NORWICH – Asking his constituents to help bail out Chenango County’s bankrupt codes office doesn’t sit well with Town of Greene Supervisor Jack T. Cook. It wouldn’t be legal to ask them to double dip, he said.

The division of the Chenango County Public Health Department, which has paid for itself since 2000, will be in the red by $100,000 or more at year’s end. Finance committee members talked at length Friday about the possibility of making the function a part of the general levy.

At issue is a request from Public Health Director Marcus Flindt to backfill three vacant positions. The department would run a deficit to pay for them. The Chenango County Board of Supervisors refilled two positions in the department last month.

Greene and three other municipalities – the City of Norwich, New Berlin and Earville – have their own code enforcement officers. “Before I agree to filling these positions, I want to know where the money is coming from. I don’t want my taxpayers to be paying a double tax. There are three communities with our own ... we pay our own tax. It wouldn’t be a legal thing for us,” Cook, R-Greene, said during a meeting of the safety and rules committee June 20.

“The positions should be backfilled,” said George G. Coates, I-Columbus. “The organization has to be staffed. I see a reimbursement for those towns that don’t need it.” Columbus has a population of roughly 930, and like other small towns, relies on the county to perform inspections and code enforcement.

Flindt said a long ‘to do’ list of building and fire inspections – in addition to mounting calls for enforcement – has made his department inefficient. The lack of big box retailers’ fees this year, and three more unfilled positions, has put a strain on the budget and meant that the work is not getting done.

“With the staff we have, there is no way we can please everybody,” Code Enforcement Officer Bruce Bates said. Officers try to max out their visits, averaging nine stops a day, he said.

“If people would call us in a timely manner, give us at least a two-day lead rather than an hour, maybe we could do better,” Flindt said.

With the three backfills, the department would have the six officers with which it started the year. “We were making some headway, until we lost them,” Bates said, adding that some of the officers left following disputes about the interpretation of New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code.