okay this is a meeting of the wh Board of assessors on January 21st 2025 first item on the agenda is approval of minutes from last meeting um that um do you have that by uh you have last
week's agenda approval meetings we can we get that yeah we get that later where okay next item uh
um did you want to jump right to the um the hero act uh with with one the member from the public here no no okay really okay we have a member of of the public here that come to our meeting any public any member of the public is welcome to come to our meeting uh participate in what we in our agenda
ask questions whatever about their property if they if they want uh I think we'll get to that to that item next here rather than rather than going through our agenda because it may take a while to go through the rest of it so uh would you please state your name and address I'm here support of the Euro act and I asked that you approve it to uh send the s for this is something very
very okay you want to explain it I don't have it in front of me so I can't explain it um Fred can and I can do a little bit but so go ahead it's basically a um tax um exemptions for um veterans quidos blind some with limited income am I pretty pretty much on that yes isn't the
hero act specifically the veterans I think it's I pretend to disabled as well not only veterans but people that are disabled okay that's not no that's not my memory and and what I remember is that what we wanted to do was find out what the allowances were for all those other categories you named right right
and I I don't know if Stephen has done anything I shared with him the list that we've had a year ago where we presented that to the tax classification hearing back in yes in 2023 not 24 23 because we had a tally of how many were in each category for that exemption uh that didn't includ veterans uh handicapped and other I guess disabled you want to call it individuals
in town but yeah looking at at the hero act I think that's it says on the first page recognizing our service members and Veterans so uh but there are so some of them are included on this other list of uh exemptions that we had for prop tax
uh go ahead go ahead yes what I'm seeing here it says um most comprehensive and expand the legislative dedicated to the welfare of Massachusetts okay um and what what do they I'm sorry to have to say this because I didn't see that um memo that got off to Stephen but
we're and we spoke earlier Stephen they're asking for a th% or 100% explain to me what the what what the new request is um yeah so the her will enable towns to Grant up to an additional th000 for thetion okay okay but is this this is the one with the car right
oh this is separate okay yes in regards to right yes is that what you uh thought or in regards to the car I don't know what they were calling car I don't know about the car yeah the one for the car the one I'm talk yeah to support which is the new one that just
came out um is the one that allows veterans to do one car and not have to pay their xze tax oh and the car has to be in the I guess talking to the person that was working the Ste this morning it has to be that piece wasn't on
the email that Stephen you sent us to review ma'am what we we were given a copy of legislation and and I think at least I but I think all of us in general support it the only question we had was just keeping it in relation to other tax exemptions or reductions
so we wanted to look at it in the context of all of them not just this piece and that's actually a new piece you're bringing up which is great to know about it is a very because we got well this is something that Ste talks about I have it at home I have the legislation
at home that doesn't help here it might the uh I bring what Stephen s I'm not finding it quickly either um but anyway I think we do W to I personally still want to look at it in context but we wouldn't have known
about this car piece uh without being told here so that's really helpful that's some so that's one you know what what what did your Memo from Peter say did it adust did it address GL c6a S1 I support you you know do what you need do I I really support that thank
you so much we we certainly want to do the right thing so really this is just adding to the just for the motor vehicle exemption this is for the motoric the one I was supporting the new one the other one was in place for a long time right for the real estate tax right and we still use that people still apply so it's
is that4 yes okay it is yes that was the one sent over from Peter um in his words Stephen I was curious if the board of assessors the DS bulletin from this summer attached regarding the hero act in ability for town cities to choose to add two additional tax exemptions for these new exemptions are not
automatic but require a town meeting vote to be approved but it would be good to hear the board of sors would recommend adoption potential impact this may have um so the adoption of everything in this in this um that's in this bulletin everything in here I wish I saw this earlier um yes I can recomend that talk to person or the young woman that was here
today she knew all about this new law and the paperwork and that it had to go through you to get approval for you send the SL we've been we've been recommended to review it and make a recommendation absolutely um and I I don't see why we wouldn't but I'm just sorry that we're not as prepared as we should have been because we're just looking at this
it's a massachus okay yes but the what do they had on their agenda last week they they asked they asked for us to look into it oh they did they didn't act on it no I was there and they said that would you look into this and I thought they said look well I took notes and I left the notes at home but I'm pretty sure they they're referencing this and uh I don't see wouldn't I just again
wish we had more time to evaluate well the car which when you say look into this which part do you mean the car part or I thought there was another part there's um eight paragraphs here um regarding uh regarding the the hero act eight separate paragraphs uh and again I couldn't imagine we wouldn't
agree with this or not recommend this I'm just wishing we had I wish I didn't get this tonight I wish I had had it earlier that's all okay well I mean is there a timeline on it uh it's a good question uh when's the next board meeting when's the next board select board next we so we should we need to we need to have an answer for them next week because that's when they they would uh if if they don't need it till town
meeting I we've got several weeks yet voted on until town meeting right so I'm not sure what I was only read theard about that he got from V sure yeah yes that far understood yes what what Stephen sent us before what I remember about it was that
it had sort of a range of what you could exempt up to whatever amount and that's why I wanted to look at the other categories understood so I I I that's that's just what I feel we still need to do but I'm totally in support of doing some am well if if um Fred just said that one's
the town meeting on this and then um the next select board meeting is is coming up right so have twice a month right right so certainly we could review this and make a recommendation to the to the select board uh and be on it's going to be they've asked us to make a recommendation absolutely yes absolutely so okay and
I'm know things move slowly Unfortunately they did spoken like somebody who was a veteran no spoking like somebody that was at Town employ served on boards oh realized how sometimes things take longer and you just have to be patient yes well we we've certainly appreciate that and it is an issue we're going to
certainly look at and like Jenny said I couldn't imagine we would disagree with this but we do like to at least make sure we review anything before we submit it approach that's new we're new to this the part that that's confusing and I guess we asked at our last meeting for Stephen to come up with how many people are getting these other exemptions including the veterans one because this one applies on top of
that exemption as a certain percentage or additional dollar amount it's not a provision it's that I read that stands by itself you well I don't with something that stood by itself I didn't get that the whole thing okay and as far as when this goes into effect it says here the governor signed it in August of 24 and it's effective for calendar year 24 so
