Call the meeting to order at Weightley Select Board of uh April 8th, 2025. Uh seconded. First item on the agenda is uh review minutes from the last
meeting. I think we all have copies of it. Stephen sent it. He did. I forgot my print. Okay. Oh, thank you. Can you remind me on the assessment brochure? The assessment that was something that uh David Manzel said that
he had available to put online people to learn more about assessments and Okay. Did they property comparisons or whatever and values and whatever. Okay. Good. Yeah. So, so that was
the that was one of the four items that we added to the prior minutes of the meetings was that particular thing that's okay. Number four assessment was sure personal property guidance. Yes, there's one thing we asked for here on
condition and grave explanations. They had information on that that would help us they said and then we asked for 10 years plan sales I remember now. Yeah. Analysis mostly for comparing pipelines estates with the rest of the town office. Yes.
The emphasis for that. So those are four topics that you've asked David for information on. Correct. Right. I don't know if we've received them but yes. Have we has anything been done on them? Um
four through seven. Has anything been done? Progress has been made on four. Um five we're still working on rubric for the conditions are still work and so is the 10 year land sales
analysis. Yeah, that was later on. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. So, it's been so long since we met. So, them items were in the
March 7 March 18th minutes that we have Okay, more minutes to add four items to future agenda. Okay, that's four items, I guess. And okay, so we really need to approve the
minutes of the last meeting and also the I think the the minutes of the meeting before with David Menzel on February 25th, right? Yes. Because we added Okay. You you would happen to have the 25th also. I can,
you know, I'll just go with red here. This is is the 25th. Do you have the 25th J? No. the meetings for the 25th. These were the four items. I said we needed to add before we can approve the minutes
because David Menzel kind of agreed that's the four we talked. So that's the four. Okay, we're looking at the four items that RG agreed to provide us right on the 25th of February that have been added to the minutes on the 18th of uh
March. Right. I guess you could say that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's this is prior to when Jane was here, but Oh, you were actually probably here during that if I recall. I'm not sure. So it doesn't No. Well, yeah, she was. Yeah. Yeah, she was. It was It was in You were
in attendance with the with the Okay. So, and again, these are minutes. Um Okay. So, we need a motion. Let's Let's do the February 25th. Um uh I'll make a motion to uh accept the minutes of
February 25th. Okay, I'll second it. Okay. All those in favor? I Okay. And then motion for the minutes of our last meeting, March 18th. March 18th. Yes.
Discussion. four items. The only discussion is uh you have already asked Stephen if some of those issues the four issues we talked about had been started on and you said they
had been to some Okay, good. Yeah. Well, that's where Okay, so that's something we continue. Yes. Continue to monitor. Yes. Okay. And it says minutes approved table
for approvals at which we're waiting on on those four things. Yes. Okay. Very good. Okay. Jenny's no longer with us. So I hope the best for her. Okay. So a motion to approve minutes of
um yes I agree. Okay. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? Okay. Okay. So, there's two pages. This is the first page. Yeah, we got a second page here. That's what
Steve just gave me. Yeah, we've only gone through the first page. Mine is different. Okay. change. Okay. Okay. Okay. before we go into executive
session. I guess I should have mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, we uh have a change in staff here, a board of assessors. Uh Jenny Morrison uh resigned effective March 31st
and we had person interested uh filling that position till the end of end of the term which would be from June and April 1st through June June 30th. Uh
local resident town that's at our meeting here. I like to introduce her in a minute. Uh and she will be with us for the remainder of of this uh fiscal year I guess we say through through June
30th participating in all future meetings as we have it. Okay. person is I don't know how to say your last name. Jane uh pronounce it. Is it just Jane Theo? Theo or just call me Jane T. Jane
Jane T. Okay. Jane T. Uh Jane lives in Pine Plains Estates. Uh has been a resident for a few years since she moved into property there. So welcome you to our board. Thank you.
our third member. I guess just to reiterate, I guess I'm still the chair and then David I mean Michael here is the vice chair to act if I'm not here or on other matters. So so that feels out to this member of
board here. Okay. Did you want to say anything Jane your first meeting? a little nervous. Started the course today and realized there's a lot to learn. You'll be fine. Yeah, there is a two-year course that you have to take. Well, it's two years to take it. You
have two years to take it. Okay. It's not a two-year course. Yeah, I took it years ago was in person at UMass for a whole week. Went there and took it with a whole group of people. There must have been I don't
know 40 50 in took it state put it on. So, yeah. So, you're lucky. You can do it at home, right? Yeah. No, that's definitely um that had to be intense. Yeah. Yeah. For one week. After an hour, I was ready to take a
break. Yeah. It's so much new knowledge for me, right? It uh it's interesting because it was given my background a review for me, but still there was a lot of information in there, but I can take it again and get more information out of it. So, it's a good it's a good course,
I think. So, a good starter and where that comes into play, I think when we uh the board uh recommends approval for tax rates in in November, uh we need two two members of of the board to have taken
that that course. And I just passed the passed the test for that course. So, the last time both Mike and I were doing that, even before that, there was the three of us were not taken a course. So, so that won't matter
probably for you right now. There's no there's no uh there's no complete rush complete rush to do that by November. Whenever if you want to do it, it's up to you. She'll do it. I just If you have any questions, let me know. Oh, I already sent Stephen some
questions. Well, he's probably as good as So, okay. And you can take that. You can you can just once you get, you know, get by one chapter, you can, right? or you're good. And it's not if you make a goof, you can go back. It's not like you're penalized.
