BOARD OF ASSESSORS
DECEMBER 14, 2004
John R. Swindlehurst, II
Bryan Clark
Bud Noyes,
appraiser
Janice VandeBogart, Town Administrator
7:OO PM
The minutes of the November
16, 2004 meeting were reviewed. Motion
by Tim Terragni to accept the minutes as written was
seconded by John Swindlehurst. Motion passed. Minutes were signed.
The following items were
reviewed and signed:
·
Timber Tax for the Dunbarton
Town Forest, lot number G2-04-08 in the amount of $1423.58.
·
Intent to cut timber in the
name of Gary & Rhoda Hendley, E4-01-12.
Ron Slocum: Trustee of Trust Funds was present for an appointment with the Board. For the record, other members of the Trustees
of Trust Funds not present are Steve Mullen and Bill Jenkins. Ron stated that the trustees had a few
questions regarding expenses incurred due to the revaluation. The invoices were starting to come in and the
trustees wanted to go over the scope of
the reval and what kind of expenses would be
involved. They have a copy of the
contract with Vision Appraisals and had been told of software needed to be
purchased to accommodate the vision program (this program being part of the
contract). Mr. Slocum wanted an
understanding of the costs to reconcile these costs to the project. John stated that all they needed from the
Board of Assessors was requests for funds.
Basically the trustees have no authority to request invoices, as an
individual however, you have the right to see these invoices, but the Trustees
only need a voucher to pay from. He
stated there was no need to reconcile costs, this is the auditor’s job. Further, they do not need to substantiate the
costs, this is taken care of by the board who negotiated it with the Company.
John stated that the town
has a contract price of $102.000 and the Capital reserve is $110,000.
From what he understood, we carried money for software in the reval contract. He
went on to ask what question Mr. Slocum had regarding the cost. The town needed to purchase software to
update the town computer as a result of reval. Tim Terragni stated that the town could not use the old
software package and bought into Visions software. Bryan Clark stated that this was all part of the package with vision
software. Also told by vendors that we
needed to update our system to accommodate their program. We knew we had to do something to the
computers to make this program run properly.
We would not have done the updates if the reval
had never happened. Someone came in
from vision and told us what was needed and we had them meet with our
technician to make the proper updates.
Ron stated that the trustees
will be meeting next week to discuss what they want from the BOA to reimburse
for costs. Not trying to make this a
difficult issue but wants to understand the invoices
Ralph Fellbaum,
59 Ray Road, H2-04-02: Mr. Fellbaum was in
for a follow-up from last month’s meeting with the Board. He said he wanted the board to put his
assessment back to what it was before it was reviewed by town appraiser. He did not feel that the town had the right
to come and add items to his house. He wanted to let the reval take
care of that. He stated that nothing in
the house had changed. Stated that his
house did not have three bathrooms.
John stated that the only
reason why Bud Noyes, Town Apprasier, was there was
due to the fact that the previous assessor
had a flag on his card and that it was not a complete review. It is normal procedure that the town
appraiser comes back to pick up any additional work not assessed the previous
year when a card is flagged. Ralph
stated that nothing had changed and the town should not have come to his house.
He further stated that the appraiser should not be allowed in his house and did
not need to sneak around his house, looking in the windows. John substantiated that Bud Noyes was a professional, trained by
the State of New Hampshire and hired by the Town of Dunbarton, and he was not
sneaking around anyone’s property, he was only doing his job.
Mr. Fellbaum
asked why a third bathroom was added to his house. He was told that without getting in, the
house looked as if it may have had a third bathroom and the town had to assume
this until someone from the town was allowed to review the property. Bud Noyes stated he does all this according
to state law.
Tim stated that the town
cannot ignore it when mistakes are found. We are obligated to correct these
mistakes. Bud stated that the garage was
miss-measured last year and Mr. Fellbaum agreed and
also stated that the barn was miss-measured as well. He went on to say that he did not feel that
he should have to let Bud in his house.
He said he wanted his privacy respected.
Bryan Clark stated that at
their meeting in November Bud Noyes and Mr. Fellbaum
agreed to get together and to set up an appointment to review the
property. Then when they did speak on
the phone, Mr. Fellbaum refused to let Bud in his
home.