any excise if it applies to your excise tax for vehicle that you paid in 24 well then I guess then it would apply to that and would be entitled to a to a rebate for for that excise tax cor paid for 24 yes says that in here no matter when I I guess it it's approved by uh the town now I I I don't know if if there's
an option to the town not to approve it or not but that that happens I I don't know this list the different exemptions the amount of recipients and the dollar perfect can you repeat what you just said Stephen um go ahead repeat I just handed Mike a sheet that listed the different exemptions that we have in town the amount of recipients in the dollar amount okay
see this applies to to Clause 22 I and 22 i j yes that rings the bell now those are the two Clauses that I was asked to look into at the last select board meeting which I attended as just a general me member of the public but this says we don't have any I and J clearly we have to we have to look at we have to look at but I think also
that the website would EXs apply for yes hopefully we'll bring more people the ones that are titled to take advantage of absolutely we we of course be all for that absolutely okay okayer app for for the car and did you didn't get it did you no I paid it and I'll get gotta oh
you will okay good and then I'm applying for the exemption for my real estate tax but now to the $400 for the ,000 one um my husband gets 90% but he's considered 100% because of unemployability right says that and
whoever was here this morning Sten said from 4 to 99% $400 real estate but you go what we have to do is apply every year bring that letter in and apply every year but 4 to 99% don't have to bring
and that was something different You' been applying every year for the other $3,000 yes but I I got $400 I think I got $300 I it was very confusing to me and that's why I right okay okay we'll look into that St and see Jenny did you want to say something no I just saying it sounds confusing
yeah but yeah the range made it very simple that's that's good it was made very simple okay need to do this and this this okay now let get thank you very much forting me my oh absolutely thank you so much for for coming in anything else you wanted to okay okay I'm fine okay I'm just a
proud Veteran's wife to make sure yes that's great that's good to hear yeah certainly thank him for his service okay so we got more
[Music] you got a lot of them again I thought stepen could sign these didn't we make no this is different this was uh this is for
veterans oh veterans very good very good I'll take this 12
this is the one she oh there you go so disable so it's already long no that's different oh this is real estate a real estate sorry
I've been gone from this town for 32 years and I recognize these names still
probably smart staying home Jenny it's really cold out there B that we were signning here veter it's
probably similar to what that other list I showed you for 23 right I don't know if you totaled all of these or not not but I bet it's similar yeah
getting ahead of me there friend
last one Senor I guess it's over
87 um who can I ask who fills out these forms is it the um is it the actual yeah that's that's sense
[Applause] this person goes under sen is he really yeah he up on um yes I know this guy Walter it's like 103 it's amazing amazing you go by his house you see him out
there with a shovel digging a hole working his butt off wow this was the other Real Estate One
for
[Music]
here was the the motor vehicle ones that we uh agreed to have Steven signed in individual ones there's there's 48 of
them here so rather than us signing 48 we have to sign just one cover yeah to cover and I do I is there a reason I need to review all these no no I just look quickly what they were I just there all have to be over five otherwise it's not worth theing fee I guess to do it so so this is the whole staff this goes to Stephen
shoveling and is this big one all the vehicle excise taxes yes that is the large commit for FY 25 um sorry calendar okay which I always get confused about which is July of 24 to June of
25 uh that would be fiscal year 24 size vehicle is based on actual so that's um all of 25 okay 1 one to 1231 that's a bunch of you want to sign each one no I don't okay
all the vehicles that were Gage registered in weightly as of January and all of these are they get a bill they send in the money you throw in the computer it spits out this report um that report issued so we get the garaging information from the state um and then that specific commitment from our Deputy collect the deputy collector yes you'll have to unfortunately inform
me what is that um so the deputy collector is they're hired by the treasure collector to assist in like collection of real estate for all local receipts okayer ta so okay I'm just curious how it was comp comp comp computed um it's not um it's it's a it's computer generated it is computer generated it's not I'm
hand generated in any way other than okay it's not hand generated okay yeah okay and how do we know some of these give a South dfield address and some give a weightly address I know the your South dfield address aren't yes as am I you're weightly correct Jenny and so will
ler yeah no I'm here sorry um I believe so my my PO Box is Town Center I'm because well there too much to get into I just know I'm South Deerfield right now until they change things yeah they I just have you know these people that live next to you look it they're listed as a weightly and these other these other
two I mean that's kind of one of the arguments that we're having well that we had on the uh ZIP code issue it is but it's not AR it's not it's not our argument and I'm just curious how does how whoever puts This Together know that these other ones because they won't are and weightly though wa wa address 65 State Road you said they're my neighbor sorry I I doubt whoever puts them together
does know I think Amy just coordinates with the r residents and the other towns mostly just to make sure that somebody doesn't pay into two towns I guess we can be assured that this is the vehicles in town yes we don't have to with each one want to each one no if if somebody gets filled from
Two Towns they come in okay Amy has figured it out oh that reminds me okay um yeah wow I'm glad to that would be some signing I mean hopefully if we all become if all of town becomes one ZIP code that issue will be will go away
sometime I hope you're right it's actually one of the ideas to do with the Center School one of the ideas for the center school is to make it a post office that's big enough for everybody or part of it okay uh next item is uh fisal year 26
property taxes that went out end of end of December uh and at our last meeting they were asking how these values were calculated because there was some uh differences that we didn't understand uh RG I guess was trying to explain what happened but we never got I guess under explanation
that we could understand and ask for more information on on some of these properties on some of the tables they they handed out the last meeting uh so we ask for more information on on current year versus prior year assessments and uh and taxes on on the 20 properties that they did their analysis on right is
is that I haven't received that has that been done Stephen um so regarding property values there is there are two um documents in that stack um one has the land rates and the other one um the tables for the building um land rates that were adjusted and
buildings that were adjusted yes I think that's the factors not necessarily specific properties are these something new since we met with David or are they the same documents we were given at the last meeting I don't think they're the same ones no this from the PCT I thought Fred you said that RG was going to give us some yeah that's what David we asked
David for yeah that's that's not well it says calculation table building pricing table now it goes through types of buildings oh I asked for that from rrg remember I asked for that yeah yeah yeah that was that was something I asked for it's kind of off subject so I won't go there let's stay with this but okay that's that's what calculation right that's not how we come up with the different