Yeah. Okay. Uh continuing with the new and old business. So, what's happening, Stephen, with the update to the new software? Where are we standing? Yeah. So, uh, a date hasn't been scheduled for the
actual deployment of the new product, but since our last meeting with Jason that, um, I attended with Mike, I spoke with him last Thursday in regards to the database. So,
apparently we are missing years 2019. Not quite sure what happened to it, but that that data is not there. Um, and neither are the photos. So, he's unable to recover them. So, that will be
missing from the new database. But luckily, I think that we have the property record cards printed for those. So, we do have that data. We just don't have the database on page.
Um, have you asked anybody else in your office if they know where it's at or what happened? I have not, but I can't follow up. Other other than if you can get a hold of her, but uh the other
one may want to Well, Lyn, I don't know if Lyn Sibly was she's familiar with a lot of databases and data that state that the town has. Uh, and she I guess she's going to be in the office here for a short term period. Uh, I I start
asking her if she knows or find it or what happened or did we change our computers hardware back then software where it got lost? I don't know. I wasn't aware that we lost that year because when we the last five years
certification was in what 22? Well, so you didn't go back to 19 data, I guess, right? You didn't use 19 data. It was only Well, that would have been a year for reertification probably. It was on a three-year schedule before then, right?
It would have been 19. Oh, that would have been the reval year. Reval year. So, is that somewhere in a reval file or it called something else? Well, all all the numbers are stored on would
be stored on the DLS website. So, sorry do website. Um, that that would be fine. Um, covering the property record cards as they were, I'm not quite sure what
that would entail, but yes, you're right. all our information that gives our total valuation and everything. We still have access to that because the current property cards go back to 2019. Yeah. We we hired Mayflower, I guess,
back then to finalize the data for the classification here. This know what happened. I'm trying to think person was Bishop. So, Bishop and there was
somebody else. Dwayne, is that Dwayne? Okay. One other person if you could maybe they know where it is or what's it under? What file? I don't know. And then after 19 does it drop off the cards evidently.
But I see I just looked at a car and it went all the way back to 19. That's what I was curious. Yeah. Does another year be added? our year uh after 19 that shows on the card that that
shows on the card. Um don't worry about it. I'll just I don't think currently up to 20. Oh, you know what? Here this one goes back to 16. So Oh, you're looking at today at just a property card. Anybody's inspection?
Well, no. I'm just looking at the a previous assessment. We go all the way back to 2016 on this one. So, I don't know how far back you normally go. I don't know whether that was an option. How far you could put in there or what would fit on the page to print. I don't know. And to
what end would that I guess it's prove useful. We should Well, the bottom line is we should try to get it. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, currently do we have from 2015
on through this present year with the absence of 2019. Okay. Okay. It would show a trend of of course that at least it would might be helpful. Okay. So you've been sitting in on some of the
training. Yes. Okay. So what what is our in this discussion? What's that timeline for completing that? Um, complete I'm sorry. Completing completing all the updates. Oh, that that part uh software update. Well, I
did sit in on it and he sounded very amendable to getting it done, but I don't remember getting a time frame. He sounds like he was just going to get on it. Uh, did he actually give a time frame? I don't remember. I have not received one, which Well, we should
probably guess. Yeah, he just sounded so like he knew what he was doing. is going to get lickety split, hit a couple buttons, we'll be there. Sounds like that's probably not the case, but we should, as Fred is alluding to, you get a time frame on that.
Is so any new inspections we do will be in the new new sheets, right? New sheets. Okay. And are they going to look the same as we've had before? The sheets. I think the card the little
different. Yeah, it'll be similar, but it'll be Yeah. Okay. And what's posted online for people to look at website? Is that going to look the same? Um, are you referring to the card that's
shown on GIS or the ones that were uploaded? GIS. The one on GIS. The one on GIS. Will those change? Yeah, that's that's a good question. I I believe those will stay the same the way that that is formatted because that is like
data extract from our canvas system to uh cardographics. So I believe that will stay the same but I can confirm that. That's good information there too. It seems there's a lot lot of stuff that people don't care about. You go through
the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, bedrooms, inspects it, everything's there. Some some of that is is I don't know, maybe not relevant. Maybe I get too hung up on what's in there. Well, I found it helpful. I think Jane found it helpful when you looked up
and look at your property card with more detail than what was online, right? But it was interesting that yeah, as again I'll I've said it before, more we can educate the general public, the better off we'll be. And if that means updating
those uh systems that helps the general public understand or at least shows them what they've got and they can look at it and go, "Hey, I don't have three cars or whatever." They can always just grab the practice, which most people didn't know that, including myself. Yeah. I didn't
know that. Not that. Can you grab what? Anybody can come in and grab a property card. Um, when I first was requesting one, I'm thinking to myself, am I supposed to do this? Yeah. But I can't. Anybody can. Got his building sketch on there, too. Yeah.
