RENSSELAERVILLE — The town of Rensselaerville has taken the first step towards reassessing property values town-wide.

At the request of the town’s board of assessors, the town board voted last Thursday to hire a temporary full-time data collector to help the assessors gather the necessary information.

The board also voted to increase the pay of the assessor’s clerk to compensate her for data-entry duties.
"It’s kind of an aggressive plan we’re doing here, but I think we can," said Peter Hotaling, chair of the board of assessors. "We’re ready to start crunching numbers."

The last time there was a townwide revaluation was in 1998. Since then, assessments in Rensselaerville have dropped to 68 percent of real-property values, Hotaling said.

Town attorney Joseph Catalano said that New York requires towns to keep assessments at 100 percent, and recommends revaluation every five years.

The plan, Hotaling said, is to have the data collector visit each property in the town, confirm that each exists, note changes from the town’s existing records, and take digital pictures of each. This would take the months of July and August, Hotaling said.

After that, Hotaling said, the information recorded by the data collector would be entered into a database by the assessor’s clerk, Rachel Chase.

Chase would be paid $12.92 per hour for her work, and the data collector would be paid up to $13 per hour depending on experience, Hotaling said. The assessing department has been budgeted $28,000 this year to start the revaluation process.

After the data is entered, it can be processed by the Saber company, and the board of assessors can start holding hearings. The whole thing should be completed by May, 2006, in time for Grievance Day, Hotaling said.

The town board voted for the new position and the pay raise unanimously, though two of the five board members, Gary Chase and Myra Dorman, were absent.
"It puts us at a disadvantage with other towns on school taxes," said Councilman Edward Ryder on the town’s 68-percent assessments.

In response to a resident’s question later in the meeting, Ryder and Catalano said that reassessment will not cause anyone to pay higher town taxes, because the value of every property in town will be brought up by an equal percentage.

Pizzigati’s complaint

In other business at the June 9 meeting, the Rensselaerville Town Board heard a complaint from resident Arthur Pizzigati.

Pizzigati said he has owned property in Rensselaerville since 1969 and lived in the town since 1971. Each year, he said, he has asked to be on the planning board or zoning board, and each time he was denied.
"Unless something is done soon, I’m going to blow it wide open," Pizzigati said.

The town filled a vacancy in the zoning board last month, appointing James Watkins to take the place of Valerie Greenberg who resigned for personal reasons.

Pizzigati asked the town board for a list of every planning and zoning board member since he has lived in the town, how long each has been on the board, and their qualifications.

Town Supervisor J. Robert Lansing said the town would provide such a list.

Ryder suggested Pizzigati speak to the zoning and planning boards because the town board makes appointments based on recommendations.

The town board appointed Watkins on the recommendation of planning board chairman William Whitbeck.