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.