Yeah. That's been on for a while. Yeah. Yes. Uh, and what's more interesting, I think, is if you get over on the right side of the page, the the GIS information, it shows you pictures of the property, which I'm I'll have to tell you, I was supposed to take a picture of Jane's house. It goes back, I
think, 10 or 15 10 or 12 years, and you can see what was there for your subdivision. So, if I go to Whley GIS, Yeah. And then you got to get on the local thing and it'll take you because otherwise it's a
statewide GIS and we don't have access to the statewide GIS, right? Other than maybe Steven does, but but then you get into the local and it will list you I think is it every every two years that the state does a flyover to get all the
updated data and so it's a two-year increments. You can see what your property look like in I didn't know that. I want to go back. And you can you can zoom in and there's enough detail on there to see just satellite pictures. Yeah, the satellite pictures and and you you can
see the you can see the the the the outline of of the house, the property line, the house landscape and trees, driveway in there. We can't see windows. So now you can see we used it uh other boards for
telephone poles locating telephone poles on the on the on the roof. It's on here. You can see them on there. Fire hydrants you can see on where the actual fire hydrants all that will show show up. Uh and and and there's also a I don't know
if they call it 360 view or something where where it's street level. Okay. Will pan it will show you what it looks like at street level. But I don't know if it's your property or or neighbors. Yeah, the Google car runs around too. Yeah, we can see that. Yeah, it's
interesting. Yeah, you you knew you knew that, right? Google car goes by our house and then it uploads and you could just look at your house and you can pan all the way around the whole neighborhood. Then you can go down the street and then take a right. Yeah, it's
very interesting. We used it in real estate. Yeah, a lot of people use that. Yeah. insurance companies in the first thing they look at is on there to see what they can y they can see and it has dimensions you can calculate dimension let you calculate
uh linear dimensions of square footage if you do a circle it's not easy of it no it's not easy you can just put a put a point on the edge of your house drag it over and it'll give you give you the the dimension the
dimension of the lot that that's a very difficult process though I've tried Yeah, it's hard once you do it once to to change it. It's like you got to get out of the whole program. You'll be there for a month. Yeah. All that all that data is on your Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know how many
people in town know that professional people that have a reason for it. Yes, I've been pointing when I've been getting nomination signed. I've been saying, have you checked out our website? Yeah. Have you checked out the things that are available to you? be it exemptions, be it uh sales, be it
dermissions, all those things. Please take a look because it is an improvement over what it was, right? So, a vast improvement. So, and that's maybe what we've asked RG to do. One of the first comments was here general information on property
values for the town website that you're going to come up with. David had examples of what he was doing for other communities. So, we like to see that. Yeah, Greenfield has a nice site. I haven't seen the Conway site, but yeah, I I think RRG has already taken steps
to to update that site that has been um moreformational uh uh for the for the taxpayer. Uh yeah, I tell everybody and anybody take a look at a site. It's it's not bad. Oh, are we still on new and old
business? Yes. Um, Brad, help me out there. When is it an appropriate time to uh request an agenda item for future meetings? Would that be now? Okay. Yes. Um, I'd like to make a motion an an agenda motion for a future
meeting to um discuss uh RRG uh and u the amount of uh uh assessors uh that should visit that house through an inspection. Uh uh I'd like to do
that. Um, I'd also like to make a motion uh to uh discuss the different people on this board who could go into the same house and come up with different modifiers.
Uh, and and u I like to make that motion include David Burgess as someone who has probably consistently done this. If you us three went into a house and uh and separately came back and then if David
went in, we might get four different answers. And that's not because the system is flawed. That's because there are so many choices to make. Uh so as an agendum issue for next meeting, I wonder if we could discuss that. That's that's my motion. Okay. Is that a second? No,
that's that's fine. It's just I don't need agenda item. Agenda item. Okay. Very good. Very good. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. And and inspections. Yes. Okay. Very good. I do like them,
but we'll see where we head with this. We'll see for Jane's benefit and for you. What's that? Remind you guys what we have extracted from contract. Yes, it is
something I have read. Yes, you got more stuff. That's great. James scope of services pages. Yes. The rest is uh this contract language. There's another eight pages. Yes. That tells you basically
what we we expect them what they agreed to do. I kind of maybe underlined a few things that I think circled a few things that relate to inspections as them to to do
and it was also related to that mostly for the change benefit and I think Mike has a copy about here's our budget. Yes, I do have a copy for the board. uh you ever seen it? And you can see in there
the contract RG uh and it wasn't a it wasn't a big increase for for the board here because we eliminated some of the uh consulting work that we had. It was kind of a wash
kind of a wash. So So even it's a big number. It's not like oh all of a sudden that kind of I I think helps support the select board to approve it. if they said, "Well, we're doubling the budget for it." Yep. They I think I think they did question it. They did
question it. Yeah. So, yeah. So, as you can see from 25 to 26, it's only about a $1,500. It's a small increase, right? So, and I don't know where we stand now. I guess we relying on Stephen to monitor that and if it
goes over, especially over, I guess, to tell us what's happening, right? over budget over budget especially the that contract work or I think most of that it's gonna be but you would think it would be within the budget anything although um RG has suggested that they
would get into all the houses and try to correct records but that that's not a freebie that would be a expense to the town okay so you you've seen it like you sever several versions of it but I
thought no it's good this is Good job to know on a regular basis, too. Exactly what it is that RG has agreed to for the for the 40,000 that they're being paid, right? And there's other language kind of, you know, like termination of the
contract. If we don't agree, we negotiate. We can inform them in writing and they have so many days to respond and then we can they can appeal within 10 days or whatever. There's language like that in there. Um there's probably breach of contract language, but at that point you you probably should if you're
thinking in that direction, you probably should check with an attorney type of thing. Yeah. And and I guess this was approved. I was on the we had a three member committee that approved it. It was myself and then Peter. It wasn't Peter. It was
uh well Lynn Lyn Lynn Sibly was acting town administrator. Okay. And the the old assessor Cynthia. Cynthia. So those are the three basics. So three that acted on it simply was probably most knowledgeable about contract terms and all
that language in the contract. So and it's a one-year contract. Uh right and uh I I again this board member likes what he sees so far other than a little bit of communication issues in the very beginning. Yeah. Right. So, so and I
guess you can you can look if you want change if you want to see what else RG is up to other than well we know they're in Conway but Greenfield Greenfield there's like I don't know 30 35 30,000 Massachusetts most of them east of here towards Boston
there's a few on on the edges of of the state western Mass Bureau come most of them are the other way so From what I understand, Greenfield runs an exceptionally tight ship according to David Burgess. So I
have called the Greenfield office more than once. They've got new new people in Greenfield there last last meeting. Uh bringing up on this old business there was a we're
county and there is an organization called I know Franklin County Board of Assessors. Yes. and they have annual meetings and and infrequent roundt discussions.
