By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Members of the village board want to spend more on public safety in 2017-18 and restore a third investigator position at the village police department.

Trustee Tim Ahlfeld pointed to a recent felony drug case where village police arrested six Utica residents and one local with nearly a half-pound of various narcotics.

“Our investigators don’t have enough time to do what they need to do,” Ahlfeld said. “The tourists [the police department] had to take care of last Friday, those are the tourists nobody wants up here.”

Chief Adam Love had written the position into his department request. Total department requests would have increased the tax levy 24 percent, and the investigator position was one of many cuts Currier made before proposing a budget with a 2.95 percent increase.

“We’ve been meeting and talking about this for weeks and weeks,” he said, referring to his meetings with Love. “You guys (village trustees) are going to have to put that back in.”

Ahlfeld and Deputy Mayor Matt Lebire said they feel more policing, especially given the area’s heroin epidemic, fits with Currier’s community development strategy. The mayor told the board that community development means making the town a nice place to live and do business.

“That goes hand-in-hand with making this a better place to live,” Ahlfeld said. “I’ve seen people say ‘there’s a lot of houses for sale in Massena, why would I want to live in Massena? When I drive out, I see what’s walking down the street. I’m not trying to act like we’re above people in this town, but some of the tourists who have moved here are here for one reason and it’s not good. We’ve got to obliterate them.”

“Community development is going to support economic development. It doesn’t matter how cheap the power is, how skilled and ready the workforce is … they’re not going to want to start a business here if they don’t like that they see,” Lebire said.

Currier said the problem is systemic and stretches far beyond the local borders.

“The criminal justice system itself is bursting at the seams. It’s expensive to operate a jail … there’s not enough probation officers. Take parole officers in this state and they have a caseload that’s unmanageable.” “We need comprehensive criminal justice reform in this country, not just the state.”

Currier’s budget includes measures that he hopes will stem the next generation from turning to opiates.

One of those is opening a teen clubhouse to target at-risk youth who are either using or could use. This would be a separate institution from the Boys and Girls Club of Massena.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this,” Currier said. “The chief and I meet almost daily. He has an aggressive enforcement strategy. It’s a generational problem - it’s not going away anytime soon. We’re stuck with that problem for 15-20 years. We’ve got to prevent the next generation.

During public comment, Massena resident and former county legislator R. Shawn Gray suggested a questionably legal move that the local government blacklist out-of-towners who have come to Massena solely for illegal activities.

“Local governments have a lot of power, you see nationwide sanctuary cities. Is there a way when someone comes up here for criminal behavior, we can keep them out?” Gray asked. You’re arrested, you’re convicted, you’re put on a bus.”

“That’s an unsanctuary city,” replied one person in the audience who did not identify himself.

“That’s a good city,” said a second person who also did not identify himself.