Appraisal previews planned

By D.A. WILKINSON

wilkinson@vindy.com

LISBON

Property owners will have a chance to see what may be their new tax bills.

Columbiana County Auditor Nancy Milliken and her staff will be having a series of informal hearings around the county starting Sept. 13 at the courthouse at which property owners can learn their new, preliminary property valuatons.

Once the hearings start, people can also go to the county auditor’s office to see the valuations, established by the recently completed 2010 countywide property reappraisal.

The county hired John G. Cleminshaw Inc. of Hudson to do the appraisal, which is required every six years under Ohio law.

The hearings also give property owners the opportunity to protest their potential bills or point out inaccuracies.

Milliken said, “If the appraisal says the house has three bathrooms, but it only has one, appraisers will come out and check it.”

Any similar problems will be corrected.

People now can go to the county’s website and look at information on properties.

But the proposed new values are in a separate system because they are only proposed figures.

John Goemple, the deputy auditor, said that people who go to the hearings to check the proposed appraisal of their property can’t look up the appraisals of other properties.

That will prevent comparisons before the figures are final.

The final evaluations will be set by the state tax commissioner, Milliken said.

The state will release the new valuations in late October or early November.

Any requests for reductions will be handled by the county’s board of revision after the new property taxes go into effect Jan. 1.