There was one in Shelurn, wasn't there? In Shelurn here that I that I went to, remember the date was three, four weeks ago, something like that was on it. Tuesday morning at like 10 o'clock. Uh they sent out the notices to
everybody in the the the county, the Franklin County, about 26 towns. If you were interested, let them know. I responded. I think six people responded. there was 25 people showing up at the meeting. So,
uh they're infrequent. It's called roundt discussion. There's there's no there's no minutes uh no action items, nothing nothing official they do. It's just discussion among among peers, I guess, of assessing items.
Yeah, it's interesting. I've been to one or two before. Cynthia used to go and sometimes it's more of a social group organizing meetings, whatever. Uh, so is it something that Mike and I would be put on a a list to receive an email
about? Yes, I got it from from Stephen. It's on on the list for the Franklin County one and I don't know if the next when the next one is or when the where the annual one was. Would have been earlier in the year in the winter months, I would think.
I don't know. And for the state one, I don't know. You ever get invited or you gota look at a do site for that? I don't know when there's this. There's a state association too that meets in I would just say Worcester or or the Boston area
for a day or two. And other than meeting who else is there, I guess and and learning what their problems are, it gives you a sense of maybe how how different and unique is and we're glad that we're doing
something different than the rest of them. I I mean the the northern tier of Franklin County is so much concerned about vacant property. you read in the newspaper mills, you know, Irving, Wendell, Row, Moniku, uh, uh, abandoned
buildings, mills, factories, and all that. And how are they going to deal with that? And trying to trying to collect taxes on it and and assessing the property and if they can't find the property owner, and there's put a lean on it, well, who do you put the lean on if you don't know who the property owner
is? And, you know, that kind of discussion goes on. We don't we don't have that. We don't need to do deal with that. That's when labor unions drove labor to the Bible belt and they all closed down, right? Uh so that was part
of discussion at that meeting. And then there's a lawsuit for the the uh utility companies I guess that were weren't uh agreeing with the assessments that what do for the utility companies
and utility companies filed suit and I think we were part of the ones that objected to to the utility company's abatement request. I think we denied it, but there's some of the bigger communities that had more more
differences in in their assessed values. And so that was on for a discussion of, you know, the Northfield and and Wendell and Orange that were in a lawsuit with Eversource about that. So interesting. You also said that they had a different
approach to the Hero Act. Yeah. Yeah. And I was, it sounded like half the towns that were there didn't know what the Hero Act was, right? And the ones that were for James, they they approved that Hero Act, but didn't know if they approved a percent increase. You know, the Hero Act
we're talking about. Yeah. The Hero Act was a act enacted by the state of Massachusetts to be sent to the um assessment boards to agree to uh veterans benefits, perhaps increase
them, including some sort of exemption for excise tax. uh and we struggled with that here. We we wanted to do it, but it was a two-page uh memo that was not as clear as it could have been. And uh in any event, uh
we agreed to uh increase veterans benefits as we should to $800 as a exemption. Uh but other towns didn't even check any box. They just shipped it off to the select force as you you figured out. Yeah. And so that board kind of gave it to us and said you
figured out but in the end we agreed at least this board agreed. I don't know what they board has done. They adopted I yeah they adopted. Yeah which is which is nice which will be as a warrant article I guess at the annual town meeting in June. Warrant something. So
does the money for that come from state or does it come from the I learned the term overlay? some from the some from the state and some from our our account. Okay. Yeah. The state has a limit of what they pay. The rest would be for us from our
So, okay. So, not every not everybody had the same we're on the same page. We're on the same page. That was one of the major topics of discussion was the hero act. I mean there and it sounded like not many acted on it already. So, yeah.
