uh good afternoon welcome Board of assessors meeting here uh Wednesday February 19th 4:30 at 382 North Main on the second floor uh in accordance with mgl chapter 38 section 20 uh we are being taped and
filmed by elcat and we also tape our own meetings have you started a tape on okay great and no one from the public is here in attendance is uh uh board member uh Marilyn no sorry
Marilyn gini uh uh Shez I don't know why I'm reading at the same time Hayden Smith chairman Martin Gruden director Diane bishop and assistant director K Anne
Smith also known as K the minutes from the meeting of January 22nd 2025 from gini Mr chairman I have reviewed the minutes from our meeting of January 22nd I find them to
be in order and move that they be put into the record I'll second that right all those in favor I I uh start off uh open session with some administrative work of warrants
supplemental uh 2025 real estate warrant in amount of 27515 51 and supplementals are for homes that were semi completed but received their occupancy certificate during the fiscal
year and this is a per DM tax for the additional value okay and uh I think based from that 2025 supplemental CPA warrant in amount of $276
47 um and we have uh reports motor vehicle excise abatement she covered it up last weit 20124 for January amount of 1,492
69 motor vehicle ab and fiscal 25 real estate exemptions for January an amount of 29,50 6.96 with a CPA 250 11 okay and for
all or mention noce to account for the month of February in amount of 27,7 9198 moving right along la3 sales report for the month of January well we had some low ratios this time
around huh yeah I noticed that wow one particular note to me is uh a84 um the only I can say on that is I know that property very well been inside and out of that house that it was just I
would say whatever say the low that's it which one 84 uh one two three about eight down um yeah and it was on
MLS and the uh 71 was a complete flip I don't know if uh uh the old value had anything to do with the uh updated the house was completely renovated and flipped in the middle of
the that 71 yes 7 I'll review it yeah that's uh that was bought at L I think that was a complete flip so I know that property also that was a complete flip
um I don't know the point 71 but when you see uh a properties that's I'm sure that's a flip too mhm I should have looked up MLS before I came in and no rest were just regular
sales what a start from January huh absolutely wow shows you there nothing out there for sale yeah I am aware of that sale I just haven't had a chance to do any updating
I can see I which one um 71 yeah yeah was there a prior sale on it oh well I was this is what I had total remodel interior windows roof s keep so both of those are complete
flips in this in the sevs he anything on that from Hayden and Maryland no all right moving on to uh building permit report uh two new homes of is that all we
have Miss Bishop I'm so sorry I see one condo and one new home yes for the first month yeah what was this it's an addition
um I sun room what it should be oh oh okay sorry no I was questioning the very first one because it said addition but it said Sunrun and my sun run is solar and she just realized it was sunro okay
you know we have we do so many solar that he thank you for the fixing that Mrs Smith appreciate it the one this must be commercial with the antennas the second one uh yeah yeah
yeah that is actually just a solar that's where a solar tower uh a cell tower is okay it's not even a building it's I mean they have their shed likee structures that they house their their equipment in but it's at the
closer to um the intersection of Dwight and Benton and Maple Street it's just a little bit beyond that okay that should do it for building
permits uh moving on for uh director's report from Miss Bishop okay so update y our um 2025 motor vehicle excise commitment one we received it a little under 15,000
bills and those bills were mailed out and people should have received them in their mailbox probably early last week uh commitment 7 was included that had um approximately 400 bills so they were
mailed on the 10th and they're due by the 13th the 13th not the 24th by the 13th of March okay and and um if anyone should have traded a car sold a car uh
sadly gotten an accident with a car and they're looking to file for an abatement there is an abatement application on the back side of their excise Bill uh they would just need to provide us where the car went to where the what happened with the plate uh if they move within
Massachusetts wherever they live January 1st they should pay that Community um at that point they would update their uh address at the registry and then the registry would know which Community to send it on to uh we are
here um at 382 North Main Street on the second floor Monday through Friday from 8: to 4: so if anyone needs assistance they're welcome to call us stop by or can email us whatever is the most convenient uh if somebody is paying a tax bill they still do need to go to 60
Center Square uh which is where thex tax collector's office still resides um our FY 26 form of lists and our FY 26 3abc forms as a reminder to uh
business owners or tax exempt entities they these forms of list are due by March 1st annually but due to March 1st falling on a Saturday it's due on March 3rd this year uh the form of list should
reflect the Assets in your business as of January 1 of 2025 and I try to recommend to people to create a simple spreadsheet that just lists their assets and then they can just attach it to the form of list and they can update that spreadsheet and it
makes it easier than having to handr write everything in those little tiny boxes on the the sheet um personal property forms of list are available on our town website or again request by mail or email uh real estate statutory exemptions this
would be for seniors veterans and blind the deadline to file is Tuesday April 1st of this year a courtesy letter has been sent out to anyone who received it last year uh in case if they have forgotten to uh
reapply and our cyclical inspection program is going to begin last last year the board of assessors we had a conversation where uh a taxpayer wanted to be notified so the board endorsed us