values you know let's not let's not spend time on something when we asked for specific information if we haven't gotten it I agree okay the other one here was land price data which we kind of asked for how they come up with the various I guess they looking at land factories here well we should recall what we asked for and ask
him again I know one of those requests it had to do with the different I'd have to look at my papers to remember the terms for it um but the different neighborhoods which oh economic economic um economic locations is that what you meant yes I'm not sure that's exactly the term he used but yes can can I just back up um is this from rrg yes so rrg won't reach to the
Patriot card the Patriot system to give us okay so this is from rrg and this is their their their response to us for I I don't understand that that's not what we asked for we the second thing we asked for was how would property how would land values ever go down down yes we did I remember that
specific request we wanted we wanted scenarios on that right I that was our specific request although this is good data economic neighborhoods is David's term okay how how land values go down and and how and the other thing on land values how did how did they adjust land values from last year and it seems there's many of them that
increases and there's some that we have we have land values for well they use economic eras i w use economic areas it's it's Geographic areas of the of the town we have four five geographic areas and each one has traditionally used a land value you can't compare one land value to another area because the areas are unique by themselves they're different different amenities for each each land
uh value yeah I can't remember now did he make each area the same for land value that that was one a good example there's properties on Christian Lane that have the same land value as all the ones in LA in Pine Plains Estates does that make sense the land values on Christian Lane the same um I don't think so and that's the whole town I think he did it at the as the whole town the same though wasn't it well it could be I don't know don't know so that
was part of what we asked so that's part of what we asked let's just clarify again what we want him to explain and send him a reminder that we're looking for that and keep this on the agenda for when we get it okay well okay the and yeah that's one of the things we asked for that we didn't get before before go further no matter what their answer is we're not going
backwards we're just trying to get this data as we move forward and and we're aware of what we need to ask I guess what I'm saying is um we in my mind there's a lot of data here should we spend some time not tonight figure out exactly what this data means or exactly what we need or we just go back and say hi to come up with different lands is there it just seems
to be a lot of data here and I'm not sure we all understand that okay I'm I'm sure we don't all understand it Stephen I asked you last week when we talked to this I asked that we see we get an explanation how these land values were arrived at and how properties were adjusted for fiscal year 26 and I specifically said we want to see the data that was used to come up with in for changes that you made here we don't want a general statement saying all land
was increased 8% based on what what was your basis for that that's what I've asked for and so far we haven't got that to me this well tax bills went out these are the values that went out right but we need to make a determination do these values need to be adjusted yeah still there is still time they won't affect the tax bills that went out but future future property
values can be affected right yeah we can change that today for the next tax billing so not like these these are not set in concrete and that's what we're going by because I don't accept all these values that been done so far right so can we be specific and you know Stephen's the messenger here but in this case we spoke directly to David right and including ask giving him a
deadline telling him when our next meeting was and having asking him for it before our meeting right and probably we should have reminded him but in any case we don't have it so I think we need to be clear what we're asking for and and get those answers
and have a meeting reviewing Mike like you're talking about but I think we are keeping the door open to changing values based on the answers we given we're not just saying even if those values increase taxes because they might yeah the whole point is to have a system that
makes sense I'm with you there right and and so is Fred and Fred is saying it doesn't make sense to me so we need the information and then we decide what to do I'm with you 100% but we we go back and we determine that you know what they determine that you know what we gooped on land values and now we got to go out to town and say there's a goof you're all getting higher taxes I'm sure how well that's going to go over we you know
you know it never goes over well but it we don't know that yet we don't yeah be careful what you wish for saying be careful what you wish for but I thought you know when when that last with David there that they he said they would send something before our next meeting I remember him saying I do remember that do he s table he's got the land value table okay so let's be clear though the the document we were given last
time it's not I I can't I'm not clear on whether all the land values are the same across all the economic neighborhoods or not so that is a yes or no question yeah correct right okay second Fred you kept saying four or five there's only three and it looked like David had four he doesn't have Village
Center he doesn't have ples Estates okay so we need to we need David's system of division to match what we think the divisions should be so we need to make a decision about how many economic areas there are I agree with that right what I mean where is it written is it already written there five no it's just historic I guess
historic okay the way so David if David made a change historic from the historic practice we need to know why yes yes um and then and then the third question that I'm not that I'm sure about but there may be others I'm not sure about is how in his system is it ever possible for
land values to go down because that didn't make sense to any of us and that was something he stated as a possibility I I I kind of have an idea but I'm not going to go into it tonight um as to why land values went down um I'm with you all the way on what you just requested um Jenny um keep in mind on this list of sales there's some non arms length sales you start pulling those out that's going
to affect taxes too do we have enough data there so it averages out I don't know but so are there other questions for him that we need to specify yes but I'm going back to yes how did you come up with your land values are there still five economic locations but we I've just number of them why are they different I mean he may he may have just
looked at it and decided he may not have known the history we don't know the real question is where did he get all this data did he get it from our records do we need to update our records did he use MLS did he go to the actual courthouse and get the Deeds I guess that's that's a good question where is this data generated from because I can go to MLS and get all the same Stu plus Stephen did a list for us that was bigger on sales than this list right a little bigger yeah bigger than this I I'm gonna go on record that say
that rrg knows what they're doing Greenfield is estatic with our RG um other towns has used them they probably know what they're doing they probably know how they're doing it we're just confused as to how they arrived at these numbers and we are due an explanation that's it I think that a it's not a bad system and other towns are using them and Greenfield just loves rrg right now well okay not only the the land values
but also the the building values how do they come up with because they range anywhere from what four to 20% well Fred building values are are are a are a I mean assessors don't create value uh people create value through their transactions in the marketplace be that sales or a new house or a renovation okay but but these were also applied to other similar properties in town that didn't have a sale well I I you know know that that there
