By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- A member of the village board says the village code committee continues to work toward a method of tracking and better enforcing code laws on abandoned and vacant properties.

“We’re scheduling a meeting with code to ramp up the foreclosure list investigation and abandoned property law,” Trustee Matt Lebire said.

The code committee consists of him and Trustee Francis Carvel.

Lebire has said in the past that they are purposefully going slow so whatever they craft doesn’t put undue burden on those who own empty buildings but are taking care of them.

“Last thing we want to do is put on another regulatory burden or financial burden to anybody who’s maintaining their property,” he said last month.

Mayor Tim Currier said at the Sept. 15 board meeting that he is looking at writing a local “zombie property” law if a state proposal isn’t enacted.

“Zombie properties” are held by banks but not brought up to code. Until the property is officially foreclosed, they can skirt code laws.

In Albany, the Abandoned Property Neighborhood Relief Act has been stuck in Assembly and Senate committees.

There are 232 empty buildings in the town and village, many of which are owned by financial institutions.

Justin Niles, a firefighter and code official, said in August that most of them are maintained and at a glance, look like they are being used. A list of what buildings are empty could help prevent issues with the recently passed blight law, he said.