MASSENA -- Massena village trustees are hoping to attract more businesses to the downtown area, a venture that has seen success in recent months, but back taxes on tax foreclosures may be a deterrent for some prospective businesses.

Trustee Ken McGowan spoke to the issue during the Jan. 16 board meeting, saying he was approached by a member of the public while eating dinner.

McGowan said the individual asked him if there were resources to help businesses relocate to the village, including assistance with back taxes owed on properties acquired through the annual tax auction.

According to McGowan, he reached out to Village Administrator Monique Chatland, who provided him with "some great information that could possibly help this individual."

"I don't know what happened in the past but it seems like whoever the village was employing at that time didn't provide information, which was pretty sad. But now they're looking for maybe tax help. They get if they buy a property, like say for 40 grand and they gotta dump 100 into it. But what they're looking for is some help on taxes," he said.

McGowan said back taxes should not be a deterrent for a prospective business that wants to locate or relocate to the downtown and invest significant sums of money to build up a business and commercial space that will benefit the downtown area.

"Maybe we can figure something out to help you out. And I guess in the past, this information wasn't made available, which is too bad, which could have stifled somebody from moving into

the village," McGowan said.

Chatland said the village and county as well have programs that may be able to help prospective business owners, noting the county has programs that have been popular in recent years.

According to Chatland, a 45A or 45B may work for individuals looking for partial exemption.

"There is the 45A or 45B that also provides a certain percentage of an exemption but it has to be commercial and residential. The other one is just for commercial businesses," she said.

"So, I know we've talked about what we're going to do as far as having our, I don't want to call a chamber, but a chamber or somebody hopefully, when we get there, this individual or group understands this kind of stuff to help people," McGowan said.

McGowan said the individual who will represent Massena with the County Chamber will hopefully have the knowledge to help individuals act on incentives to establish businesses in the downtown.

It is his hope that the chamber representative will be able to get businesses to move in ready to come to the village.

"Maybe they can come to the rep and say 'we can come in now' and they can get them a place right away," he said.

That role, which has been posted for some time since the official merger with the County Chamber, should be filled in the next month or so according to village and town officials.