Newspaper Page Text
25c
Volume No. 96, No. 31
Citizens’ freeze tax
An eleventh hour drive to stop the
county’s tax re-evaluation program
may have been successful as over 700
appeals have been filed with the Peach
County Tax Assessors Billy Powell
and Susan Jordan mounted a campaign
which began work Friday, J uly 29, and
lasted until the deadline 3:00 p.m,
Monday, August 1.
"There is an overwhelming con¬
sensus of people opposed to the
re-evaluation," said Powell late
Monday afternoon
But Chief Appraiser Tom Waldon
does not necessarily accept that the
digest will be frozen at last year's
level. He said further that the number
of appeals did not surprise him, for he
has been involved in tax re-evaluanon
Byron City Council takes a dim view of using
f iretruck to fill swimming pool - out of town
The topic of using the city's fire
truck to fill a private swimming pool -
out of town - came up cautiously last
Thursday night at the Byron City
Council meeting. As the aidermen
discussed it, the more forcefully they
expressed themselves.
The city fathers concluded that they
needed to restate their policy
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State champs
championship last weekend in Warner Robins as they
swept the tournament. From the left on the first row,
Kristie Deese, Dawn Cryder, Karen Deese, Kim Case,
Marsha Bryant, Cindy Stone and Sandra Arnold. Second
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Look out state, here we come!
These Pisces swimmers qualified for the Georgia Recrea¬
tional Parks Society State Championships to be held in
Smyrna next week. David Owens also qualified but is
not pictured and Susie Liipfert came second in her diving
event the following day to qualify. Pictured are left to
$
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CENTRAL DEPARTMENT ATLANTA RESEARCH OF ARCHIVES STATION GA 30 ■t Jjeai»er-®ribune
Home Owned and Operated for more than 90 Years
Fort Valley, Peach County, Ga., Thursday, August 4, 1983
work in two other counties. In both the
other counties, the percentage of those
asking for an appeal was greater than
the percentage asking for an appeal in
Peach Giunty, and in both of the other
cases the digest was accepted by the
state.
W'aldon explained that the state will
freeze a digest if either five per cent of
the property owners or five per cent of
the dollar value of the digest is
represented in the protest. He said that
the county will continue to work on
resolving any disputes, either by the
tax assessors if a mistake has been
made, or by the tax equalization board
if a dispute continues. ‘ ‘We have the
whole appeals process to go through
before w'e turn it over to the tax
prohibiting the use of emergency
equipment for swimming ptxils.
Alderman Bill Peeler brought the
subject up, saying he wanted a policy
made. He got quick agreement, (n fact
the aldermen agreed that not only
should the volunteer fireman who used
the truck pay for the water he used, but
he should also pay for the use of the
iMSseter, Mitzi Burnette, Diane Birdsong, Tangie
Cryder, Wanda Britt, Sherry Newberry, Dena Burnette,
and Tami Cryder. Please see story on page 6.
right back row, Ginny Townsend, Mary Kate Walton,
Meredith Gassett and Shannon Rackley. Middle row
shows Katheryn Rackley, Rachael Walton and Caroline
Liipfert. Front row has Brandi Reddick, Stephen Ruffo,
Chris Khoury, Coleman Leslie and Scott Hardeman.
commissioner's office," he said.
Five per cent of the property owners
would he 406. There are 8,113 parcels
of real property in the county, said
Waldon.
No one in the tax assessors office
would give a count on the number of
appeals that have been filed. Waldon
said that it would be two or three days
before a count would be available. He
did concede that "700-plus" were on
hand. J. T. Joiner said that they have
found that some who signed the appeal
request did not own property and some
have signed more than one notice of
appeal.
Susan Jordan said Tuesday morning
that she had mixed emotions: on the
one hand she was extremely proud of
truck at 90 cents a mile. Mayor Larry
Collins said that the charge for the use
of the truck might be too much, and the
aldermen relented with the agreement
that the volunteer should pay for the
city’s water that was used.
