By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The Town Council unanimously adopted a six-month moratorium on transient sales on Wednesday.

The temporary ban will give officials time to review the local code, which Town Supervisor Joseph Gray said does not adequately address the issue.

“It’s important to point out -- we see this is a temporary change while we address a loophole in the code in general,” Gray said. “It gives us a little bit of … breathing room.”

He said the issue is also getting attention at the state level, where lawmakers are considering a ban on selling a product outside of a designated radius of a business’s primary location.

The moratorium does not affect farmer’s markets and fairs like the Heritage Festival, Gray said.

“Vendors that are part of a fair or established market, food vendors, like if you have a hot dog truck, won’t be affected,” according to Gray.

The issue first came up at a February Town Council meeting where Frank Lallier of Blevins Seaway Motors told the board they were being undercut by Rochester-based Vision Autogroup selling cars at the St. Lawrence Centre Mall.

“We’re losing sales,” Lallier said at the time.