Well, I'm I'm proud that we did because you know veterans gave their lives for this country so that we can sit and talk about this. So that kind of things, you know, come up for for discussion on an informal kind of basis. Other words are going through the
updates. Uh and I don't know what version of Patriot we have whether so there's a five or six and there's a classic and something else. Uh that's what the others have. They have they have certain versions that they might not have. Right. Okay. And some said the problem
with upgrades is the printing problem printing out reports and stuff. So I you may want to Well, Conway is already having an issue, aren't they? Printing stuff out of They're having somewhat of a major issue. So the conversion isn't as simple as it sounds. Okay. Greenfield
had two new two new assessors. Rand So Randy was the first guy. Andy from Boston area. I think I I spoke with Andy each time I called him. Yeah. There's a new kind of tax credit coming out. They've heard it's called the senior means tax credit where right now the
there's a circuit breaker for seniors when you file your income taxes if you're within under a certain uh adjusted gross income. I forget what's it 80 or 100,000 something like that. And your property taxes
are are percentage percentage half half of half half of that just in gross income some you can qu you can qualify for for an abatement from the town I mean from the state when you file your income taxes that that's a question if you go do your own income taxes it comes
up if you want to go through that but there's a new program coming out that looks at looks at or asks people to to look at and don't know how they're going to do it. They don't know your assets. You can't be a million-dollar property and
have money in in several banks in the country and still file income taxes at a real low and get the circuit breaker credit. And they're and they're saying that doesn't sound right to me. No, they're saying that's what the senior tax breaker looking at assets will correct some of
that. H and now they don't know whether that's going to be in addition to the circuit breaker at income tax time or not. So So I guess what you're saying overall is they sound like they have a lot of issues that we might not have. Right.
Yeah. Right. Being such a small town with not a lot of commercial business. April 1, the deadline for motor vehicle payments. Is that true? um for exemption applications. Applications. Okay. Okay.
And then the other thing are having a problem with ATUs. What code do you put on 104 where it's attached to the main house or a separate building? 109. So remind me as an additional like
a shed or something. Yeah. Well, we saw the one on on Westbrook today. Did you? Yes. Yeah. So do you what is AD additional unit accessory dwelling unit. Okay. Now that one was not attached to the house but you take the one on river
road. Well the one on north part of river road was attached to the house. The one going south and river road was a I guess a trailer you could say. Looked like a trailer but it was not attached either. So, are we calling all of them? What are
we calling them? Is the same code 104s or 109's or So, the one on the one that you're referring to that we went on the inspection with that is in as a as a 109. Okay. I'm unfamiliar with that that
second property, but yeah, we would have to develop policy to see if we want to how we exactly want to code those. Yeah, I don't know if it makes a difference in the assessment other than knowing the
code descriptive or actually a modifier that's going to increase or decrease. That's a good question. I imagine it's an actual modifier. Um, speaking of coding, um, I did get an opportunity to sit with you and David Burgess and we looked at property cards and how
certain, uh, modifiers affected uh, the valuation of that property. It was very interesting. Um, and I know I've had discussions before, but uh, insulation, no matter what you call it, is not a modifier. Doesn't do anything. And
correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought even electrical, good, excellent is not a modifier either. It's just descriptive. That's it. But what I did find out was the the major modifiers, the major things that are going to affect evaluation is
uh grade uh oh, it just escaped me. The second thing I was going to say, um conditioning, grade uh oh yes, effective year of the property. um size you said the effective year. Effective year, what's effective? Well,
when you um let's say you decided to um upgrade your property and gut it and go brand new. Well, you've changed the effective year, the year it was built to what might be considered 2025 years. Things are newer. So, an effective year is very important
because if you have a 1910 house, Yeah. was built to suggest. So like if this house was renovated, major renovation then that year would change. Okay. Yes. It's particularly
important for Well, it's just important because the effective year of the house has a significant uh impact on on a value on a value of the house as would make sense. So that would the effective year would be if a major renovation was
done. It would be a renovation of some sort. Yeah. I don't know. Uh I don't know the degree of if you have a 1910 home and you rip it, rip it, gut it, and start all over. Well, you know, versus if you change the bathroom, so I don't know if that's going to change. Yeah, but that
is an important modifier. So, and I wouldn't mind sitting again. Matter of fact, David has allowed me to send him some uh send some questions. Matter of fact, you and I might want to get we can do that. So, but to send him emails is if I have some question because I was going
through and doing some calculations and it's amazing how much that will swing based on some of the mod. So, one thing I say on looking at the insulation and electrical. I think a lot of that's going to depend on on the the year the
house was built or the effective year we have on there. That's where we're going to be the modifier, not the modifier. Yeah. And if you take it just example everything in Pine Plains estates that probably won't make a difference because they should all be the same because it's it's reflected kind of in the year it
was built. Um well mine is electrical is excellent. Yours is good. But if you change your grade on it no but if you take a house that was like my house that was built in 46 and it's got a 2009 year right you've upgraded.
Yeah. Upgraded. But for a 2009 effective year, if you put a higher value on insulation, I I was under the assumption that that would also increase the value. And I did sit with David, maybe we need to get that answer. David said no, it it
didn't make make any difference. It's just descriptive, but maybe we need to get that answer. It depends on the year of the house. You could have a point, Fred, but the point I don't know. I think the point really is from my seat, perhaps from Jane's
seat, when we go in and do an inspection, we're hardressed to make changes, coding changes, when we're not sure what those changes are going to do to the property owner, the taxes. So, we go in and we go, that looks
like amazing insulation. Yeah. Well, if that's just a descriptive category, we should know that up front. Well, right. Right. And you brought up a good point, but uh again, that's really where I'm headed as I continue on this venture.
And I have a feeling it's something that's important to this board. We should all be aware of that before we go in and go, "Yeah, that's excellent. That's an A+." we should have a working knowledge of what that means to the value of that property. Just great discussion. Just to
interject, I think we're getting into the subject for something uh an item agenda for next meeting. Okay, very good. Um under old business, I would like to bring up uh the farm equipment exercise. Yes, thank you. I have a
warrant prepared for the the collectors. So, so we are going to collect this. Uh, we're not going to do animals. We're just going to do the equipment. Yes. Yes. And this is the this the warrant. Do we How many signatures we need?
