Williston
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Permit #15 Williston,VT 05495 POSTAL CUSTOMER
JANUARY 5, 2023
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
Townwide property reappraisal likely to begin BY JASON STARR Observer staff
A reappraisal of all private property in Williston is likely to be initiated in 2023. Townwide reappraisals are undertaken periodically to true-up the market value of homes and businesses with the value at which the town assesses them for property tax revenue. They are triggered by state statute when a town’s ratio of market value to assessed value — expressed as the town’s “common level of appraisal” (CLA) — gets too low. Any CLA below 85 percent triggers a mandatory reappraisal. A Dec. 23 memo from the Vermont office of Property Valuation and Review lists Williston’s CLA at 77 percent. Assessor Bill Hinman has already secured a contractor to complete the reappraisal. The last townwide reappraisal was completed in 2016. Last year, the town’s CLA was just below the 85 percent threshold, but the selectboard won an appeal that bumped the ratio back over 85 percent, putting off the reappraisal. The selectboard has until the end of January to file an appeal to this year’s CLA. But Hinman seems ready to move forward with the reappraisal, which he will oversee. In a Dec. 30. memo to the selectboard, he said he has secured the ser-
vices of Russ Beaudoin of Connecticut-based Appraisal Resource Group to complete the reappraisal. The reappraisal could take as long as two years to complete, according to Town Manager Erik Wells. It will result in a new taxable value for all Williston properties. Property owners have the right to appeal their new valuations. Nearly every Vermont municipality that has not completed a reappraisal in the past two years will be required to in the coming few years, according to Hinman — a result of housing price increases seen since 2020. “We are aware that many towns are concerned about the change in the market due to the effects of Covid-19 over the past few years,” Jill Remick, director of the office of Property Valuation and Review, wrote in the Dec. 23 memo. “Sales have increased generally in price and some towns have seen this more than others … As a result, there are more towns experiencing large drops in their CLA. There will be many more reappraisal orders going out to towns than in a typical year.” Remick’s memo lists Williston’s Grand List — the total taxable value of private property in town —at $2.1 billion. The state’s estimate of the total market value of Williston property is roughly $600 million more.
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One in a million view in vermilion Mother Nature seems to empty all of the colors left in her 2022 color palette to dramatically paint the morning skies Dec. 29. OBSERVER PHOTO BY SUSAN COTE
Williston dispatch consolidates with Essex
BY JASON STARR Observer staff Starting this month, calls to the Williston Police Department will be picked up in Essex under a 2.5-year joint operating agreement recently approved by the selectboards in both towns. Williston has long needed help operating a 24-7 dispatch center and, until last year, had relied on the Vermont State Police to cover some overnight hours when Williston didn’t have a dispatcher avail-
able. But, citing a staffing shortage, the state police stopped filling in last year. That prompted Williston Police Chief Patrick Foley and Lt. Josh Moore to look to neighboring Essex, whose headquarters is within a half-mile of the Williston town line, for help. The Essex Police dispatch center began picking up calls for Williston starting last summer during the same overnight hours that the state police had been covering — Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. The new agreement merges the two dispatch centers entirely, bringing Willis-
ton’s three dispatchers to Essex to create 24-7 coverage with Essex’s four dispatchers. The agreement runs through the middle of 2025. According to Lt. Moore, people calling the Williston Police Department won’t notice any change. Dispatchers in Essex will handle calls the same way they would if they answered them in Williston, with the ability to route calls to Williston personnel. Dispatchers in Essex will also have access to video from newly installed security cameras at the Williston Police
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Department and the ability to unlock doors remotely, Moore said. But the absence of dispatch in Williston will be noticeable for those walking into Williston police headquarters on Williston Road; dispatchers will no longer be there to greet them. Foley said the department will have someone available to handle walk-ins during normal business hours — Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. After hours, people can call the Essex see DISPATCH page 13
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