too small a town to say let's take sales from Pine Plaines and let's take sales from Eastway it's only 576 homes in this town you can't you can't break it down that little it won't it won't sense that was on the LA forms there's like what 20 or 30 properties that at Arms link sales that come up with a what a four or five% five point eight I think eight sale increase yes price increase yes yeah so that and and and when I sat with a taxpayer and we went through this whole
thing for about an hour and a half um I did it because I knew I'd have to do it sooner or later at the end of a day their sales went up about five and a half per their taxes went up about five and a half percent their building value went up um and that just that makes perfect sense to me the marketplace does this is it fair well that's another question when sales go up and these these couple said to me I'm on a fixed income to your point Jenny we're going to price them out of the market where they can't afford it their house went
from 400 to 600 well their wealth just went up 2,000 to uh so it's just too hard to equitably just say well okay you're having a problem affording it and you're not I I don't know how you if you have a solution for me on that one I'd love to hear it but either way they went up 200,000 in wealth um based on the sales in the area and it's our job to capture
that increase through taxation that's our job yeah I I have no problem saying that based on sales but but if sales are to but 5% why did some of these go up 10% my property went up 10% building value I didn't sell well just saying why did mine go up 10% when the when the average of What 20 properties that sold in town was only 5% how do you do you account for that how do you account for that where did it get the 10% from I I don't have a good
answer for that and I I guess I can't blindly accept well that's what data shows we show us the data so that we can understand it data is here we don't understand it yeah that's the bottom line do any of you have a problem if I call RG and ask some questions well they need to put their answers in writing understood but do any of you have a problem with my call no I'm I think that's great but that's that's what we need you know every every
time Fred identifies a specific line that doesn't make sense to him or specific comparison that doesn't make sense to him that you know his town knowledge and history historic knowledge is what's leading him to be able to do that yes well if Fred were to be a taxpayer stand in front of us say I want an abatement and he would point to one other house
well we probably point to more than one other house and more than one other sale but we're still stuck with what do we tell a taxpayer when they want an Abate we we don't have and it's I don't want to I'm new I don't want to say anything other than we should have those answers we should be able to sit down with that taxpayer and that's what I've actually tried to do I actually pulled a permit with Stephen on the house next to me I also um one through through the um sales I also asked Stephen for a c calculation
worksheet so I can say okay this is a ranch this is a tutor this is whatever and what I'm looking for now is what is excellent medium or not not good once I have all that I can sit down with them and I can say this is how we came to your original taxes and this next year this happened of course there's a history online but this is where we are now and inevitably the answer is because of sales but let me say that tax data in
every municipality around the country is notoriously incorrect notoriously faulty I know that as a realtor I've been through it a thousand times um so just getting proper data from the Builder on what a what what what the square footage is I've already found out that the square footage on this house is 200 Below on the permit what the actual square footage is I guarantee we dive into that we're going to find more issu then you can well it's not always
accurate so I guess I'm on the I'm but that's the most solvable problem it is I mean if something is wrong because it's based on inaccurate data that's an easy fix it's an easy fix and we should look into that but not now um right let's stay with what we've I think agreed with is what we want from rrg regarding economic locations and land values and building increases and why some people got a 10% increase and
some people like me got a $200 reduction so uh I I think that's a that's a I'm gonna get my um act together best I can with regards to this data so I'm prepared I'm gonna call rrg I think the point though Mike is you know it has to make sense without understanding all the data
like the the differences in property values should be based on fairly simple Concepts like I'm not I'm not I think it's complex in my my in my mind but I hear what you're saying I'm not but I'm not sure the formulas are complex the rating system is complex but the concepts actually shouldn't be
you know if we say this area of town is considered more valuable than that area of town or the land is and then as you tried to ask last time you know a ranch is a ranch is a ranch so is the value of the house the same regardless of what land is sitting on those are simple Concepts yes and then you know here this house is
okay now we don't have a ranch compared to a ranch now we have a ranch compared to whatever Colonial and those are valued differently like the you somebody we should be able to say to somebody your tax bill is higher than your neighbors because MH while your land value is the same the construction of your house is of better
quality and you got higher ceilings yes number more Square agree agree agree so you know while you're it's great that you want to understand the data yes I don't think we should be thinking only in terms of understanding the complexities I think what we're trying to do is make sure that the simple Concepts line up I'm a 100% agree
with you I've reviewed thousands of actual certified appraisal reports to your point you take your house and we want to figure out its value for tax purposes um we've had sales we'd like to find sales that are similar to your house for tax purposes and that's very difficult so if we find three it's perfect but we don't we're going to find one has a little more squares and and we're going to reduce the value by those squares we're never going to reduce or
add to your house value and we're going to keep tweaking the subject prop obviously you need comps until we have come down one has a pool one do then we'll tweak it until we get to what we think are com comps compare them right that's really hard to do where everything's so different yeah up here it's very difficult I think I think it's a great idea for you to call rrg and follow up with David and say hey we you we between us all we lost track of
getting the answers to these questions but we still need them before you agree to that I guess I would still like that IR she come to us come to the board to tell us that I don't want to necessarily hear it secondhand I don't want to hear it second hand either I want him to put it in writing I'm okay I'm probably gonna call for my benefit I agree with Fred let's get him back it they they're they're working for us and they should be uh uh doing stuff
that we want and we want some explanations here that's the bottom line I know but but what happens is the explanations start to get confusing they do you if you want I think we should ask some very specific questions and and get writing get answers to those specific questions in writing I don't think that's mutually exclusive with having them come back okay okay so
yeah you can you can do that if you I'll just call for my own good um I'm convinced that they didn't just randomly grab the stuff I'm convinced that they may have pulled from data we have local knowledge of that data Fred does and they their way in Lemer they don't know that the difference between Village Center and East weight waight they're just at the data from those different areas and there's local knowledge that
Fred has that would affect that we need to just get on the same page with rrg so that they're pulling the data we think is accurate that might mean that might mean doing some tax card uh uh classifications or or tweaking in our system we want our RG to get exactly what is accurate in this town we want to know where this data is coming from I bet it's MLS I bet it's the Deeds but
