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Longtime code officer retires

Lake Placid, North Elba boards will meet together today to plan

James Morganson, code enforcement officer and building inspector for the town of North Elba and village of Lake Placid, sits in his office in 2006. (Enterprise photo — Rebecca Steffan)

LAKE PLACID — Longtime North Elba and Lake Placid Code Enforcement Officer James Morganson has retired, Lake Placid village Mayor Craig Randall said at Monday’s village board meeting.

The village Board of Trustees and the North Elba Town Council will hold a joint meeting at 3:30 p.m. today at the North Elba Town Hall to discuss the code enforcement officer position. Morganson was not present at Monday’s village board meeting.

Randall and other village board members said they were unsure how long Morganson may stay on as a part-time town employee to help bridge code enforcement work between now and the selection of his successor. They were also unsure when a new code enforcement officer would be named, saying that would likely be a topic of discussion at today’s special meeting.

Morganson’s career as a building official in Lake Placid spans nearly three decades. He has also served as president of the New York State Building Officials Conference.

Randall said today’s meeting will also likely include discussion between village and town board members about the possibility of a new auxiliary position within the code enforcement office and the code enforcement office’s relationship with the village.

“Because we have a joint code, my discussion with the (town) supervisor (Roby Politi) largely focused around the fact that somewhere along the way, the village and its board, it seems to be a gap so that the building office never really felt accountable to us,” Randall said. “He’s accountable to the person who signs his paycheck, but I suggested to the supervisor that one of the items on my agenda would be making sure that, going forward, that accountability with the village is as secure as it is with the town, and we’ll have to look at how we accomplish that.

“But I think we are also going to need more than (that),” Randall continued. “We need a building officer. We need a code enforcement officer. We have code issues in the village, some of which may be recognized in the sense that as our community changes, our codes don’t change, and keep up with those changes.

“In other cases, we have obvious issues where codes are very clear, and they have not been enforced satisfactorily all the time. And when that process starts, it has a ripple effect, and it goes out across the community.

“What the supervisor has said, and I agree with it: We are a victim of our own successes,” Randall said. “We are growing. We are attractive. There are new things coming in, new developments. Keeping up with our codes and buildings is important.”

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