Barre residents question appraisal changes
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By David Delcore TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: July 1, 2009
BARRE – A year ago City Assessor Joseph Levesque said Barre was badly in need of another city-wide reappraisal – its third since 2002.
Nothing has changed.
Levesque, who has constantly complained about the work product of his predecessor since he was hired to replace her nearly three years ago, says that he'll tell a concerned City Council that the glaring errors he claims to keep discovering in the city's Grand List warrant a comprehensive revaluation of every property in the community.
"We need to buck up and just do it," said Levesque, who has methodically sought to correct errors when he sees them – predictably prompting complaints that he is engaging in what Councilor Paul Poirier described last week as a "selective reappraisal."
That simply isn't the case, according to Levesque, who recently mailed notices to more than 430 of the city's 4,000 property owners. As many as two-thirds of those notices reflected Levesque's modifications to property values that were set by former Assessor Caroline Lockyer during the city's last reappraisal in 2006.
Levesque has been extremely critical of the work that went into that reappraisal, suggesting that an inordinate number of the city's properties appear to have been undervalued.
"What they did is way beyond me," he told one perplexed property owner Friday during one of the first of nearly 80 grievance hearings that will be held over the next several days.
Ric Dente was among the disgruntled property owners who made their way to City Hall to ask why Levesque had increased their assessments.
Dente, who bought the three-story building that houses his North Main Street market and four apartments back in 1973, said he has done little other than maintain it since that time. And, while a parade of assessors have been through the building over the years, Dente said he was stunned by a notice from Levesque informing him he had increased the value of the property from $151,000 to $215,000.
"I just think a 40 percent increase at one time is a lot without it being a reappraisal where everyone's (property is) looked at with one set of eyes," he said.
"I don't disagree with you at all," Levesque replied. "I would be most in favor of a city-wide reappraisal."
Levesque, who heard the word "selective" several times on Friday, repeatedly expressed his support for a reappraisal.
According to Levesque, the latest batch of notices – like the 400 he sent out last year provoking similar complaints – is a mix of "errors and inconsistencies" that he spotted as well as increases associated with permitted improvements that had been completed, but not noted in city's database.
Ned Ordway, owner of Ordway Electric and Machine Co. on Smith Street, fell into the former category.
"Your building has been undervalued since 2006," Levesque told Ordway, noting that portions of the building were inexplicably omitted from the city's records.
When Levesque added them back in the value of the property increased by roughly $200,000 to just over $325,000 – a figure Ordway said he can't absorb in the current business climate.
"If this (appraisal) sticks I can't afford to keep the building," he told Levesque, noting several "bigger, better buildings" have sold recently for much less per square foot.
"I can't see that increase for my building when essentially what I'm doing is maintaining it," he said.
Levesque said while he sympathized with those whose property values had increased and was willing to listen to reasonable arguments he had an obligation to correct mistakes.
"I'm a rock stuck in a hard place," he said. "As long as I'm fair and equitable, that's the key."
It remains to be seen how the council will respond to Levesque's call for a reappraisal, or how approval of that proposal would affect any of the most recently adjusted property values.
Barre is hardly in the danger zone in terms of its common level of appraisal – thanks in part to the piecemeal adjustments Levesque has made over the last three years. For school-funding purposes the city's common level of appraisal, or CLA, is at a healthy 93 percent of fair market value.
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