NEW VINEYARD — Voters will decide Monday whether to approve spending up to $30,000 for a town-wide property revaluation.

The vote will be at 7 p.m. April 16 in Smith Hall, and the registrar of voters will be available.

Fay Adams, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said the town has not been revalued for more than a decade. The state requires a revaluation every 10 years, she said.

Selectmen have budgeted $30,000 for assessors to complete the major part of the project. Selectmen also serve as assessors, and their assistant, Ronald Trapanier, who worked for assessor William Van Tuinen’s Tax Assessing Services in Madison, is responsible for keeping property valuations updated.

Trepanier is not a certified assessor, so final data must be approved by someone who is.

“It has been brought to the attention of the assessors that there is a need to revalue some properties in the town which may not be fairly valued,” Adams said. “Our last complete valuation of the town was in 2000-2001.”

She said some property values will go up, others will go down and some will stay the same, she said.

“We now have the expertise to accomplish this at a very reasonable cost,” she said. “The end product will be certified.”

Trepanier will go door to door to update properties, including homes and outbuildings. Selectmen will accompany him and take digital photos, Adams said. They will go inside homes and outbuildings.

The town office has Trio software to enter data and keep valuations more current. Selectmen are able to keep valuations as close as possible to the 100 percent of current market value suggested by state mandates.

Adams suggested that most real estate was at least 80 percent of current market value. One of the hardest things to keep current were changes made by homeowners.

Copy the Story Link