WEST PARIS – Selectman Wade Rainey said anyone calling him in the past two weeks most likely got a busy signal.

And that trend will probably continue for two more weeks.

He took on the task of explaining to taxpayers why their taxes were higher than what they were told in a letter from Kevin McGillicuddy of Appraisal Associates of Maine.

McGillicuddy was hired by the town last September to do the revaluation for $42,500.

According to Town Clerk Cheryl Shattenberg, the contract required him to mail all taxpayers a letter informing them of their revaluations.

She said the letter he sent did not have a breakdown of the revaluation as to charges for buildings and property. It was a total amount.

The letters went out to taxpayers and McGillicuddy was available to townspeople having questions for approximately the second and third week of July, according to Rainey.

Selectmen sent the tax commitments on July 24.

The phones in the town office started ringing July 25.

Rainey said he knew taxes were going up because the town had been at about 80 percent of the certified ratio set by the state.

“Our basic land value was $7,500 for a house lot (1 acre),” Rainey said. “Now it’s $12,500 to $15,000. We’re at 100 percent with the state now.”

Rainey said he started getting questions about the figures in the letter versus the tax assessment and he didn’t know what to say.

Shattenberg said she and town Administrative Assistants Jane Littlehale and Beverly Farrar have been bombarded by calls and estimates that they have talked to about 100 residents trying to explain how their taxes were set.

“It is a mess and we get calls everyday,” Shattenberg said. “Jane and I handled more calls than we could imagine.”

They created a list of all the people who wanted to talk to selectmen.

Rainey said he was unable to get an explanation from McGillicuddy.

“I have to check my old database to find out what the problem was,” McGillicuddy said Monday. “I kept notes on everything we did. They haven’t talked to me for awhile. I can’t give you a more definitive answer now.”

He said it would take a day or two to check his database.

McGillicuddy has recently accepted a position as the assessor for Paris.

Rainey said he decided to take control of the situation as best as possible.

“So I took it on myself to call everyone who had questions,” he said. “I’ve probably talked to 20 to 25 people so far and I don’t think any of them are really irate now.

“It’s not knowing why there was a difference that bothers them,” he said “They feel they were cheated.”

Rainey, a certified state assessor, said selectmen would abate errors in assessing, and to date selectmen have granted about 10 abatements.

“If people are not happy with what we come up with they can go to county commissioners,” Rainey said.