ALTAMONT — Looking for the “next generation” to lead the village, Mayor James Gaughan appointed Madeline La Mountain, 27, to the village board on Tuesday evening.

She will fill the seat held by Christine Marshall. Marshall died of cancer on April 16, having served on the village board since 2007.

Gaughan read from a letter of application written by La Mountain: “Although impassioned on a personal level, I understood that for any progress and improvement to occur, individuals had to come together as a collective to effect real change.”

Gaughan said La Mountain’s philosophy matched that of the board’s. “This lady fits the bill very well for dedication to this village,” he said. “She wants to retain the look and feel of the community.”

All four board members endorsed the appointment. La Mountain will move to the board table for its August meeting. She will earn $724.25 quarterly and, if she wants to keep her post, must run for election in March.

La Mountain sat in the gallery Tuesday with her boyfriend, Michael Dineen, beside her and her parents, Michael and Maureen La Mountain, behind her. She was warmly applauded.

La Mountain told The Enterprise she moved to Altamont when she was 5 and that she has always enjoyed the close-knit community and the friends she has in the village.

“I love walking down the street and saying hello to neighbors,” she said. It’s the kind of place, she said, where when, in the midst of baking, if you run short of a cup of sugar, you can borrow it from a neighbor.

After graduating from Guilderland High School, La Mountain left Altamont for the State University of New York College at New Paltz, where she studied international relations. She is in the midst of coursework to complete her degree there.

She studied for a year at Carlos III University in Spain, taking economics courses.

She currently works for her father who owns a heating and air-conditioning business. This week, she was on the roof of Stuyvesant Plaza, painting on aluminum. “I’m getting a tan,” she said.

She joined Altamont Community Tradition where she met Nicholas Fahrenkopf, another young Altamont trustee. She’s known the mayor since her youth and campaigned for him when she was a high school student.

“I’ve always liked politics,” she said. “I like the idea of being able to effect change.”

She has several goals as a trustee. “I want to focus on a social media presence, so Altamont will be seen as a place you want to visit,” said La Mountain.

She’d like to see the farmers’ market enlarged and she is enthusiastic about a plan for a Museum in the Streets project. Village archivist Marijo Dougherty told the board Tuesday that 26 sites will be on the tour.

The board agreed to apply to the Hudson River Valley Greenway for the maximum grant of $10,000 under its Greenway Community Grant Program.

Gaughan said the project, which he estimates could cost up to $30,0000, has already received some “commitments from benefactors in the village.”

“We will not use any tax money,” Gaughan said.

La Mountain described the Museum in the Streets project to The Enterprise: “A map in the center of the village will show you historic sites,” she said.

Another of La Mountain’s goals is to make Altamont “environmentally friendly or sustainable,” she said. She suggested started with small projects like changing light bulbs to reduce use of electricity.

She concluded, “I want to make Altamont a place you want to come to…a village you don’t have to leave, so it has everything you want.”

Other business

In other business at its July 19 meeting, the board:

— Heard from Building Inspector Glenn Hebert that Hitmans Towing had left the village and moved to Menands and so wouldn’t need a special-use permit. Later in the meeting, the board agreed to refund Geoff Brown $600 for his special-use permit application fee, as Hebert recommended. Hebert also thanked the mayor and board for being supportive when he “was out sick these last couple of months”;

— Approved soliciting bids for culvert work on Brandle Road;

— Scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 6 at 7 p.m., subject to permissive referendum, to spend up to $57,000 from the reserve fund to buy a 2016 Ford rack-body truck with a plow and accessories, as recommended by Jeffrey Moller, superintendent of Public works;

— Approved a contract to renew the village’s liability insurance of $46,229 from Marshall & Sterling, which Gaughan said was 2 to 3 percent higher than last year;

— Decided not to purchase terrorism coverage for $583 from Marshall & Sterling, because of the low probability of a terrorist attack in Altamont;

— Agreed to Phil Carducci’s request to hold the annual Turkey Trot 5K Run and Walk along the streets of Altamont on Nov. 26; and

— Went into executive session to discuss litigation.

Corrected, July 25, 2016, to change the maximum cost of the 2016 Ford rack-body truck with a plow and accessories. The correct number is $57,000.