A land owner has 185 days to appeal an assessment from tax commitment day.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – County commissioners told a Farmington man Tuesday that time had expired to hear an appeal of his Industry property taxes.

William Davis had filed an appeal of a 2002 tax assessment to the commissioners over the town’s assessment of his camp and property, which has a 256-foot frontage on Clearwater Lake in Industry. The town had assessed his property at $183,700, including an assessment of $65,800 on 100 feet of shore frontage that Davis claimed is unbuildable. A letter Davis sent to commissioners stated that the assessment on that 100-foot section was “unfair and unreasonable” due to it being unusable for development.

According to the tax abatement application, Davis requested his property be assessed at fair market value, which he considered to be $122,900. Industry’s 2002 tax rate was $10.50 per $1,000 of valuation.

Bob Gingras, Industry’s assessor, asked if the application for appeal was filed on time.

A property owner has 185 days from tax commitment day to file a request to appeal a property tax assessment with selectmen, Gingras said.

Davis had filed a timely appeal to selectmen but didn’t realize that when Industry selectmen took no action within the 60-day period allotted the town by law, it was automatically denied. Therefore he had missed the 60-day filing time to appeal the decision to commissioners.

Davis said this wasn’t an adversarial issue with Industry selectmen because he’d been treated with respect throughout the process. Davis said both he and selectmen were ignorant of the time frame on the appeal process to commissioners, which Selectmen Lee Ireland confirmed.

“I’m certainly sorry we can’t hear this,” Commissioner Fred Hardy said. He told Davis that commissioners couldn’t do anything for him this year but if he has a similar situation next time he shouldn’t “hesitate to come back.”

In other business, commissioners approved hiring Walter Gooley of Farmington for $35 an hour to oversee the wood harvesting on county property at the sheriff’s office and jail. Hardy said about 15 or 16 acres of the 24-acre parcel are wooded.

• Awarded a bid of $9,417.30 for culverts for unorganized territories to E.J. Prescott of Gardiner.

• Heard that Emergency Management Agency Director Clyde Barker has been awarded a $10,600 grant for clerical support.

• Hired Consuela Johnson as part-time cook at the jail.

• Accepted a $1,065.20 matching grant to buy bulletproof vests for deputies.

• Agreed to have Sheriff Dennis Pike solicit bids for a second storage container for supplies and records.

dperry@sunjournal.com