Published: July 17, 2008 05:20 pm      

200 want reval tossed

Property owners sign petition in Hartwick

By JIM AUSTIN
Cooperstown Crier

HARTWICK — More than 200 property owners have signed a petition asking the Hartwick Town Board to throw out the recent revaluation of property in the town.

During its monthly meeting Monday night, Dave Petri presented the board with a copy of the petition asking the board to vacate the revaluation by George Cade and to demand he return all funds paid to him.

Town Supervisor Pat Ryan said Cade and Associates was paid $76,000 to do the reval.

Petri said many people in the town are ``fed up and disgusted’’ with the reval.

``It’s the worst mess I’ve ever seen,’’ he said. ``This thing is a disgrace.’’ ``It’s $76,000 you’re asking the taxpayers to eat,’’ Ryan said. ``We have to get more facts. I think we can turn a lemon into lemonade.’’ ``What do we do in the meantime?’’ asked Gregory Horth, who serves on the town planning board and helped Petri circulate petitions. Petri pointed out numerous examples of what he believed to be inequities and errors in assessments to the town board.

In one case, a property across and a little south of the Dreams Park, with 600 feet of frontage on Route 28, was assessed at $705 an acre. Land along Route 28 in the vicinity of the Dreams Park typically sells for tens of thousands of dollars per acre.

Ryan tried to limit Petri’s time, but Town Councilman Delos Field wanted to hear more.

``Give Dave a few minutes because he’s speaking for 200 people,’’ said Field, who also signed the petition.

Bush Road resident Wendy Weeks said Petri had done exceptional research. It was not increasing property values that bothered her, but the number of inconsistencies in the assessment role.

``I’m finding there are such inequities. It’s not that prices are going up, it’s the inequities,’’ she said.

``There is such a variance there is no rhyme or reason,’’ said Kelly Banner. ``It’s craziness. You cannot make sense of it.’’

Paul Lyon told the board that his new assessment was higher than that of his neighbors on each side, and that it may force him to sell the property, which has been in his family since 1794. He said more people would have signed the petition, but were afraid of repercussions. Other residents spoke of being startled when they compared their assessments to similar properties and by the number of mistakes in data collection.

Andre Conklin agreed that data collection was flawed.

``I think we’ve been taken to the cleaners,’’ she said. Ryan said she understood because of her experience with property data cards when she was in real estate. She also admitted mistakes were made on her property data card during the reval and suggested property owners check the information on their data cards to make certain it is correct.

Ryan also worked to distance herself from the reval, saying much of the work was completed when she took office in January.

Town Justice Orrin Higgins said he has for years tried to point out inequities in the tax role and that old established families seemed to be given a break.

Field said that when Petri collects more than 200 signatures against the reval and the petition is signed by town board and planning board members, ``something is wrong, drastically wrong.’’ ``I’m not sure what it is, but I agree,’’ Ryan said. Town Attorney Lynn Green commented that they need to talk to assessor Matt Lippit because ``some of the numbers look out of line.’’

``I am pleased to get this petition. Now we have something to go on,’’ Ryan said.

``Since you have brought this to my attention I will try to open every door to find out what happened. I’ve got a lot of work to do.’’