Pine Plains starts data collection process

PINE PLAINS — It may typically be considered the precursor to a property assessment project, but Pine Plains Board of Assessors Chairman Jim Mara assured the Town Board the data collection process that began this week is nothing more than what it claims.“We have to be careful to not say we’re starting a revaluation process — we’re not,” Mara said. “We’re starting a data collection process.”So said the chairman at the Thursday, June 16, Town Board meeting, when the board unanimously voted to approve the data collection process, and then again at the Thursday, July 14, Town Board meeting, when the project was explained in more detail.Back in June, town Supervisor Gregg Pulver explained he and Mara discussed collecting the information without the help of an outside consultant. “Jim is pretty confident this can work,” he said, adding data collectors could be hired for $15 per hour. “We can train them, although they must have their own cars.”The process was estimated to take 18 months to two years, at which time the town can then consider its options on how to proceed.“We can do the work in-house,” Mara said. “We would start this fall probably and stop when the snow flies and then start again in the spring. Some of our files haven’t been touched in 20 years.”Since that June meeting, the assessors’ office conducted 10 interviews; two men have since been hired as data collectors: John Lloyd, who has worked as a data collector for the neighboring town of North East and has already been trained by the Office of Real Property Services (ORPS), and Bruce MacKinnon, a self-employed architect who helped conduct the U.S. census in Pine Plains. The pair was scheduled to hit the streets the first week in August.Mara stressed that the data collectors will have proper photo IDs on them, along with cameras, when visiting properties. They will not request to visit inside any properties and if invited they will “respectfully decline,” according to Mara. “They will review outside dimensions and property conditions, take photos and note if existing record information is correct,” the assessor stated. Mara said he expects the data collection to take no longer than two years, but no less than one. He said the town of North East took one year to complete the process, but its workers worked 30 hours a week; he added the town of North East does have more properties. Mara said he has his own methods in mind.“I’m going to send these men out as a team initially,” he said. “It’s going to be weather contingent also. [My men] are willing to work in the cold and damp, but I’m going to have to pull the plug on them eventually. It’s going to be weather contingent, so I’ll keep an eye on that.“The other part I can’t predict is I don’t know how much inventory is out there to catch,” he said. “Three out of four comps are virtually dead.”“The last time we took a comprehensive look at all [town properties] was in ’87,” said Board of Assessors member Scott Chase. “There are people out there who build things without building permits; our goal as data collectors is to get the inventory up to date and complete.”Chase said the project is long overdue and sorely needed.“In order to have fair and equitable property values we need to do this,” he said, adding property owners whose homes haven’t been assessed recently may have changed — and those changes need to be accounted for. “We have [interior] data on record. If there’s no change in the footprint of a house, that data will be OK, but if there are bump-outs or exterior changes we will ask homeowners for the number of rooms and what’s been changed.”Property owners with questions or concerns are urged to contact the assessors’ office at 518-398-7193 at any time; they may leave a message if necessary.

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