LAWRENCE COUNTY Property notices to be re-sent

Some notices ended up in Hamburg, Pa., because of a computer software glitch.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County residents who didn't receive notice of their preliminary fair-market property values should get them sometime next week.
County officials estimate 1,700 of the 53,000 letters sent to property owners in Lawrence County didn't make it to their destinations.
Manatron Sabre Systems, the Miamisburg, Ohio, company handling countywide reassessment, was in charge of sending out the notification letters.
Steve Raffa, Sabre's local manager in charge of reassessment, said the problems were caused by computer errors by a company Sabre hired to print and mail the notices.
What went wrong: Charleen Micco, chief county administrator, explained that in some cases the county provided variations of spellings for mailing addresses which the printer's computer system did not recognize.
Edinburg was misspelled as Edenburg in some county records and the computer system used by the printer sent those notices to Hamburg, Pa., because it found similar street names in that area.
Micco said other notices were returned to the county because the property owners had moved and there was no forwarding address.
The county administrator said the notices will be returned to Sabre Systems and likely re-sent by next week.
Extension: County commissioners said Tuesday they intend to ask Sabre Systems to extend the 10-day time limit for people to make appointments for informal appeal hearings. Sabre officials initially said they would take calls for appointments only through March 13.
Sabre officials plan to conduct appeal hearings through April 12.