City Clerk Frances McDaniel told the
aldermen that she heard of the matter
later. It happened when the fire chief
the way people worked together to
register their appeals, bur on the other
hand the news of the possible failure
had her feeling down. She said that
employees of her company, SJ
Accounting Service, and others who
wished to stay out of the limelight,
really worked hard during the weekend
to get rhe signatures on the forms
asking for an appeal,
Powell, the chief of Financial
Management and Analysis Branch of
the Division of Maintenance at Robins
AFB and the religious editor of The
Leader Tribune, 'said that his primary
reason for wanting the digest frozen is
because of his concern for the aged,
retired people, and elderly people on
fixed income. Powell added that he and
Mrs. Jordan conducted the campaign
and assistant chief were away on
vacation. She said that when "Buck"
Keys was fire chief, he consistently
refused to let the fire trucks be used for
filling any swimming pools, either
inside the city or outside.
The truck that was used is the tanker
which the city of Byron leases from the
Georgia Forestry Commission.
In other business last Thursday
night, the Byron Council delayed
making a decision on cutting a road
through the Myer Caplan property.
Mayor Collins referred to a request
from Leon Collins of Collins Realty that
the city make good on its 1965
agreement to cut a 50-foot road
will th irough the Caplan properly. lie road
connect Georgia Highway
Dunbar Road. If will begin at Marvin’s
and will end just beyond Green and
Jackson’s business.
The mayor and council agreed that
the proposed road would “impact" on
the city's drainage problem in Waldens
Pond and that the city would be better
served to let the pending lawsuit
against the city about the drainage
problem be resolved first. Mayor
Collins said that there is no question
that the city has agreed to cut the road,
but that it is merely a question of
timing.
The city has been sued by property
owners over the drainage of Waldens
Pond along the Dunbar Road ditch.
Alderman James Williams suggest
ed that the city either clarify its policy
or enact a new ordinance on requiring
that contractors pay a license fee to the
city. Williams said that many
contractors are claiming to be working
"by the hour", thereby getting around
the city’s $110 license fee. The city
only charged $30 for a sub-contractor’s
license.
The aldermen agreed that the city's
present ordinance is sufficient, and
that the key to enforcement is to ask
City Building Inspector William Terrell
to watch closely the requests for
licenses.
Dr. Duncan to
begin practicing
medicine here
The Peach County Hospital has an¬
nounced the appointment of James G.
Duncan, M.D., to the medical staff of
the hospital. Dr Duncan is a general
surgeon.
Formerly of Taylor County, Dr.
Duncan attended Morris Brown Col¬
lege where he graduated cum laude; he
received his medical degree from Cor¬
nell University in New York. He served
his internship at Mantland Hospital in
Newark, Newjersey, and he completed
his residence at the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of Newjersey.
The doctor is opening his office in
the Peach Area Professional Building at
711 State College Drive. He said that
he plans to expand his practice to the
Taylor County area in the neat future.
Dr. and Mrs. Duncan have three
daughters, and they reside on Beverly
Street in Fort Valley,
A reception marking the opening of
the new doctor’s office will be held
Sunday. August 7, after 1:00 p.m. The
office will be open to receive patients
on Monday, August 8.
1 Year (local) Subscription $8.84
in a Christian-like manner. “We just
disagreed with the re-evaluation,
process,” said Powell.
Powell said that the computer
program the county used was not
reliable. The professor who wrote the
program, he said, is not around to feel
the heat now. The local assessors have
become slaves to a program that isn’t
right, he said. “It (the program) allows
too much latitude for added subjectivity,”
said Powell. He that the
program did not have proper cross
checks to determine fair market value
of property as compared to sales data.