why did you exclude some I mean that's really an appraisers point of view why you excluded something versus left it in or took it out yeah yeah okay and so kind of related to to this uh before that okay so you're gonna Mike you're gonna I'm gonna give a call give RG a call and I guess you to tell them what questions we have and see what answers they give you and and I also
request that we would like to see them again we would like to see them again to explain that with uh with data that shows where that these values not just an explanation so the questions are economic locations land values being reduced building values going up that's your specific questions right okay and then we'd like to see well and and the part of the economic neighborhoods piece is there's two parts to that one
is what are the geographic areas that he calculated because they don't match the historic ones and yes how did he generate those I mean he's got a good point we should be switching but we need to discuss that and second are are the land values in each of those neighborhoods different or not and I mean who who came up with East wle West
weightly and Village Center I mean is there a map that shows up I I haven't seen it I I mean pine ples States is pretty pretty obvious but yeah Village Center do go all the way down almost to South Deerfield or stop at North I mean you know I don't I don't know if there was a map I don't know if I've ever seen one we just assumed it was reasonable where where it was expl well we need that too because I don't think Village Center goes all the way to Hatfield Hatfield
line right I think maybe the uh clav Road well I don't know it could go beyond that now I don't know well we need that then well his in his neighborhood section he's got three neighborhoods yes and then it goes by sale price yes so yeah so three I mean we can we can TR generate our own map if we want identify these areas uh you'd have to should you you
could look on online on the the web page that has the the the Patriot software Patriot data for each property and look at chesna plane well does uh properties south of uh Straits Road I mean south of claverick there should be a code DC or W weighty maybe we could go by the codes already on there to see where the areas are I mean say like Village Center where is Village Center which properties just have Village Center on there okay that
makes sense you could you could do that based on what's in the in the Patriot software so the Patriot software has a definition of east weightly west weightly at least it's coded that way and we could go look at the code right for the for the land under land land values the front page has Eon location has the area identified plus a value that they start with where at the bottom okay this is east
weighty east weighty that's interesting it's Pine Plains Estates okay but it's neighborhood descript neighborhood description there's something in here does that say Pine right there prime prime prime so there you go but you but you see that starts at at the 98 there should be uh so wa again 15 it's it's special the one 15 is uh that one acre one acre lots so there
you go here's a perfect example um Pine Plains Estates is an economic location to as far as I was concerned and I've got a Pine Plains Estates taxpayer here and it shows East weightly so not to not to prolong this any longer I think we're on the same page okay there's neighborhood influence it gives it something it gives it something so we can go to the tax code and see it's Pine PL States but a map I mean who okay we got to look into economic location who came up with these or is this a commonly
accepted thing looked at these designations they must have looked at there and then took the sales and it took that information this this is what I'm trying to suggest so we need to know yeah this a little better before we just randomly go off I'm not going to go back re reiterate anything I'm glad we've come up with what we've come up with but there's more here to to be seen and again I'm going to go on record saying our RG did not randomly come up with this stuff they had some sort of data
some sort of market value some sort of economic you know the Market's up the Market's down they have their numbers and they don't do it on two or three homes right that's what we need to see the rest of the stuff is from the Patriot off individual properties but how do they adjust that okay yeah okay are we um not are we you good with that yes okay and the other thing I I asked
for is the on this first table here the what 20 properties the values of last year before they made adjustments they have current prices current total and sale price I asked for what last year's value either land or building or total I guess I can go through myself but I'm not going to do that so we're you're talking about an additional request column yes additional column yeah
yeah Stephen you can do that right um so you want which one is yes I can do that it's just adding the prior year value for and building it's two columns probably yeah um okay I can do that I and I'll say it one more time when we're when it's all said and done I'm pretty sure
they're going to have a good reason for why they sent us this data okay that's just my opinion same lines before we leave this and it gets into another item but uh have all this data for fiscal year 26 been entered into the Patriot software for people to access online I think that's a Steven question
um yeah so the cards themselves that roll over in Access online will be done tomorrow afternoon um in regards to the values on information s date all of that that is on the website that's already on the the new values are on the website correct the new values for all these properties are on the website um for all the properties in tile all the properties in tile right well or and these include sure I
look quickly I I I I ran today they weren't well yesterday I looked yesterday I I don't quote me Fred I thought mine was updated but and again that update happens computer generated you don't manually do all this um we may be talking about two different processes just let's I guess oh okay so online is a link to the
values for fy2 um it's titled owner listing um and it gives a report similar to um the one that is at the front of that desk it list the parcel ID owner information location is that a c no this isn't the property okay is that what you're referring to no I'm just wondering what what that link is that Link's going to be they'll be able to pull up this uh no that that
link um brings it all the property records um it gives the St oh sorry yeah show that I already see it okay um and that's like the the last link on our on our homepage so that link is already on on there people can go and look yes there you go and then when does the actual C AI card was it CIA yes those cards will be updated uh tomorrow
tomorrow and is that again is that just a push of the button once we have all our data it should be I know it's a two-hour process be doing it in conjunction with someone fromal okay so I'm not quite sure what it involves but some point of it now how does that affect if someone wanted to have an abatement they Haven to February 1 and then all of a sudden they look on they go hey they didn't get a chance to look at last year and now it's this year they see a chance change and want to make an abatement does that affect the February 1 deadline um does that affect so for an
abatement do they get I me in other words that data is not available no well okay this is just a summary but if somebody wants to look at their individual property to see the the data card on it is that online that's what he's saying um the property record card itself um I can double check to see if that's updated but I believe that is a process that will be done tomorrow right
now if anyone uh wants an abatement there are a couple that have started that conversation with me they've requested it I've emailed them any cards that they want to have for comparable properties I've sent those okay to Fred's Point um basically when people see their taxes each year they recognize if there's an increase or decrease um to Fred's point if that data is not updated immediately does that affect the abatement process I don't think so I'm