Okay. Well, this is your first official signature, Jane. Probably wondering what you're signing. Explain to what I'm signing. Okay. Go ahead and explain it to our friend. I was the town to collect
the the uh tax collector to issue uh tax payment cards to the people that filed that Steven's got a record of for motor vehicle motor farm vehicle machinery right farmers are register what they have for
for farm machinery motorized farm machinery okay and it's assessed a value of I think 5,000 $5,000 per $5 per thousand value. We have an exemption under and we we do that for farmers. The other option is to
do a registration like you do for your personal vehicle. Okay. Farmers are saying, "Well, we don't use that a lot. We don't use it all the time and it's it's it doesn't meet code for a motor vehicle that you drive." So the state come up with well here's a way with that
farmers need to pay some tax on it because they are using the highway and buying gas and using all that. So here's a way that we get some revenue from farmers. Okay. Otherwise the option is not for them not register the farm
vehicles at all and and then and then then the town or state wouldn't get any excise tax on it. This is a way of getting some of it. Keep in mind, we eliminated, we didn't want to count cows anymore, okay? Because there used to be an animal tax to eat cows, right? From
what I read today, it talked about farm recruitment and excess tax on animals. And I'm thinking, man, that could change if the cow dies. Yeah. Right. So, the board agreed not to not And who's going to keep track of that? We're gonna do that. We got a new cow over on Christian
Lane. She's gonna need some muck boots. I think so that was and we did that. Most towns don't count cows. Years ago, maybe that was a big deal. But as a matter of fact, even there's
chickens in there, rabbits, goats, I think. What else? Yeah, it wasn't a lot. And as you know, driving around town, how many farms you see have that many animals? Less than there used to be. Additionally, there are some towns that don't even do this, right? Yeah. Right.
If it's under 5,000, we don't we don't bother. So, that was that was new to me. If it's over $5,000, then it's $5 per thousand valuation. That's a good question. You're mixing. Am I mixing up a personal
property? Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. This is something else. No. Okay. Personal property like a pool. Yeah. Or over there. Okay. And if I if I understand this correct, this is all self-reporting. That's all this is. They
just we send a letter out and they self-report. So if they're not reporting, we And how much is it total? 1500. Uh yes, that's the total. Yeah. Okay. No. And spread out about what? Five properties. Uh I believe somewhere
between 12 and 13. Oh goodness. Okay. I'm sorry. Y the second stack are exemptions. These are the personal exemptions. Um, and here it's a combination of blind and veterans. Oh, sure. These are in before their deadline. We had just needed
additional information from them. Let you start with that. So, these are blind and and and veteran exemptions. They've sent in their application and we're approving their application and the amount of money that they're going to be exempted. There's not a lot of There's about 15 veterans in town as I remembered. Is that about
right? Um, I have to double I thought when we checked it was 15 and then there's not that many blind people that I remembered. Uh, there's two or three. Two or three. Yeah. But still they have
that option available to them. that the girl walking the dog, her husband's a veteran and she didn't know she had they had a option to fill out the application and get a veteran. So now um let me just drop back just a
bit. Um Jane hasn't done the oneonone training. I wasn't allowed to sign. Do I do that? Is this different? I don't think that matters. Okay, very good. Right. Okay. Um yes. Yeah. Doesn't matter for for this form that'll that'll be fine. Okay, very good. This came up at when we were at the
round table meetings, other other channels do all this and I don't know to what what degree we used to do it but I forget what the lady was from
Shootsberry or Leiden and she has a file of all these people that apply for these tax exemptions whether it's it's veterans handicapped whatever. And she maintains a file of all these people and every year she goes
make sure that they submit the forms to get the abatement. That's nice. She does that. Everyone's surprised. You have time to do that. Yeah, that's nice. I don't know. Do you do that? Um, I will say that uh I think you both have met
her. Linda Beavenon, you both have met Linda. I think she came in. She came in. Yes, I remember that. We uh made a great effort to set up all our files so that we will be able to do that forward. Yeah. Okay. Well, it was like your position in these towns are all doing that. That was part of their job is to
maintain this this file. So I know every year if this person doesn't file, I got to call them and find out or they die or whatever. That's nice. So yeah, if you got the luxury and I don't know that, you know, the dollar value of it or could be
they don't have much else to do either. So well, it's still that's a nice in my in my mind. Yeah, that's a it's a that's a that's a nice citizen. Yeah, this another blind one. Yes, a blindness exemption is what I should have
said. And they they give you the blind certificate right there. And they even give you the property card. Okay. It's not a lot. Do we have a granted? Yeah, that's granted.
Do we have Do we have a um widow exemption in this town? Yes, we do. This one is denied. This one is other qualification. The person doesn't even live in town.
Oh, this is your Yeah, from when she was looking at his looks like he was he doesn't live in town. That's that was a granted exemp exemption. If
you look on the middle left part of the page, it'll show ranted a better. Well, I know 189 river, but you look at that was sold like a year or two ago. Well, that one was filed by them. So,
on July one of 24 I I And this one's already been reviewed and not granted. Denied. So, do we give a reason to them? Well, it says here in their disability or other. Okay.
