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JERALD P.
SEIDEL, CAA
Well, here it is, almost the end of
July. I decided that I would take this last opportunity to write some news for
our county. I think that there is a major event happening in my life soon but
when one gets to the advanced age that I am it is so hard to remember!
I would like to thank Darlene and all of
those who helped put on the conference. I hope it isn’t the last one that I
make it to but it will be one of the most memorable for me.
Things are winding down here for me. I
am helping with the transition as best as I can. For those of you who haven’t
heard, Shirley has been appointed to take my place as of August 1st
and Rick will be her deputy. I am sure they will do a good job for Lake
County. It will just take some time to get used to the idea that they are now
in charge.
We are still busy. Sales have slowed
but we aren’t seeing a drop in selling prices yet. There are fewer new houses
here in Madison City but last year was an exception. We are still seeing
construction around Lake Madison and the Lakes Golf Course where we have an
eleven unit condo and two four-unit condos being built. Hmm! Maybe that green
stuff in the water is money and not algae!
Our ag land is still as hot as ever,
with two sales of $5,000 per acre (159 acres and 250 acres). We do have several
large steel grain bins being erected, guess that just goes with the price of
commodities and the crops do look good even though we had a long cold spring.
The rains we had last week have sure perked up the corn and beans.
Our boards were pretty quiet again this
year. We had a total of eight to local boards of which two were reviewed and
had recommendations by our office. Two had changes that we decided not to
appeal to the county board. We had three appeals at the county board level. I
made a recommendation on one and the board denied the other two, one of which
appealed to OHE. We received the decision last Friday and we won our case so
hopefully things are done for another year. I was quite relieved at the
decision since the main argument was that since nothing in Madison City had sold
for more than $250,000, nothing should be assessed for more than $250,000.
It will be interesting to see what
eventually happens with the productivity method of valuing ag land. I am glad
that I will no longer be responsible for trying to explain how values are
calculated. I am sure it will feel quite different, especially to those who
have been in the office for a while to say the value is based on production
rather than sales but just remember, the numbers will be just as representative
of market as what our numbers are now.
Well, here is wishing the best for each
and every one of you that will be serving in the Equalization offices across the
state. I do plan to keep in touch and am planning to see many of you next year
in Watertown.
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