By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The village Board of Trustees voted 3-to-2 this week to hire engineer Tim Burley to act as an agent and spokesman for the village in pursuing Green Innovation grant funding in Albany.

Trustees Francis Carvel and Albert “Herb” Deshaies dissented. Burley was hired at the rate of $100 per hour, not to exceed 50 hours

His main duties, according to Village of Massena Public Works Office Superintendent Hassan Fayad, will be grant writing and “identifying projects to marry into the program,” which covers 90 percent of the work for approved green infrastructure projects.

“They’ll include any project which relates to green infrastructure,” Fayad said.

One project Fayad wants to get funding for is to increase the size of the trunk main that runs from Dairy Queen on state Route 37 to East Orvis Street.

“There’s no room for added water,” he stated.

The Massena DPW head quickly threw his support behind Burley because he knows the ins and outs of the grant program and what they are looking for.

“I think it would be very wise for the village of Massena to retain him to walk us through the program,” according to Fayad. “If we can identify 15 projects, we might be able to make 10 of them stick.”

Mayor James Hidy was keen to the idea of hiring someone from Massena to do the work, but Trustee Francis Carvel, who later voted against hiring Burley, didn’t agree.

“My only concern is the last few projects we’ve had with him, we haven’t had good results,” Carvel said.

“This is grant-writing,” the mayor replied.