BROCTON — Village trustees encouraged Town of Portland Supervisor Dan Schrantz to move forward with getting a shared full-time code enforcement officer for the two municipalities.

Schrantz sounded a bit discouraged about the process when he visited the Board of Trustees meeting earlier this month, noting that there were fewer applicants than expected. In fact, there was only one. However, he said three other people had expressed an interest in the position.

There is some urgency to this matter. Apparently, both Brocton and Portland have a severe backlog of code enforcement cases — made worse by the fact that Portland’s part-time code enforcer, Signe Rominger, is out on sick leave for an extended period.

“Brocton’s got to have a code enforcement officer quickly,” said Mayor Richard Frost. “Portland’s in the same boat.”

In fact, there is so much to be done, officials brought up the idea of hiring a secretary to help keep track of things for the code enforcer But Schrantz said, “(Portland) wanted to try it with one person and add to it along the way. … We don’t have enough to have a full time secretary and a full time code enforcer.”

Brocton’s officials eventually agreed they should hold off on hiring a secretary. “We can add if we have to add,” Frost said.

“Take short steps and learn by it and see what you got,” suggested Trustee Art Miller. He motioned to start interviews for the code enforcer “as soon as possible” and the trustees all voted “yes.” Schrantz said he would get in touch with the three people who expressed an interest but did not formally apply and try to set up interviews with them, along with the single applicant.

“It’s a forward step either way,” Frost said. “We can’t go backwards, I know that.”

Portland plans to pay the salary and bill Brocton for one-third the amount. The interview committee, at the suggestion of Brocton Village Attorney Peter Clark, is slated to consist of two Brocton board members and two from Portland’s board.

However, there is still plenty that is unclear about how this endeavor will work — not least, how much time the code enforcer will spend in each municipality, and how they can keep track of that for village and town officials.

Clark said the person should fill out an itemized time slip, showing the amount of time he or she spends in each municipality every week. Village trustees sounded agreeable to that.