AMSTERDAM — Officials gathered at a vacant home on Brandt Place on Thursday about to be given a “fresh start” when it and eight other blighted residences in Amsterdam are fully renovated and sold at affordable rates to first-time buyers.“The history of this city is interwoven into the evolution of its neighborhoods,” Mayor Michael Cinquanti said. “No effort to revitalize Amsterdam will be complete or successful unless it also includes an ongoing and consistent effort to revitalize the working class neighborhoods, like this one, which dominate the residential core of this city.”Contractors had already gutted and started reframing the interior of…