4/14/2008 BOARD OF ASSESSORS Minutes

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1. TOWN OF MASHPEE BOARD OF ASSESSORS - PUBLIC MEETING } Minutes of the (Meeting of(Monday, April 14, 2008 Board Members Present: Also Present: Paul Andrews, Chairman + .Jason Streebel, Director of Assessing Sheldon Holzer, Vice Chairman Joyce Mason, Town Manager Gregg Fraser, Clerk bene Read, Assistant Town Manager Theresa cook, Board of Selectmen Liaison to BOA CALL To ORDER Chairman Paul Andrews called the meeting to order at 5:24 PM. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comment. REVIEW IEW of (MINUTES A motion was made, seconded and passed to approve as written the minutes from the meeting of 3/31/08. OVERVIEW of THE ABATEMENT PROCESS .Joyce Mason stated that after looking at the River Road abatement approvals, she had requested from .Jason Streebel an explanation of the methodology used to grant these abatement requests, as well as the reasoning behind the requests. Joyce Mason stated farther that she was alarmed that someone with waterfront property who, simply because they could not get their boats out for 1 Y hours on either side of lova tide, would be granted an abatement. .fan Streebel stated that the Kiger Road properties in question all have waterfront of some sort, and many of them have docks. There have been no sales of these properties for the past 3 years. Historically, there have been some adjustments for topography or for marsh wetlands on their property. Many of these past adjustments were removed by the Tern consultant, Paul Kapinos, because there were no recent sales to justify there, which therefore significantly increased their assessment values for fiscal 2008. Jason Streebel stated that the BOA had agreed to reinstate their previous adjustments which, even after the abatements, resulted in an increase in their taxes. Gregg Fraser explained that it takes years to adjust assessments when there have been many gears of adjustments in the past. Greg stated that perhaps it aright be necessary to expand the area of comparison and try to find something similar to a River.Road * shallow. Joyce Mason asked why Kiger Road lots 3A and 36, which are right on the water, were granted abatements. ,Jason Streebel stated that it was due to topography issu s, the slope of the land down to the water, and the wetlands. Jason Streebel stated that basically his recommendation to the Board was to put things back the way they were before the complete land review wiped everything out. Lots 3A and 3B still paid more taxes for fiscal '08 than they did for fiscal '07 after the abatement.