Have you no moral standards?
To the Editor:
Before I begin, let me make this statement. The following are my words and do not speak for the Planning Board as a whole in any capacity.
As chair of the Altamont Planning Board, I am shocked, appalled, and repulsed by both the letter from Ed Cowley in last week’s Enterprise and the Altamont Enterprise’s decision to print it. In this uneasy time of protests and rallies for peace and ends to violence, this disparaging letter appears in your paper.
Your decision to print a letter calling for members of the various village boards to be shamed and put in stocks on the village square has no defense! As the years have passed (yes, it’s been years), letters to the editor regarding contentious applications have gotten nasty but none, so far, have called for outright violence as this one has!
A call to violence that I feel the Enterprise condones by its printing. Have you no moral standards?
Just to be clear, since many seem confused, the code of the village of Altamont, not the comprehensive plan, is the law that all boards must adhere to. The comprehensive plan is simply a guide. A guide that the planning board has used many times to get concessions from applicants.
It is not the “United States Village of Altamonts Constitution.” Quite frankly, I don’t know what that means — there is no such thing.
I will not be intimidated by this letter’s vile message, its nasty belittlement, its outright call for violence or and above all any attempt to influence a decision one way or another. I will, however, continue to be sure that anyone who comes before my board with an application for a special use permit conforms to, and agrees to, all aspects of the standards required by the village code.
In closing, I will be speaking with the Altamont Police Department asking them to step up patrols around our homes. I consider this letter a threat and one that The Enterprise has not tried to defuse, but encourage, by its printing of such a letter (anything to sell papers.)
Lastly, please cancel my subscription to The Enterprise. I attempt to support “local” every chance I get. However, I will not support a paper, anyone, or anything else that propagates violence.
Here is your “historic” Victorian village everyone; it even includes bringing back “historic” punishment. Wooden stocks vs. common decency. Altamont has lost its heart.