July 17, 2008 05:20 pm
—
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.’’
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