MASSENA -- The village will advertise for a part-time employee to help with their “zombie property” program.

Zombie properties are those that are in foreclosure and owned by a bank, but due to legal loopholes municipalities have little recourse to make the banks bring them up to code.

Massena Fire Department Foreman Aaron Hardy said it will include doing research and assisting and facilitating the program’s grant funds.

“We need somebody to go out and get a handle of what we have in this community. It changes day to day,” Hardy said. Some of those duties would include documenting the zombie properties and creating spreadsheets.

“Part of the funds goes to public education campaign, have them work on that,” he said.

“A lot of this research is going to take some time.”

The position’s salary will come from grant funding, so if the program gets cut off or the village no longer qualifies, the job goes away.

“I would highly recommend during the interview process that it’s made very clear to the candidates that it’s a grant-funded position,” Deputy Mayor Matt Lebire said.