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July 1, 2010
Summer has
arrived! The tourists are here, the weather is hot and we are all out in the
field working building permits…..right?
I just wanted to give you
all a little information on the executive board meeting that I attended in Fort
Pierre (the Pizza Ranch) on June 29. Several topics were discussed many of which
were talked about at conference. As school is fast approaching finalization of
the details needed to be made and it was decided that tuition would not go up
this year. It will remain at $250 for each attendee. Please remember that juice
and coffee will be provided in the mornings and assorted soft drinks in the
afternoon. A snack may be available but do not plan on it as your breakfast
meal. The IAAO instructor’s course was also discussed. The education committee
has decided to subsidize this course but no dollar amount was decided on as more
information needed to be gathered by all involved. Rownea gave us a few
suggestions for updates on the blue book (which is the executive board
handbook). Her suggestions were all accepted along with a couple given by other
members of the board. Lori and Colleen had a couple of suggestions to streamline
the treasurers’ system. It was also discussed and decided that SDAAO will not
have any registered lobbyists this year from our Legislative Committee. It was
decided we should take a step back for the year and act only as an advisor if
asked to do so.
Other topics were discussed
and decided on so please read the full minutes of the executive board meeting if
you would like to know them. They can be found on this website under SDAAO
Committee and Board Members then to Executive Board and General Meeting Minutes.
Once again I urge you all to
utilize the website. It is a great tool for all of us.
Have a great day.
Patty
Chairman District 2
District 2
Chairperson
Allison Jensen, Karen Whitney, Julie Janson, Heather Grace,
Shannon Faith
Greetings from Custer County.
Our beautiful little county is covered in snow
and brrr it has been cold!
We hope that everyone had a joyous holiday season.
Well you may be asking yourself, “What has Custer
County been up to?” so here is our answer.
We
have implemented our soil survey and made the change over to Productivty all in
the same year.
We are expecting appeals from the taxpayers who have had
drastic changes to their Ag land assessments.
We have made no adjustments to any of our pacels.
I have a feeling some of the parcels that have
drastic changes may have had an adjustmet to them but unfortunatly there is no
record of any adjustments made.
Maybe at board time we will be made aware of
previous adjustments and if we can justify them we will make those at that time.
This repeal of the 150% rule has
created another challenge for our office this year.
Our Non-Ag parcels had a median of 91.69% (good
sales, 1st look only).
After making our various changes to areas of our
county our revised 1st look ratio for good sales was 91.93%.
Our median with all our sales, good and 150%, had a
ratio of 83.21%.
Unfortunatly that means we need to make the 5%
allowed raise to all our Non-Ag parcels.
Our final ratio is 87.37%.
It will be interesting to see how this gradual
repeal will affect our ratios.
We are expecting appeals from this process as well.
Heather, Julie and I completed all our
building permits by November 1st!!
That was a wonderful feeling.
We will be starting our 5 year reappraisal plan this
spring.
We have almost 5000 improved parcels with in our county so
we will really be working hard to get all our parcels seen each year to stay on
track with our goal.
We should be getting a second
vehicle from the sheriffs department this spring so
we can run in two different directions if needed!
That will be a wonderful addition to our office.
In August of 2009 Custer County voted
to renovate the courthouse.
So far things are going as planned and we should be
breaking ground the end of April beginning of May this year.
They will build a second story onto our current
building and move the main offices onto that floor.
After that they will renovate the first floor and
move the other offices into their new spaces.
Hopefully by this time next year we will be moving
into our new office on the second floor!!
This will be a very exciting process for us!
We cannot wait!!
Our office has seen a staff change in
the last couple of months.
Jenny LaMar, our administrative assistant, had to
move back to Indiana for family reasons so that meant we needed to find a new
administrative assistant.
Shannon Faith is our new
administrative assistant.
She has been with us for a week now and is catching
on quickly!
Shannon and her family have recently moved here from
Colorado and have really been enjoying Custer.
We are really happy to have her join our team!
Karen Whitney
I have had a busy summer
with my son, Casey, graduating in May from Custer High School and is now
attending Western Dakota Tech in Rapid City majoring in Industrial Electronics.
Then, in August my daughter, Sara, got married and is also attending Western
Dakota Tech majoring in Medical Administration and working at Black Hills OBGYN.
She will finish in May. My husband, Dean, loves to hunt and fish (with the
exception of ice fishing) so he can hardly wait to get the boat out again this
spring.
Custer County has been
very blessed with having a new director, Allison Jensen, come on board. She fits
in here and knows her job very well. She has brought laughter and smiles back to
this office. She is very concerned about us and our families. We are so happy to
have her here!
Shannon Faith
Since moving to Custer in October we have really started to
enjoy the community. We have a 10 year old son Will , who is a first year Webelo
scout, and an avid snowboarder! He is anxiously awaiting the 2010 winter
Olympics to watch his hero Shaun White in action!
We also have a 2 year old son Cash, who believes he is a rodeo
cowboy! Of course this means his parents and older brother are “participants” in
our nightly family rodeos, mostly acting the part of bucking horse, or bull! It
is never a dull moment!!!
My husband Brian is an assistant superintendent with Tatanka
Hotshots, a wild land firefighting crew based out of Custer. His summers are
extremely busy helping to put out fires locally and nationally, and I spend
most of the time worrying about him!
I am new to this position and have found an amazing group of
women to work with who will answer all my questions, even if it’s for the 3rd
time! I really like what I have learned so far and hope to continue learning and
growing in this position.
