LAKE PLACID – Several members of this village’s board expressed interest Monday in expanding enforcement of building codes throughout Lake Placid with the addition of a second “deputy” code enforcement officer.

By the end of the meeting, village Mayor Craig Randall said the board planned to develop a letter to the North Elba Town Council asking to increase enforcement.

The concerns the board raised were about whether code enforcement is available and thorough enough to ensure compliance with local laws. Village attorney Janet Bliss said she’s fielded phone calls from people throughout the summer complaining about signage that’s out of compliance. She said the volume of calls reached a high point during the week of the Ironman triathlon.

We do get these calls, and some of them are awkward,” Randall said. “Obviously there are personalities involved sometimes, and it’s a question of, ‘How come this person gets this treatment and I am held to a different standard?’ We deal with that all the time.”

Bliss recommended asking the town to expand its code enforcement office, which jointly serves the village and the town and has one officer, James Morganson.

“Maybe it’s time for him to have some help – a deputy or an assistant,” Bliss said.

“There is no deputy that could go out and do it; there is just a void,” she added. “And maybe it’s time for the village – because we had these discussions earlier this summer with regards to sandwich signs, et cetera – that if we do not get the coverage that we need for enforcement, maybe we do our own thing? Maybe we encourage the town to have a deputy so that there is always coverage because there is a pretty big lack of coverage at many times of the year, according to my observations.”

Randall said he also felt there was a “notable” absence of code enforcement during the week. Considering the volume of the workload, he said Morganson “may have more on his plate than he can possibly get done.” The officer’s daily duties include working with private residences, small renovation projects and new businesses to comply with state fire codes and local zoning and signage law.

“I saw on the Main Street for about two weeks a banner flying that the signage code absolutely prohibits,” Randall said.

“I think we may be at a point where the lack of presence of code enforcement is creating a problem for us that the community, represented by its local laws and policies, chooses not to want to see here,” he added. “We need to take some steps.”

Randall suggested directing a letter to the town board outlining dissatisfaction with code enforcement and asking to consider the addition of a deputy “or someone that could be effective when our code officer is absent or is overburdened.”

Deputy Mayor Art Devlin said the village should “look into it with the town.” Village Trustee Peter Holderied said to suggest a deputy. Bliss said the recommendation would be a follow-up to discussions the village and town boards had six to 10 months ago.

“In the worst case, the village, if it chooses, could determine that it’s going to try to replace that coverage with its own efforts,” Randall said.

Bliss said the calls she received were about “temporary banners that had sprung up through town.

“Some were attached to buildings; some were attached to decks; some were attached to railings,” she said.

During the week of Ironman, she said, she contacted town Supervisor Roby Politi, who worked to get notices sent to code violators.

The town board is scheduled to hold its next meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9 at the North Elba Town Hall.