BOARD OF ASSESSORS
TOWN OF
Minutes of
Meeting
John R. Swindlehurst, II
Bryan Clark
Harlan “Bud” Noyes, Appraiser
Minutes of July meeting were
reviewed, accepted and signed by John and Bryan. Minutes of the June meeting were signed by
Tim Terragni.
Current Use penalties for
the following were reviewed and signed:
·
Jason & Bethanee R.
Syversen, I1-01-13, $10,400
·
Kevin Burke, H1-01-15,
$10,500
·
NH Traditional Homes, Inc.,
G4-01-12, $6,670
·
NH Traditional Homes, Inc.,
G4-01-01, $6,670
·
NH Traditional Homes, Inc.,
G4-01-13, $6,670
Current Use penalty issued
to
Intent to Cut Timber for
Rocco DiPietro, G2-05-15, G3-01-05 & G2-05-07, was reviewed
and signed.
Veterans Credit application
for Andre Olivier was reviewed and accepted.
Veterans Credit application for Robert Jergensen was reviewed and tabled
for further information. Elderly
exemption application for Robert Boucher & Doris Armstrong was reviewed and
tabled for more information.
The Board met with Rick and
Bonnie Martin, (
Mr. Martin stated that he
disputed the amount of acres disqualified by the town. The town had disqualified 7 acres and he said
it was closer to 4 acres. He provided a
map for the board to look at showing where his driveway was located and the
area around his house. He stated that
the area around the house and the driveway was about 2.5 acres but he would be
willing to go with 4 acres to allow for a little fluff margin.
Tim Terragni stated that the
road or driveway needed to come out and he showed pictures that the town had
taken of the driveway area. Mr. Martin
stated that this was part of the existing slope and he just cut the road in and
put in fill. He also stated that the
town did not take into consideration the cost of putting in that driveway. The Board indicated that cost did not
matter.
Mr. Martin felt that he
should have been assessed a penalty two years ago when he purchased the
property, not now. He stated that he had
intended to sell but because the power lines run through the property it
deterred the sale. He showed the
property to eight people and no one was interested. He believed that if the town had assessed a
penalty two years ago it would not have been as high. He stated that he would be willing to walk
the land with the board members and come up with an agreement but he felt that
a value of $150,000 or a $15,000 penalty was very steep and would not accept
it.
Mr. Martin asked how much of
a penalty would the town assess if he took the full 40 acres out of Current
Use? John Swindlehurst stated that under the law
there was no way to do that , the town can only assess the amount of acres disturbed. The only other way all acres would come out
would be if there was a subdivision and the lots were sold off, being less than
the required 10 acres for Current Use.
Mr. Martin stated again that
this penalty was outrageous. He stated
that he had checked with other towns and found that penalties are assessed when
property is purchased and believed that is what Dunbarton should have
done. John Swindlehurst read from the
Current Use laws which states that the land must be physically disqualified
(RSA 79-A:7 IV).
If a lot is over 10 acres, it will stay in current use until it is
developed.
Tim asked if this was the
first time Mr. Martin had dealt with Current Use in the Town of
Mr. Martin stated again that
if the board would be willing to come up with something reasonable he would be
happy to discuss it.
Bud Noyes stated that he
measured every bit of land disturbed and came up with the 7 acres. Mr. Martin stated that he would like to go
over that with Bud, go out and re-measure because he denied that there was 7
acres disturbed.
The Board asked Mr. Martin
what would be his definition of a fair penalty.
He replied that he thought it should be between $7500 and $8000. Bud Noyes then asked why Mr. Martin had this
property on the market recently $900,000.
Mr. Martin replied that he did put it on the market but it did not sell
and one of the reasons was the power lines so close to the house. He noted that he looks out his front door and
can see the power lines. This is not a
good selling point, it takes away for the value of the
property.
Bryan Clark stated he did
not think that the penalty would change that much if the 7 acres was reduced to
5 acres. The Board told Mr. Martin that they would discuss the matter and will
let him know the outcome.
Mr. & Mrs. Martin left
the meeting at 8PM
Discussion: The board reviewed Mr. Martin’s file and will
be asking the Building Inspector for a copy of the building permit.
The motion was made by Tim
Terragni to keep the penalty at $15,000.
A discussion ensued.
Bryan stated that he felt
that changing the acres from 7 acres to possibly 6 acres or 5 acres would not make a difference. John felt that this figure of $15,000 was not
just a number the board picked, the property was measured and the calculations
were done and he felt he would vote to stay with the $15,000 based on
that. Bryan suggested having Bud get together with Mr.
Martin to show him how he came up with this figure and Bud stated he would be
willing if the board wished. John
indicated that we have already measured the area and furthermore, felt that because the calculations were based on
the 1997 manual and the 2003 equalization rate of 60.6% had been used to come up with this
penalty, his advise would be to not conduct another site walk. He further stated that we had first knowledge
of a house being there in November 2003 based on the septic plan which
was filed and we used the 2003 ratio.
Tim Terrangi re-stated his
motion with an addition: To keep the
penalty at $15,000 until the Board could obtain further information from the
building department regarding the date
of issue on the building permit. John
seconded the motion and all were in favor.
REVALUATION DISCUSSION:
ABOVE GROUND POOLS: The Board discussed their option to tax or not
to tax above ground pools. After much
discussion the motion was made by John Swindlehurst not to assess above ground
pools. Bryan Clark seconded the motion
and all were in favor. Vision Appraisal
will be notified.
FENCES: The board discussed the option of assessing
fences or not. It was finally decided to
leave this up to the discretion of
Vision Appraisals.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
MEETING: The board was informed of
Vision Appraisals intention to hold a question and answer meeting for the
town’s residents. This meeting will
hopefully be in late September. The
board would like to meet with Vision preceding this meeting to go over a few
items. Janice will try to line up a
meeting with them at the Board’s September meeting (September 21st).
John Swindlehurst made the
motion to adjourn at 8:55 pm. Motion was
seconded by Tim Terragni, motion carried.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:55 pm.
______________________________________
Timothy
Terragni, Chairman
______________________________________
Bryan
Clark
______________________________________
John R.
Swindlehurst, II
Dunbarton
Board of Assessors
Recorded by: Janice VandeBogart,
Secretary and Town Administrator