BETHLEHEM — This month, the Town of Bethlehem will begin re-collecting residential property data to ensure that the data used for purposes of tax valuation, which has not been re-evaluated since the early ’90s, is accurate.
According to the town, a letter will be mailed to residential property owners where the data collection will take place to announce and describe the project, and to provide a telephone number to call for information. In addition, the town website will be updated with appraiser GAR Associates data collector locations on a regular basis, to provide advance notice of what neighborhoods the collectors will be in.
Data collectors will be starting in North Bethlehem in December, weather permitting. The Bethlehem Police Department, as well as the Assessment Office and the Town Clerk’s office, will have a list of authorized data collectors with vehicle identification and all GAR staff will wear clearly visible photo identification at all times.
GAR Associates will also give property owners the ability to receive a call prior to the exterior on-site inspection of their property. Typically this call will occur a couple of days before the inspection and will give the property owner a general window of time in which the inspection will occur. Homeowners can expect GAR collectors to knock on the door, have a brief conversation with the property owner, if available, and proceed to collect parcel inventory from the property’s exterior — unless the property owner has called in advance to identify it as a Do Not Enter property. GAR’s data collector will take a new photo, measure the house and all other structures and, at the conclusion of data collection, correspondence will be sent to property owners allowing them to review and make corrections identifying data discrepancies. A toll free number will be available to property owners throughout the project to obtain information, and the town’s website will be updated weekly.
GAR, which was already under contract to do assessment work for the town and the only respondent to a Request for Proposals issued by the town for this project, is expected to complete the revaluation over four years in four regional phases, beginning in North Bethlehem, followed by Old Delmar, Glenmont and, finally, South Bethlehem/Ravena/Coeymans/Selkirk.
Residential Data Improvement Recollection Process
1. Initial Mailing/Press Release/Website Update
- GAR Associates, LLC will be performing the data collection.
- A letter will be mailed to residential property owners in the areas/neighborhoods where the data collection will take place, to announce and describe the project.
- GAR Associates employees will NOT be entering homes or asking to inspect home interiors as they visit neighborhoods to recollect data.
- If a homeowner does not want GAR data collectors to come on their property, the initial letter will instruct them to call a dedicated toll free number, within a given time period, to identify their property as a “DO NOT ENTER” or (DNE). GAR data collectors will not perform exterior on-site inspections on these properties. All property inventory for DNEs will be collected from the Public ROW (Right of Way), via satellite imagery and Town records.
- Call First: GAR Associates will give property owners the ability to receive a call first prior to the EXTERIOR ON-SITE inspection of their property. Typically this call will occur a couple days before and will give the property owner a general time window for the inspection time.
- The Town website will be updated with GAR data collector’s locations on a regular basis, to provide advance notice of what neighborhoods the data collectors will be in.
- Bethlehem Police as well as the Assessment Office and the Town Clerk’s office will have a list of authorized data collectors with vehicle identification.
2. Site Inspection
- GAR Associates will not be performing interior inspections during the initial phase of data collection. If homeowners request an interior inspection during the initial site visit, the property owner will be contacted at a later date to schedule the interior inspection. After data collection is complete, the Assessor may request GAR to perform an interior inspection. Property owners will then be notified of the request for an interior inspection and if authorized by the homeowner, GAR or the Assessor’s Office will make an appointment for GAR to perform the inspection.
- All GAR staff will wear clearly visible photo identification at all times.
- GAR collectors will knock on the door, have a brief conversation with the property owner and proceed to collect parcel inventory from the exterior. If after the GAR collector knocks on the door and it is established the homeowner is not home, GAR will collect the parcel inventory from the exterior, unless the property owner has called in advance to identify as a DNE property.
- All parcel inventory will be maintained on a PRC (Property Record Card). The procedures and methodology to collecting physical inventory will be established prior to field collection site visits.
- A new photo and an updated sketch of the property will be completed.
- GAR will utilize a tape measure, measuring wheel or laser measuring device to take measurements.
3. Quality Control/RPS (Real Property System)
- All parcel inventory collected will be subject to GAR quality control measures.
- Parcel inventory will be entered into RPS, the Town’s assessment database.
- All new photos and updated digital sketches will be attached to RPS.
4. Public Inventory Verification
- At the conclusion of data collection correspondence will be sent to property owners allowing them to view and make corrections identifying data discrepancies. As with the onset of the project, and throughout the project, a toll free number will be available to property owners to obtain information.
- GAR and Town Assessment Staff will review any property owner discrepancies and make necessary and appropriate changes to property inventory accordingly. As a result of the property owner review, interior inspection requests from the Town Assessor may be sent to the property owner at this time on as needed basis, with GAR coordinating these interior inspections authorized by the property owner.