So, they get they get a they get something that says this is why you're not getting exemption. Okay. We were in it since then. As you as you turn the corner, it's the second one. Why Why we were in it in it? Understood. But
why would they This guy doesn't live there. He's not a resident anymore. Maybe he was just it was just a yearly thing he did. Does this person have a right to um he's in Greenfield, Massachusetts? Does this person have a right to say,
"Hey, I want to um object to this denial?" Yes, he can. Yes. There's a there's a there's a procedure for him. Okay. Very good. Very good. This one was denied because you've heard the conversation
if the person doesn't live there and and uh and the house had been Yeah. Yes. The house has been sold. Yes. A new owner. And why was this one denied? Oh, this is okay. And who determines the
asset limit? That limit is determined by state. Okay. So, 20,000 here. What is the limit? Which clause is that? Is that 41 C? I'm looking at
um I can't even pronounce that name. Petra Scott. Yeah. Widow. Yes. Um the income limitations 20,000 assets 30,000. And it was 20. That's your
assets. That's 51,000. Yeah. 21,000. Uh so that's why it was denied. Yeah. And the income retirement pension wages and
salaries do so. Yes. So will this person be told that because he sold his house in will he get that information because I mean he checked that he owned it on July 1st. I'm I I don't I don't know the date
exactly. That is sold. Yeah. Just uh you can always just Google the address. It'll come up. Okay. Just put in the exact address. Uh do you have access to your um uh computer right now to Google that? Yes. That and if it was sold
through a realtor, it will show on either Zillow, Realtor.com. Truly a address number 189 River Road. copies of this. Go back to here and and she prov she provides this,
right? Yes. It I'd be stunned if it doesn't show unless it was a um private sale. You want this, Stephen? Oh, no. I have the address. Thank you. Um, it's just the listings. It's not giving me a date. It's just saying it show sold. So, I'm
just doing a quick You want You want Oh, okay. You can do that. You on realtor.com? Yeah. Zillow tends to tell the date it was sold. Would it be on the Patriot card? The date it sold? It should be. It should
be, but the card is Uh, n I don't know. I don't know what the delay is from when it sells to when the card gets hit. That's a good question, Brad. When does the card show a sale? I don't know.
I would bet there's a delay when it registry deeds. Maybe does it even then? Then it would go to RG for updates, right? They would update the system once they got the registry of deeds, right? That's a good question. Probably something we should
look into. 180. What's the number? 189. 189 sales 189 River Road Mass. [Music] It's not showing. I'm not seeing it on Zillow. I just You just see that it's sold, right? Yes. Put in 180. Put in 186. I don't know if he's
got the right house number. 186. 186 River Road, Wheatly, Mass. That's a Is that a Red Barn House? Yeah. Okay. It's 186. Yeah. He's got the wrong number. It's sold um August 3rd of 2023.
Yeah. 186 River Road. Is that it, Brad? Yes. Yeah, that's a house. Okay. So, sold um the date I just said I got to go back now. August 3rd. August 3rd of uh 23.
2023, which would mean that exemption um would be Nolan Boy, right? Yeah. Yeah. Because he said he checked on it that he was in the house on Was it June 1st or whatever the he checked? Yes.
Whatever. And that was as of 20. Did you own the property on July 1st of 2024? Yes. Well, unless he bought it from himself. No. They got a good number for it, too. Yeah. 522. Yeah. July 28th or
23. That's in the analysis here of sales. It's already there. Okay. Yeah. So, so that will that's a good question. for double checking. No, no, no. It's very uh because then if he were to question we we would be like we didn't even look it up. You didn't even look it
up. You just signed it. That's good. That's a good catch there, J. I know. I know this person. Well, you know that you know the properties around here. Yeah, he knows every day. But I know this person kind of personally he's been on some committees. Yeah. You need to know what number he was saying.
That's Yeah. Okay. So I I I've guess this is for change. This is another denial because uh Oh yes, because income too much income. You can get a and and it shows she sent over the
uh statement from should we be talking about personal property. So that's okay. We don't say the address. Okay. Very good. Okay. You have other stuff for sign. Um yes. Last item sign.
This would be the the bill schedule for the accountant that just has our bill from Catalis and uh one of the quarterly bills from a big number. You look on that budget
she see 2260 software is that a software fee? So yes software fees show 6960 part this is part of
okay CI [Music] technologies tax so Matt Is that under mapping and GIS maintenance? Yes. So the software fees really jumped from
2024 to 2025. Is that a different company? Is that connected with going with RRG? Well, the part of it is the upgrade. The upgrade. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So they submit invoices for payments here.
