By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The Massena Village Board of Trustees has delayed voting on altering language in the municipality’s contract with the Massena Fire Department foreman to make him head code enforcement official.

The controversial section stated that the foreman will assist the town code office with fire inspections as long as there’s an agreement in place between the two bodies, which has been written but not approved.

“We’ve yet to adopt an agreement with them,” Mayor James Hidy said. “Quite honestly, I don’t know where we stand with that … there’s some issues that need to be ironed out.”

The village had hired Peter Devine in August who was to serve as joint code officer. He resigned after a week because, he said in a letter, he was under the impression he would be the lead code official, but the village was using the fire department.

“I would like to see the code office as a side entity of the fire department and our foreman designated as the lead agent of that,” Hidy said Tuesday night.

Trustees Francis Carvel and Timothy Ahfeld said they weren’t happy with the tabled resolution because it would alter the village’s contract with the fire department, which could only be taken back through negotiation.

“Not only will it lock us in, but it will lock in, a few years down the road, future boards,” Carvel said.

“What happens if … we have a bonafide code enforcement officer? We go back to the future,” Ahfeld said, adding that it could create issues with the firefighters’ union.

Ahfeld added that he feels the tabled resolution’s language should be a policy, rather than language in a contract.

“There’s nothing wrong with the way this is written, I don’t want to see it as part of a labor agreement – I’d rather see it as a policy,” he said. “We’re trying to legislate something that doesn’t need to be legislated.”