By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Mayor Tim Currier says he wanted to get rid of spring cleanup days before taking office, but has since changed his tune.

He says the DPW workers picking up junk piles are paid out of the refuse fund, rather than the general fund. If they axed the cleanup dates, taxes would go up to offset the difference.

“I think it would be detrimental to our economic development situation,” he said, adding that he would not want to see small businesses who contract for trash removal have to pay more taxes to the village for a service they don’t use.

Currier said residents give him mixed feedback about trash day.

“Fifty percent say ‘Get rid of it,’ fifty percent say ‘Thank you for doing it,’” he said of several recent phone calls he’s received.

Village officials debated if there is a way to take action against renters who don’t pick up curbside refuse that the Department of Public Works isn’t supposed to take for spring cleanup.

“There’s a pretty frequent violator over on the corner of Liberty and Sycamore. It looks like the old town dump,” Ahlfeld said.

Code Officer Ken McGowan said people get a five-day warning and if it isn’t rectified, the DPW gets rid of it and bills the property owner.

Ahlfeld wondered if there was a way to go after the person actually accumulating the hunk, rather than the landlord, who could be oblivious.

“The codes go to the property owner,” McGowan said.