My family really enjoys the outdoors and I can’t wait to see
what this new year will bring!
Julie Janson
Since starting in Custer County as an appraiser, I have
been on a giant learning curve. There are new challenges every day which I love.
I have finished my books, so now I am preparing for the CAA test. Wish me luck!!
Of course, there is never a dull moment at home. One daughter,
Sam, is a senior so we have been keeping up with her college application
paperwork, ACT testing, scholarship apps, senior project, etc. It seems
never-ending. Our other daughter, Cassie (8th grade), keeps us
running to her various sports – volleyball, basketball and cheerleading so far
with track in the spring. Our son, Andrew, is a junior at SD School of Mines and
looking forward to an internship in Denver this summer.
Hope we are done with those below zero temp now. Think
Spring!!
Heather Grace
A lot has taken place since last July. The boys
started school and are in several activities. Micah (11) had a great
season in soccer with his team being undefeated! He is now in Destination
Imagination (DI) for his 3rd year and loves it! His team has 5
members this year, with 3 of them being brand new to DI, so it is going to be a
fun watching their creative minds work together! I am coaching his team
again this year for my 2nd year, and I am really excited.
Mikael also had a great soccer season last fall with it being his first year and
he loved it! Micaiah and Mikael are now in AAU wrestling (Micaiah 3rd
year & Mikael 2nd year) and they are really excited about their first
tournament on Jan 16th in Rapid City. I am also looking forward
to another great season of wrestling and watching them gain more experience!
Micaiah made it to Regions last year, so we will see if he goes to state this
year! My husband is busy working and recovering from minor knee surgery in
December. I have to say he is recovering very fast and had gone back to
work only a week after the surgery. I have started training season again
for 3 full marathons, 1 50 mile, and several 5K’s and 10K’s this year! So
as you can see we have a busy schedule, but a fun one! Looking forward to
another great year!
Allison Jensen
Things have been great here in Custer.
The kids have settled into school just fine and made
some new friends.
Blake, Abby and Rachel have all gotten involved in
activities and are keeping Scott and I very busy running them around!
Since our move down here we have found a new home
for our chickens, our rabbit has become a free range cotton tail lover and we
found homes for all of those puppies we had in July except for Lilly, our new
addition.
Moon, Belle and Lilly seem to really enjoy our new location
as well.
Scott has stayed busy at work for Jorgensen Log Homes and
has joined the Volunteer Fire Department here in Custer.
It is great to feel settled.
We are still in the process of trying to sell our
house and our land in Belle.
That will all come in time.
We wish you an appeal season without
to many appeals and cannot wait to see all of you at Conference this May in
Mitchell!!
 Seemingly
innocent crew?
.JPG)
I think not, they are a fast-moving bed-racing crew from Custer County
Courthouse!
With Black bear sightings in the news, thought I would send a picture of the
bears I encountered while re-appraising Spearfish Canyon. Along with the bears,
I’ve included some Model T’s at Cheyenne Crossing and views from a cabin’s deck
that sits above Savoy.
 
 
We are busy trying to finish up field work so we can just work
on inputting information during the rally. We have our noon “cook off” during
the rally, as it takes SOOOO long to get around, it is just not worth it to try
to get anywhere.
As for anything happening – we are still watching work progress “Slowly” on
the Slime Plant next door, but the new Deadwood Rec Center is complete, and it
is a nice addition for us – as they give county employees who want to use it a
great discount.
Hope everyone is enjoying there summer, (now that it is finally here!) and
getting a lot done. I also want to thank Tony and all his helpers for putting on
a good conference. After missing last year, it was great seeing everyone again.
Darlene Piekkola
 
The Staff
Patty Caster - Appraiser;
Denise Peters (hidden behind Patty) - Staff Assistant; Harvey Kistler - Deputy
Director; Curt Westby - Appraiser; Linda Peterson - Administrative Clerk; Dawn
Puckett - Appraiser; Deb Grote - Computer Tech; Bill Marx - Appraiser; Pam
Thornburg - Staff Assistant; Gordon Wendell - Appraiser; Luanne Thovson -
Cartographer; Roger Benton - Appraiser; Rich Schuttler - Appraiser; Richard
Rieck - Appraiser; Shannon Rittberger - Director; Dick Mareska - Appraiser.
Missing from photo is Mary Ellen Swanson - Staff Assistant
Hello from Pennington
County!
We would like to thank Tony
and all involved with the 2010 conference. It was very educational and we all
had a good time.
There is not a lot of news
going on in our office at this time. Some of the staff are on vacation, some are
preparing for OHE and some of us working on building permits. As of the end of
May, our permit numbers were up a little from the same time last year. In the
county we have 268 in 2010 up from 204 in 2009 and in the city 252 for 2010 up
from 247 in 2009.
For the staff working on
their OHE appeals, I am sure they will be glad when they are over and all the
judges uphold our values.
We look forward to seeing
everyone at school in September. Keep safe and enjoy the rest of the summer.
Summer Cookout
The Pennington County DOE staff enjoyed a lunchtime cookout
Friday, July 23rd. We each brought what we wanted for meat and a dish to share.
We had plenty of food.
Shannon (the Boss) grilling up our hot dogs, hamburgers,
chicken and pork chops.
We had quite a variety of salads along with yummy deserts.
Gordon making sure Shannon gets his pork chop done just
right.
Enjoying the food.
A diet doesn't stand a chance in this office!!!!
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