be that. But as reported, this is where the story took a dramatic twist.

Somehow, the decisions of the zoning board became subsumed by an alternate reality. And in that reality, Mr. Phillips has been the victim of a conspiracy to be squelched by a powerful entity of extraordinary influence, the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth.

How that happened, is truly a marvel.

Iris Broyde

Guilderland