not sure I I think if I was a taxpayer and I didn't see my my new I got the tax bill already they was nailed in December El they were supposed to and the requirement was 30 days for an abatement if I want to go and see the increase in my property taxes what I had last year well you could tell people go to your tax file yeah yeah right uh if I want to see it online or if I want to see what my neighbor is it's not
there so we've gone three weeks and and there's no there there's there's no ability for a taxpayer to see what their increase was for for from last year to this year other than looking at the individual tax bills well how you do the p i I think the the the abatement process is 30 days if if taxes were if the bills were mailed out before December 31st if they're mailed after that there's some exception
to 30 days after that tax bills come out later okay my concern yeah tax bills went out but people didn't access their data for for 30 for three weeks on here is there can this board decide that we want to give people 30 days from 30 more days 30 days from uh January 21st whenever these data was online for them to look at and we give them 30 days past
January today 21st is that perview is that in our purview to decide I don't know I don't know that's something I guess I'm asking Stephen to find out or our tax collector would know well what what is the what is the well how do we do in the past your point your point is it's supposed to be 30 days from when people people have all the information they need to decide whether or not
they're asking for an abatement right and I would assume 30 days came the day they got their tax bill you could go online that information should have been there online for anybody in town to see it's not there as of today even so how can people really apply for the bement when they don't know so in principle if it's up to us we agree that people should have the amount of time they need yes right they should should have 30 days I
mean I don't know whether they what the law says in terms ofel yeah I I don't know if there was a law saying that it has to be by February 1 like it's on a thing or it's 30 days let's we should find that out I think what we can say is we understand that the abatement period is supposed to be 30 days from that that people are supposed to
have 30 days from when they get the information they need and anybody who hasn't had that amount of time because of late posting our position would be not to respond to an abatement request saying your request is late right I'm with you but I still would like to know there's got to be some sort
of verbiage perhaps a law perhaps something that says um the tax bill is when you get the tax bill it starts then or when the system is updated it starts then sure it's not when people receive it because I don't know nobody's going to write a law based on information they can't control they can only control when they you know I do I I think I have a tax bill here we'll find out right now say if it's after December 31st I don't
remember what it say I thought I had it I'm sorry I think I have mine handy I might have left it at home I was trying to be I think it's it's unfair to taxpayers I agree with you Fred I completely agree with you I just want to make sure that we're not making a right but what I'm saying is I think what the law does is it allow us to say to someone your request is late and that's true and that what
Fred's point is we shouldn't do that if people have a reason they're late and that's I'm fine with that I'm I'm 100% with you I still would like to know what is I don't want to say law what is the practice before we put something into to practice what is the the old practice or the the acceptable way of having have it
done and if it needs to be change let's address it at that time let's not make a decision tonight yeah well okay I guess I'm asking student to find out regulation very good maybe our tax collector would know also because she's the one that sends out the tax bills let's that's a good start let's do that before we get into a another um lengthy discussion about what may or may not be necessary because right however we we decide on that I think we need to
somehow let the public know you have 30 days from January 3rd January 20th say file an abatement put it online or somewhere else that you have 30 days okay well as I said before I'm not disagreeing with anybody we shouldn't be limiting our period you know our notific systems to online being being myself somebody who doesn't want to go online
for everything sure I think we're we're all on the same page I do too let's um let's um let's let Stephen that okay moving on uh Burell property submissions we had talked briefly last meeting and there was there was uh some properties that were not uh assessed personal property was was
uh was not assessed on the on the the final sheet that we used to calculate tax values I guess yes and I asked I guess Stephen to see where the issue was because some were assessed and gets credits and no no new amounts due did you do anything with that um I did I'm still waiting for an answer and that's on me I forgot to hit send I started inquiry um and need some additional
inform so that's still worth from who are you asking for um our personal property specialist wait wait who are you asking in town who do you mean we don't have a oh asking well that when I remember the the the issue was
uh the request for personal property was was submitted by an individual in town and it showed up on a list somewhere that you received a response from that individual but yet their property values were not on the the spreadsheet that listed the the dollar amounts for personal property and they showed zero so I asked
the tax collector why is it zero on here when they submitted a form saying they have personal property of dollar XM dollar amount and the tax collector pulled up the records and said they paid twice for two quarters this year and and got a credit for the rest of the year so no bill went out and tax collector did not know whether why no bill went out for that the the final two quarters of the
year and it was either an issue with a tax collector or with the uh Town accountant that keeps track of the records I guess and that was that's the issue that we have is something internal here that that needs to be resolved and that person that didn't that is not being assessed or did not receive a tax bill for personal property needs to get one and that problem needs to be
corrected yes it does so it's it's either you know I'm not going to come here into this office and spend a whole day talking to four different offices to find out what happened I I I guess that should be our rg's responsibility to to manage the personal property submission that's what it comes to why is it their
responsibility it was in the contract for them to do personal property maintain personal property records or whatever it's that's a good answer assess and maintain personal property records I think that was in the contract okay so really we are identifying an anomaly for them to figure out yes yes and do you want Stephen to pick that
up and carry it to them yes and and report back at our next meeting what's if that issue has been resolved and are there other you know we just happened to catch this one are there others not that I'm aware of okay this kind of was an obvious one to us but is it a dollar amount right but yeah
okay okay so Stephen you've got that okay okay uh moving on F vehicle excise tax okay the the animal tax fign animal tax okay was already approved I guess by select board doing that I was there yeah approved now we have the the vehic excise tax and at our last meeting I think we directed Stephen to
send out the the forms for the the to the farmers that filed this uh filed the data in Prior years to to get a current value and we're going to do that with a twoe turnaround so we'd have time toh send out tax bills I believe they were done for that has that been done has yeah I I spoke with Jessica today okay yep and did did everybody respond yet or
is it too early there um too too early to to deter okay and there's two or three newer property owners in there they contacted as well no I only sent notice to um those that were on that list right but I indicated two or three that were new