usually once or whatever. I just signed as department chair. So you don't need our signature. No. Okay. Just letting it in the budget. They're in there somewhere. So and Stephen is keeping track of all that for us. So goes over
he'll let us know. Okay. Um all that I had to sign up on. Okay. So is any other new or old business before we
adjourn? Um yes. Again under the agenda item um I want to continue to um work with David Burgess on coding if I could. And I would bet Jane might be interested in that too. Coding. And so that's my
question is Jane and I sit with David. Are we violating open meeting law when we're going over coding? Are you talking just general discussion or are you talking individual properties? I mean well general discussion but we are going to that's a good question. I guess we
don't need to look at individual properties. We just need to know when we can bring our own card in and say okay what if I change this to this? What does it mean? You could you cover the name cover the name of the address black it out white it out uh or use some from
Greenfield or Conway or black I'm just throwing No it's a good question I don't know maybe maybe you go once and then I'll go once and we'll go different times yeah that way we that takes care of that that takes care of but I found that fascinating to tell you the truth
also question so If there are multiple board members in attendance for one of these um Franklin County Assessive Associations like round table or other you know conferences educational events I don't
believe a meeting needs to be posted for that. Am I correct? I think not. Right. This one wasn't posted anywhere. Now I didn't look every town's website to see what it was. Okay. or an organizer since it wasn't in Shelurn whether they had it at their meeting whether they posted it. I would
think not use No, I would see that this training sessions as similar to those that Oh, okay. Very good. If we both showed up Yeah, that's we we may get I'm happy to show up at a different time, but if Peter says we can both show up together, that'd be cool. because
Peter's very adamant about staying with open meeting month and the only concern I would I would have on that is you know and and getting back to I guess the the other request
that we have on how do you determine condition and grade is that a lot of it is subjective and Do we want a document that discusses that? Yes, I think we do. Absolutely. We should
have a document that discusses every coding item whether it has a effect on value or not. Now, we've got some um I know but I've got a conditioning, you know, good, very good or bad based on the exterior of the house, right? Um and
uh I also believe I got in something that is uh attempts through the property card through I'm sorry through Patriot system attempts to give a value percentage value 1.10 versus 0.90 based on some of
the uh choices one would have and speaking of Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, the more in my mind I who sits on this board could know that, the better I will feel about going out and assigning something. So far, I
haven't assigned any since I've been here. I've just tried to uh observe. Well, I got a better idea now. You kind of agreed with some of the It did. I did. Properties we discussed. I did
because uh as a realtor I I' I've started to get a better feel, but I didn't make the determination. I know you you've asked. No, but we value your input on some of these. Look at Yeah. Great. Great. That's good. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I do remember that. One of them I didn't agree with. I I
guess I don't want to get us cornered in a box where somebody comes in say, "Well, you've got this document that shows this, this, this, my house is, and this this doesn't miter, so why am I being assessed for this?" And we could say, "Well, we were
there, but this one item that's more important than the other four for that criteria was really bad in your house." And it's comes back to subjectivity. You've got a guidance that says if you meet all four it should be say be great.
Well, it takes the uh don't say the subjectivity out of it. That's what we're trying to do. I don't think we can operate taking the total subjectivity out of out of property values because
otherwise we don't need the three of us. You let RG do it all and we we say, "Okay, fine. Great. That's it." Well, and and and that's that's what some towns do. Yes. They hire somebody to do that. And they came up even at the round
table, one or two towns says, "No way are we going to do that because we didn't agree to what they did." We paid them 30 $40,000 to ride in the hotel and they probably 90% of the time they looked at outside outside outside descriptions,
outside the properties, never went inside. We come up with new values and and at least two of the towns said we didn't agree with that, but we paid him 30,000. That's what it was. But let let me um just back up just a bit, Fred. Um this was going to be an
agendum. We can get deep into this. Yeah, we can get Okay. So, let's let's table that for the next meeting. Yes. Okay. So, do we want to set before we leave uh a date the regular meeting uh a date for another another meeting? If we
could that would be uh that would be nice. Well, let me before we we do that, we're we're proposing to go into executive session and and is RRG have recommendations on each of the
properties? Yes. And file abatements. Okay. Uh do you want me not there because I wasn't I mean I haven't looked at all the abatements and everything and I understand if you say no, we don't want you there. That's fine.
We'll address that. Yeah. Uh okay. And if we we agree I'm trying to think of the process. We agree with what RG is proposing then you could what? Respond to each one of these in writing saying
what the conclusion was. If we don't agree with you and want more information, when can we come back to when would you be able to come back to the board that additional information? Next week, week from now.
Two weeks. We have to do this by May 1st. Right. Because the time is running. Um All right. Can we look at April 22nd? Okay. If I heard you right, Fred. Um, yeah, a we're going to hear
recommendations tonight. Yeah, we may or may not agree. Yeah, this board may decide not to approve or disapprove these recommendations so that this board can look at them and maybe study them for a
short period of time. And therefore, once we've done that, we meet on uh Is that what you're saying, Pre? Yes. Yes. Okay. We can meet next Tuesday or the 22nd. Yeah, I I I like that because uh let's
let's do it sooner than later. Yes. 15th we're talking. Okay. I I just uh at six I want to make sure that we understand their recommendations and then determine if uh we agree or not. Right. And uh and
I'm not sure if tonight is the night to do that. Is that what you're saying, Fred? Well, yes. I was hoping we would do that. So, we actually make those recommendations tonight. Yes. Okay. If we agree with them, if we agree with them, if not Okay. Very good. My question is to Stephen. Okay. If we
don't agree, you're going to be in a position on the 15th to to to support your decisions decision or get more information if you need more. I'm with you. Okay. I'm with you. So, as you'll be on the 15th at Jane at say 6 o'clock
that good time. What What day is that by the way? Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday. Tuesday. Tuesday. Okay, that's fine for me. Next day. Tax day. We give another day this year. It's in the middle
of April 15th. Okay. 16. Okay. And and this this meeting is set up. Should we not be able to come to decisions tonight? No. Regardless. Well, do we want to meet anyway? Yeah. Talk about what you want to do. Yeah.
Either way, let's let's meet it in as agenda item for the minutes and uh uh question for RG here and then uh and then we can add item executive session if we need to. Okay.
Okay. Okay. So, I have a motion to adjourn this meeting. Um uh yes, I motion that this meeting uh be adjourned and we move to executive session. Okay.