NORWICH – Just two of the more than 50 resolutions considered by the Chenango County Board of Supervisors earlier this week were debated: Whether to chargeback towns for property maintenance complaints and whether to spend $20,000 on a study of the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad tracks.
Supervisor Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, pulled both items for further discussion.
In the first instance, while the Preston supervisor said implementing chargebacks was “a fair solution” to the Code Enforcement Department’s current $100,000 shortfall, he questioned whether doing so would open up the doors for other departments to begin charging back towns for services. No member of the board answered him.
Town of Afton Supervisor Robert D. Briggs said he couldn’t support the measure because it would be akin to paying for code enforcement services twice. All but four municipalities in Chenango County rely on the county to conduct fire and building inspections and to enforce codes mandated by state and local laws.
“When we signed on, it was my understanding that our complaints were going to be taken care of. It’s not getting done, so I can’t support this,” Briggs said. He later added, “the county’s revenue line for fees collected might drop if the towns decide to do their own code enforcement.”
Supervisor David C. Law, R-Norwich, has warned publicly in the past that his council would be contracting for their own services. Substantial fees were collected into the county’s coffers from Wal-Mart Supercenter and Lowe’s, both built in the town over the last two years.
“We had a plan when the department mushroomed, that later we would see a downsizing once things dropped off. We haven’t,” Law said, objecting to the number of staff in the department.
City of Norwich Supervisor Linda E. Natoli said she would oppose the resolution based on issues having to do with personnel in the department.
Town of German Supervisor Richard Schlag, a member of the Health and Human Service Committee, said the department couldn’t continue to pay for itself unless another large developer comes to the area. The division of the Chenango County Public Health Department has paid for itself since 2000.
“Are we going to support this department or make them pay as much as possible? We either take it out of county share or bill for services,” he said.
Finance Committee Chairman Lawrence Wilcox, R-Oxford, said the change would tie the department’s performance to fees collected.
