To the Editor:

We can control the character of our community. So, it’s a shame that only the threat of a big-box store galvanizes people around here, but the erosion, inch by inch, of a sense of place does not.

Our main thoroughfare, Route 85A, through the town of New Scotland and the village of Voorheesville, will soon have no more historic, community-gathering, independent businesses and farms, except for Falvo’s meat market near Route 85. The stores in Hannaford Plaza are run-in/run-out arenas.  No schmoozing, as there had been at LeVie’s farmstand.  Soon, no more schmoozing at Smitty’s. Thank goodness for the farmers’ market in Voorheesville.

The once rural 85A will become a highway.

Only historic markers will register what once was.

And, it’s not that we weren’t warned.  Plenty of articles, letters to the editor, and editorials over many years have tried to motivate people to care and local governments to act.

Laws can protect our quality of life.  If the village of Voorheesville had a law restricting chain stores, we wouldn’t be wringing our hands over Smitty’s.  No one would be trying to guilt Smitty’s owners about getting the most for a business they want to sell.  Whatever new establishment would have come, it wouldn’t have been another Stewart’s.

If we, in the town of New Scotland and the village of Voorheesville, have a “blank slate” on this major thoroughfare, what can both municipalities do to help create, anew, the small-town ambience that we love?

Other regions take their fates into their own hands, and do not allow developers to dictate their quality of life.  Shouldn’t we?  If we don’t act, we have only ourselves to blame for the results.

Edie Abrams

New Scotland

Editor’s note: Edie Abrams is a member of the New Scotland Zoning Board of Appeals.