The Board advised Mr. Fellbaum to obtain the proper forms to appeal his
assessment to the Board of Tax and Land Appeals. Mr. Fellbaum agreed
and stated he would pick up forms at the town office.
Vision Appraisal: The data collectors from
Vision Appraisal were asking for direction in regard to box trailers used by
homeowners, being kept on their property.
The board discussed this and it was the general consensus that box
trailers are not considered permanent structures and would not be taxable. Motion was made by Tim Terragni
that box trailers be listed but not taxed.
Bryan Clark seconded the motion and the motion was passed.
Also, a survey received from Vision Appraisal regarding the progress of the revaluation will be filled out by Town Administrator, Janice VandeBogart, and submitted to Vision.
Request for Funds: A letter
addressed to the Trustees of Trust Funds requesting that funds be reimbursed to
the town was signed. Letters for request
of funds will be signed monthly by the Board of Assessors to keep this account
up to date.
Rick Martin, 99 Tenney Hill Road, H3-04-15: It was noted for the record that Bryan Clark and Bud Noyes meet with
Rick Martin last week to walk his property and reviewed the acres not in
current use as requested by Mr. Martin in October. At that time,
Mr. Martin informed them that this property has been transferred from Rightway
Builders to Rick Martin. As a result of
their site walk, Bud Noyes came up with a change in the acres from 7.7l acres
to 3.37 acres which resulted in a change in the penalty from $15,000 to
$10,000. Bud stated that he was happy
with this change because on his first inspection he thought it was difficult to
determine what was in current use and what was not. John made a motion to accept the new penalty
at $10,000. Tim second motion, all were in favor. Because of the delay in time it took for the
board member and Bud to walk the property, it was decided to abate the interest
if any. An abatement was signed.
Tucker Hill Road: Bud stated that he received a
phone call from Natalie at Department of Revenue regarding the assessments on
these properties. A brief discussion
ensued. Bud stated that he had faxed a
letter to DRA explaining how the Assessors came up with the $100,000 assessment
on these lots, and he has not heard back from them. The board decided to wait until they received
word from DRA until they address this issued.
Ron Lekebusch,
F2-01-06: Mr. Lekebusch had
been in contact with Tim Terragni and wanted it noted
in the record that he was never aware of the error on his property. The board signed an abatement to make
corrections to his assessment.
Abatements: Thomas Gleason, mobile home,
J3-01-02B: It was noted for the record
that this mobile home had been removed from the property in June. The board did not sign the abatement until
the tax collector had a chance to check to see if this tax money could be
collected from the bank who foreclosed on this mobile home as the home was
there as of April 1, 2004.
Paul Simoneau: Veterans Credit. An application for veterans
exemption was received from Paul Simoneau, 255 Robert
Rogers Road. The board accepted this
application and the exemption was approved and signed.
2005 PROPOSED BUDGET: The board worked on the
proposed 2005 budget. An invoice had
been received from Bud Noyes for services in 2004. Bud advised the board that because of tax
purposes he would like to be paid in January 2005 for 2004 services. A motion was made by John Swindlehurst
to carry forward $5,098 from the Appraisal Services line of the 2004
budget to 2005 to reimburse Harlan Noyes
for services rendered. The motion was
seconded by Bryan Clark and the vote was unanimous. Motion passed. This request will be forwarded to the Board
of Selectmen.
Further items were discuss
for the 2005 proposed budget. There was
some discussion as to whether the cost of $13,000 which represented the bid
accepted for Utility Appraisal services for a complete revaluation of the
utility properties in Dunbarton would be put in the 2005 operating budget or be
put on the warrant as a separate warrant article. The board felt that they would discuss this
with the Board of Selectmen and go from there.
John Swindlehurst voiced his concern with
keeping the costs for the revaluation all in one place. It was decided that Chairman, Tim Terragni would meet with the Selectmen on Thursday,
December 16th, to discuss this.
Motion to adjourn the
meeting was passed.
Adjourned at 9:10 pm.
______________________________
Timothy
Terragni, Chairman
______________________________
John
R. Swindlehurst, II
______________________________
Bryan
Clark
Dunbarton
Board of Assessors
Recorded by Janice VandeBogart