Clarksburg Homeowners May See Drop in Tax Bill
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town's tax rate is going up but some homeowners may see a drop in their actual tax bill.
The Select Board on Wednesday night approved a fiscal 2016 property tax rate of $14.27 per $1,000 valuation, up 17 cents, or barely 1 percent, over last year.
But the town's evaluation has dropped, so the total tax bill for most homeowners will actually be lower.
"On the average single-family home, that is assessed at $155,119, you would actually see a reduction in the total yearly tax bill of $152," Town Assessor Ross Vivori told the board.
The town's total valuation has dropped $8.8 million over last year, the result of slow home sales and the recent completion of the mandated recertification of property values.
Vivori, also chief assessor for North Adams, said the city's values had also dropped, though not as much, and that Williamstown and Adams are seeing similar reductions.
"I think you will see that in Berkshire County communities, the sales aren't there," he said. "It's not specific to Clarksburg. ... When they talk about a bump in real estate, that's nationally; locally we haven't seen that bump up in the real estate market."
The town did, however, see about $1 million in new growth, mostly from residential construction and personal property.
The total tax levy for Clarksburg is $1.6 million, down about $100,000 from last fiscal year.
Town Administrator Carl McKinney also informed that board that the town had received approval from Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to avoid rebidding the Gates Avenue bridge project.
The town finally got a waiver two weeks ago from the state Department of Environmental Protection on having to use an open-bottom culvert to replace the failing span. The project had nearly quintupled in price from its original cost when DEP stepped in to mandate the use of the expensive culvert to ensure passage of the small fish population in Wheeler Brook.
McKinney lobbied aggressively both as a selectman and later as town administrator over the past three years to sway DEP's opinion, writing letters to numerous state officials.
The town has gone through four bidding processes over three years attempting to find a price it could manage. The last bid it accepted was $439,545, some $50,000 over the funds it had been able to pull together.
The Select Board declared a state of emergency for the bridge that will allow the town to request new bids as change orders from those companies that proffered bids in the last round. McKinney said the hope is that the project can be done as soon as possible.
The board also approved the use of the Senior Center for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which is selling its post home on River Road. Edward Denault said the VFW wanted to use the center once a month for its meetings, and again on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The post has about 83 members but fewer than dozen usually attend meetings.
Lily Kuzia and Shirley Therrien of the Council on Aging said they didn't think the meetings were an issue, but were concerned about maintenance and the post's monthly pancake breakfasts, saying the center wasn't child proof and had a small kitchen.
Denault said the breakfast wasn't a "deal breaker," but Select Board member William Schrade pointed out they were an important event that brings townspeople together as well as raises funds for community efforts.
"We can't fully take that off the table," he said. "When people talk abut the VFW, they talk about the pancake breakfasts."
Chairman Jeffrey Levanos agreed.
"It should be a shared facility and used by the veterans as well as the seniors," he said. "We don't limit the seniors, why would we limit the veterans?"
The veterans and COA members agreed to hash out responsibilities, and repaired to the hallway to do so.
Tags: bridge project, culvert, fiscal 2016, property taxes, VFW,