that were could be in surrounding towns you have to verify whether they had equipment here or there okay I did not get those the last sheet I you on that was uh there's I can tell you there I just they're all on River Road
Well Properties River Road one is in South dfield uh two in South dfield and one is in Hatfield so I don't well I guess like to know whether they've been ident did the request for information go Property Owners um no the uh their contact or is there name yeah they're listed it's the
the new owners here on this latest listing that that's not all that new it yeah that the list that you put together yeah but no this was the one there's the address oh that's a new one yeah okay then there was this one it's on on yeah I sent to this entire list and
this one oh okay okay well okay so we're good there okay we're good there okay okay and so what was the respon when is the response date um we had talked about a date of the 26 uh when I sent them out I did not write any information regarding their response a so you had by the 26th of of
January I think that's what was mentioned at the last meeting yeah that's that's well we said two weeks we had two weeks from our last meeting yeah that's right yeah two we okay yeah okay yeah we met the N okay two weeks okay so we're hoping we'll have it next week isn't there don't we need this
pretty quick for sending out the tax bill well they hav did it for the beginning of February yes right okay okay they have the March first she said right okay okay okay uh six we talked about property assessment records okay update Street listing that's that other that other listing in the office to list the listing by property location and by
owner alphabetic is that notebook has that been updated um is that a printed physical printed yes uh no that has not been updated okay that needs to be updated well see I thought that's what uh David said the guys we're going to update putting information online not only individual property records but
uh well that necessarily doesn't go online I think that stays here in our office so somebody comes in and you want to look quick well or anybody in office wants to look and see what they're being assessed they can open that notebook and see it's right there it's public information too I guess rather than pulling it up on the on the Patriot software card I mean just give the name address and I think what is it uh the says
value and maybe uh I don't know if it has building value or or acreage size a lot you have to look what was in there okay and I okay and I I guess that's that's what it's called upda Street listing okay that was number seven that's what that is okay discuss the hero act did that
yeah okay any other New or Old business I've got a couple things um what was our position on pools we no longer assessing pools well we have using it as a additional fixture or something on the on the property card so we're still still assessing them in this if they're under 5,000 of course no well no I don't think that that makes that makes a
difference so we're still assessing them I was asked right I was asked yeah whether it's INR or especially in ground I'm not sure above ground I don't know okay so I thought above ground we weren't going to bother with but um in in in in ground we're we're still assessing yes okay very good um um if someone finishes off basement is that a tactical event well it it it should be um and
it's got it changes the code of it so yeah the code that for square footage you look on the front page it list a square footage for each level in the house so the answer is yes yes okay very good um well but it but it's not a cut and dry yet because it's already included it's just what codee it's included as right well um I did um speak with um the
FR cogg fur Cod yeah um and they will give you a list of Renovations and what you'll charge for renovations depending on what you do I thought that was interesting I'd like to look deeper into that but not right now for the building permit yes yeah okay um okay um is there anywhere I can go to get training on the Patriot property card system I know I spoke with you and
I did a little playing with it is there somewhere I can go to get more training well we have there's got to be some training material why do you want what are you looking for I'm just looking to be able to understand the C understand how we got to the numbers and just educate myself a little more as an assessor for the town of we so well I I guess the best way to to do that
is and I guess we kind of did some of that when we looked at property values properties this past year and and to sit in front of the computer and and somebody like David was there putting in changes and values yes and what impacts it made and I did that with Stephen too so uh I just I'm just looking to be be more vers that's all there's things in Patriot that I don't understand myself and there's there's different uh what do you call it
folders or or layers of of data in there that used to come up with with say depreciation values uh type of uh uh area codes that that kind of stuff that is it's kind of fixed in there from one year to another now I understand that now that we can change some of that but you hav't in the past uh but I think what I'll do is simply Stephen there must be some I
tried to go online today I couldn't find anything it must be something somewhere um if I could if you know of something let me know um yeah so just like uh you say training manuals in in reading the the property record card well yeah um here's this is average this is very good this is a ranch how did you know how is the you know I'm looking to be more verse in what I'm doing that's all uh so
it's it's it's really for me uh if the others understand it that that's okay with me um there's much and maybe I'll sit with you again and do more playing with with the system um then I add one other question has have we has the board come up with an agreement with regards to um when we do do inspections can we just send one person out and rotate that person versus all three have we come up with that agreement yet we decided we're gonna do that do can we put that on the next agenda well well future agenda I'm
not sure next one see have time for that future agenda okay and then um last thing I wanted to ask is that I have called the the board of assessors in Greenfield Long Meadow South Deerfield East Long Meadow um Greenfield actually has a asked an assessor night anybody come in and they can ask questions and again I don't think I'm not ready as a board member to answer those questions but I think that would be a great idea I
would like rrg to again put those sales right online every other assessor board does do that and Greenfield has this little verbiage that says this is kind of what we do so that the taxpayer can say okay okay you're not just being uh arbitrary or just not going well this house this house just just more information that updates their site that educates the U general tax paying public uh to me would I'd be all in I'd be all in on an asking assessor I I just
would I just I'm not ready myself but I think that's something we might want to entertain possibly uh anything you're missing on that is the history why that is going on in Greenfield there's a reason for that maybe they didn't tell you that they did they did not they did get a tax reduction though okay uh Greenfield has had some issues with their tax collector and their Board of assessors and has resulted in various
actions against taken against them it's been in the paper of public information the last two or three years so they needed something to tell people what they were doing okay because what they were doing was not didn't appear to be reasonable okay to town officials or city officials in Greenfield and and they were getting numerous requests for information probably baits they probably didn't tell you how many baits they got before they
did that um they did not they did not actually I didn't I didn't even call them on that I saw it online yeah but there there's been issues with the way they do property Assessments in Greenfield so that's why okay so it's a bigger town I mean it is a bigger town we have we do have assessor office hours right you know both day and evening but well again I'm I'm being the new guy