to um send a letter out so at least the people who will be receiving a uh an inspection visit will be alerted um and so we do have a letter prepared and we're doing a mail merge I believe it's
going to start about the 15th of March it could start a little bit sooner but weather is always uh the deciding factor a day like today with all the ice and the bitter is just not the day to be tromping through um people's properties
trying to do a quick inspection uh I do remind people that every 10 years the Department of Revenue uh requires us to visit each and every property in our town and that is the reason that we are going to be going out
if any taxpayers have any questions they certainly can give us a call and we'll go through any um explanation that's needed uh for the Assessor's review I did attach um a letter we kind of copied
hate hate Reinventing wheels so City of Springfield um uses this type of a format for their cyclical we just updated it to be more um um oh that looks so nice that's the one
I want to sign do we need to sign it so she just she just snuck this paper right in because we have it in color with our logo so we would ask hopefully you've had an opportunity but if you could sign it and then we will be mail merging it
and so it will be um sent out probably by March 1 this one I yeah very nice Mr Smith is on her game today very good and that is all I have for my
director's great thank you Diane uh we're moving on to proposed recommendations for fiscal 26 exemptions that is uh we're talking
about increasing exemptions for veterans and seniors um we are here to recommend the Town Council votes on it and we don't vote on it we can recommend it and the amounts that you
see here uh are for the Town Council to look at uh any exemption increase can go up to 100% Diane broke them down 2550 75 or 100 I don't know if you or Hayden would
like something bigger than that pH okay two those there's two for look at the senior looking at the senior first I haven't had a increase since the 80s um I uh would be in favor of an
increase at in some manner for the seniors and it's up to the Town Council on how much money they have in reserve for any of these increases um and back for the veterans I'm also in favor
increases for 22 22e and 22j is it J so 22j is the Clause that allows us to exempt anywhere between 0 to 100% and at the present time we only
currently have two veterans Clauses that it would fall under but we would want the Town Council to vote for any of the Clauses that would be potentially increased because you could get a veteran who could fall under 22A or 22b
or 22c and um exemption amounts are given with the increases and I'm also some favor and some kind of increase for the veterans um again up to the Town Council again they can go up to 100% and we're
providing we will provide them with the numbers of how much it will be for them are they going to vote on this at their next meeting or they have to wait for they they have to wait for our stuff we haven't given it to them yet right
they have get it to him before their next meeting I think I unless it's tomorrow night I don't know when their next meeting is so I can't say that I did hear that um they had some a a resident and some people um in support
of this proposed 22 this proposed hero act exemption changes and it was mentioned that they would put it back on their March meeting I don't know which day yeah um I did take the opportunity
to look to read what would have to be accepted and if you would like to just review this it's something that we could send in a formal to the Town Council which is what
Marty just stated that he's of um the opinion to recommend for Clause 22 um J 22j um an amount up to the 100% which is
by law and it would def definitely be subject to Appropriations Appropriations right and and we're giving them the amounts that are highlighted right uh I know to highlight I see 289,000 plus and
339,000 plus so the two for full right that would be full yep 100 perers there so the the exemptions based on fiscal 24 the town would need to reserve
$289,990 to cover everything that we covered for fiscal 24 plus the full exemption for both veteran and um seniors the next one down that's highlighted in blue we also have
to reserve amount for abatements because that's something that we have to do um that we have to make sure that we have funding for so that would be a total amount of $339,900
38 so when do we know of the appropriation committee has this or do they have to wait or do they pass it on to the Appropriations we're talking about it now to tell Diane that we're for some increase and then she's going to type up
a former letter and the and to the lower right there that's the percentage per thousand uh that will be on East purch tax bill from the assessors from uh 7 cents of 10 cents to
12 cents so I would assume that if this is presented they may want some um explanation at their meeting and providing that it is a meeting that I'm available I would be happy to attend to
um explain this information but they are the the deciding factor of if we have money in our budget to support a local option which is not reimbursed by the state it's kind of like us we we
recommend the tax rate of 100 of 1.0 and they vote on it that's all any questions on that Hayden no okay well we'll see you probably will be
invited in is the board in agreement with with you agreement with with sum increase mhm you don't have up to 100 I mean we put the Diane put 25 it could be you know 40% it does it could be 10% it
could be 1% it that's up to the yeah just gives them just gives them something to look at so yeah the assessors are in agreement of some kind of increase seniors and bettering I will put a formal um memo to Our Town manager
and town counsel that this was our recommendation and everything is dependent on appropriation all right great thank you I believe that does it for Open Session anything else I in uh I lost my
agenda can I just peek it yours no we are ready to go into ex session I make a motion go to Executive session to discuss motor vehicle excise and boat abatements fiscal 25 exemption applications fiscal 25 abatement
applications and an ATB update while return to open and Report our votes take a roll call vote Hayden Smith yes Mar gini yes Martin gron yes