It has been 30 years since the village of Clifton has updated its Code book. The code book is the collection of laws and ordinances that defines how a municipality will operate.

But Clifton is a step closer to getting that job done now that the planning commission has voted to recommend that the village spend $10,000 with a group called Municode to collect and update all the ordinances and put the code on the internet.

That process could take another year to comlete.

"The code needs a complete overhaul," said Clifton Planning Commissioner Larry Mahoney last night.

He was talking about the village code book for Clifton, last revamped in 1984.

Since then, by Mahoney's reckoning, it's possible as many as 125 or 150 ordinances have never been properly signed into law or collected in any code book that would be available to the citizens or to the village officers who are supposed to enforce it.

James Bonneville, a representative of Municode, said his group will work to make sure all Clifton ordinances are compliant with state statutes, that obsolete, redundant, or conflicting entries are identified so that the Village can make any substantive changes that they want to make.

The Planning Commission recommended the village hire Municode to do that work, which may take more than a year to complete and cost around ten thousand dollars.