J. T. Joiner, the county’s chief tax
appraisor, said Tuesday that his
reaction to the protest is simply to
acknowledge that people have a right
to appeal. He said that the next step is
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Billy Powell [center] set up an office using a trash recepticle as a desk
Monday as he spread the word about the tax protest. Here he and Susan Jor
dan sign up Glen Reid who was already unhappy about the value placed on
his house [see story below/. photo by Carla Hill
Reid asks why his house is so
valuable - compared to others
"All I want to know is why my house
is appraised so much higher than
houses that are bigger and better than
mine and that are located on Westview
Drive, which is the most expensive
area of Peach County.” That is how
Olen Reid Jr., summed up his protest
over the property assessment he
recently received. On that assessment,
Reid’s 2,950 square feet home on
Beverly Road increased in assessed
value from $74,812 to $124,500. The
house was built in 1979- Reid met with
Chief Tax Assessor J. T. Joiner
Monday to discuss the assessment.
"We’ve been debating this for four
years,” Reid said. "All along I’ve paid
100 per cent plus in taxes when
everyone else in this county was only
paying 30 to 40 per cent. Everybody
thought it was kind of funny back then,
but now that they’ve gotten their’s
(assessments) it is not so funny.
“I want you to review with me how
y’all came up with a $124,000 value on
my house,” Reid said. Joiner
explained that the assessment factors was
made determining many
including the structure of the house,
the physical dimensions, the quality of
construction, the land value and
several other factors including whether
the house has fireplaces and central
heat and air conditioning.
“We haven’t tried to overwhelm
anybody,” Joiner said. "This is
noth,r, g unique. All we do is feed the
data into the system and it is sent to
Atlanta. A number of counties use this
sa ™ system. 1 think we have fairly ,
wel1 consistently used a fair method of
documentation. We worked on the
thing (re-evaluation) three years. It
was not instantaneous. ’’
Reid asked Joiner if he agreed that
Westview Drive property was the most
expensive area of town in which to buy
a house and Joiner said yes.
“Wby is it then that my property is
va)ued at a total of t 42 - 7 * a *9^ foot
against other property on Westview
Drive that is bigger and better than
mine and only valued at $26.18 a
square foot? How can one person pay
25c
to review each of the appeal requests
and determine which are valid and
begin talking to those who are asking
for a review,
Joiner said that if an error has been
made, the assessors will correct it. If
not, then the matter will be submitted
to the tax equalization board,
Joiner said that each appeal would
be reviewed “just as fast as possible.”
The tax equalization board members
are Alvah F. Lindsey, chairman; Hnnis
Grimes, and Alvin L. Carter,
Secondary members are Dennis
Herbert, Susan Swift and Billy Holly.
Each member of the tax equalization
board has to go to school and be
certified by the state,
Waldon said that most of the upset is
.See TAX DIGEST 2
$26.00 and one pay $42.00 and you call
that equal ? ’ ’
Referring to a chart he had
compiled, Reid called out information
about several homes on Westview
Drive which have the same number of
bedrooms and bathrooms and more
square feet than his Beverly Drive
home and which are valued up to
$40,000 less. He said some of the
residences have swimming pools or
other features which would make them
even more valuable than his home.
"They live in the city and have
curbing and sanitary sewers and they
are on Westview Drive which you
agreed is one of the most expensive
residential areas of this town, yet some
of their homes still aren’t valued as
high as mine was even before the
re-evaluation,” he said.
‘ ‘No house in Peach County has even
sold for $100,000 and if you can find
somebody who would pay $100,000 for
mine, I’d sell it in a day,” Reid said.
Joiner told Reid that there were
many factors including the age of the
house that went into the assessment.
"We have not given anybody
preferential treatment. We stayed
away from names and used lot and
parcel numbers whenever possible.
We have not been biased in the
application of the data at all."
Reid also inquired about a personal
property assessment he received rating
his personal property at $149,740. "If
I’ve got it, i want to claim it,” Reid
said. ’ ‘Just tell me where it is.”
A clerk in the assessor’s office
admitted “we made a mistake” in the
assessment. “We told you that when
you called about tfiat earlier,” she
said. "Well, that’s all I wanted to
hear,” Reid said. "Y’all told me that
computers don’t make mistakes and I
just wanted to hear someone say that.’’
Reid owns no personal property
which would have been included in a
personal property assessment. "It was
not the computer’s fault. It didn’t make
a mistake, someone in this office did,”
Joiner said.