and I'm calling around and I'm looking around and I'm calling different assessors from different towns and I just like some of the things I'm seen yes they're bigger than and and I don't know if we should perhaps look into some of those things my goal of course is why we wrote a mission St we don't we're not adversaries my goal is always been as a realtor and also in this particular position is to educate both sides so that we can understand once they're
educated there seems to be no controversy unless you're dealing with an unreasonable person we yeah we can think about that but first I guess we've got these other questions with RG that first I'm cool with that I'm good with that but just back up a little to your your question training for Patriots
software see we've the board in the past hasn't really touched the software put it that way we always had the assistant assessor do that because even now when David was putting in different values and stuff he would pull up a property card and and and see the make changes and tell us the differences uh I assume some of that was stored
somewhere on the computer for say fiscal year 26 without going and changing PR year data see we didn't want the board to go in there or have access to that Patriot software to say Okay I want to see if I change my value here if I change my neighbor if he asked me if I put this different value in what it is well your playing around with the data and if you don't if you don't save it or you save it somewhere else that kind of messes up
the whole database well I wasn't personally doing it I was um and that's why we we we didn't really get a whole lot of detail or training or whatever on the Patriot software we assume the assistant assessor was doing that it was their responsibility and we asked questions whatever we didn't understand and they had an answer if not they found an answer uh you know otherwise it gets too complicated if each of us can go in and play around with the data again I'm with
you there so again my goal is to understand this better Stephen and I sat I didn't touch the computer um he's allowed to do so yeah right and I'm and that's really where I was coming from right because it's it's just the more I know the better I'll be at what I'm trying to do that's gu what I'm saying and and your other comment go back a little about that sure the uh finishing basements a lot of it depends on what we see well first off we we try
to figure out a percentage of the floor area that was finished correct because not all basement floor area square footage is completely finished you've got some utilities and storage whatever there that you have to exclude a certain percent so you got that plus the the I guess the quality of of the the construction there and was everything finished was floors and ceiling finished sometimes we do that or was it living area or was there heat
more more so was there heat heat bathroom perhaps well some was there heat and air conditioning in the area so them kind of things if it's you know I think on general rule if it's completely finished it but there's no heat there or air conditioning maybe don't even call it a finished basement depending on what what the rest of it looks like I mean because there
are people that that do that or there are some that that way or it would be a lesser value than If you hired a contractor to finish everything like this room is so uh so it's not a black and white question for sure it's not it's not say yeah um given that I received from stepen through rrg the um it was a condition yeah the conditions was that what it was yeah um that 65 page um report was an eye opener for me
it actually showed you pictures of the construction it actually um assigned some sort of increased or decreased value I'll bring that I'll print that out Bring I thought you got it online um it online or I have it I'll send it to I got it online okay send us send us you guys cop okay I thought it that and of course you're going to try and get me the calculation worksheet
on good bad ugly yes they they have that too right yeah yeah yeah okay now once I get this data and I can look through it I just feel I'll be better I mean I don't like complicating things I like your idea of making it simple Jenny I'm all for that but the more we know the simpler we can explain it I guess I I yes I don't disagree with you at all I just I think
that really my point is rg's conception is so knowledgeable that the conversations with them are complicated yes that they are yes and we have to we have to understand it enough to understand what they're saying yes but we also that's not how you answer people's questions about it yeah you're not wrong so it's it's sort of both ends
of it right right okay okay very good okay any other New or Old business um a couple items good um so the first one being the board of help board a member of the Board of Health um approached me to see about implementing a senior tax workof program here in weighty a what a what senior tax workof
workof their taxes yes a senior tax workof program um and so um I said that I would bring that to to the board um this one from Board of Health yes from the Board of Health that's red question for sure okay probably definitely at a later meeting I just wanted it to be on your radar um is that up to us well I guess what they're looking for
is help in getting this program started and I think um like my experience of being a part of this in Conway um having this program initiated we were seeing if our department could help here to provide just additional you know tax believe to the most so they work to pay down their taxes but they're they're seniors yes that's very interesting concept I'd like to I mean I
think I'm almost there certainly something I would do if but I can't um we can't make that financial decision can we we could say we support one but isn't this a select board question yes and I I guess if if we want to pursue this I guess before we get
into details of what it is and how and who's going to get involved maybe we should ask the select board are they interested in this kind of a program first we don't know the details but are they interested in it and then we'll give them more information if they say no we don't want that to apply in weightly at all then we're done right I mean I think it to some degree it feels like there would need to be a finance
board yes it's possible to do up to this dollar amount or up to this percent of somebody's taxes or yeah there's a lot of lot of there before we get into that we could spend a lot of time figuring that out and then select board could say no we don't apply but it's a nice idea I like the idea yeah so I'm just I'm wondering why they asked us instead of the select board to begin with don't I don't know yeah I don't
know okay so take that back to the next select board meeting I guess do you have one more thing there um oh and then the last one um this morning um the Town Administrator sent out a memo asking departments to send them any project status updates that they may have I just wanted to there was any that our department is working on to
update no I don't have I could imagine yeah yeah other than I guess we're updating the software right the Patriot software is the only thing we're doing now that hasn't been done or has that been done yet um that has not been done that is scheduled to take place in February oh February maybe if you want to tell them you know something happening you can mention that that we're updating the software
awesome um and that's what RG would be doing that with yes consultant okay and this that is just the bill schedule for that upgrade yeah okay okay can I have that if you don't want it Patriot um T the Patriot thing that our urge you sent us that I'm i' get a
copy yeah I I'll get a we'll get a cop okay okay is train okay training uh data data conversion so this is this has already
happened no that's the conversion that's going to happen next month okay and the training is for who uh myself H um for you okay and did this come out of our budget or was this just that special fun fing they did correct from the special funding special funding
okay four reports oh you did fantastic I just need to sign okay you don't need me okay good okay that we got through a lot tonight yeah so our next meeting is uh February 4th at
11:30 yeah yep okay motion to journ agree a second okay those favor I any