Around the Borough

James Rada Jr.
News Correspondent

(12/2010) Still concerned about the large jumps in value with reassessments, Carroll Valley residents continue to voice their concerns about the future of their properties. The council and mayor urged citizens to appeal their assessments, though those who did appeal saw little improvement.

The borough has no say over the reassessment values or the appeals process. In fact, they had to appeal the value of nearly 100 taxable properties owned by the borough to make them tax exempt or face about $70,000 more in taxes. The Adams County Commissioners conditionally approved the properties as tax-exempt at the beginning of November.

Councilman Neal Abrams went through the process of appealing his property reassessment and found it unfavorable. "We now have to prove ourselves innocent," he said.

Freedom Township has sued the county over the reassessments, but Councilman Frank Buhrman said, "It doesn’t have a prayer" for being successful.

Tax rate remains the same

Despite the increasing concern of reassessments increasing taxes, Carroll Valley Borough Council approved to keep the borough tax rate at 8 mils on Nov. 9. If the value of a property is shown to have increased, however, residents may still see a tax increase.

New police officer approved

The Carroll Valley Borough Council voted to offer Dustin Miller a position as a Carroll Valley police officer upon the recommendation of Police Chief Richard Hileman, III. The position’s starting pay is $40,500 and Miller will need to relocate to Carroll Valley within six months.

The council also voted to promote Det. Cliff Weikert to corporal. Borough Manager Dave Hazlett voiced some concern with this action because he has been advising non-uniformed employees to make sacrifices to get through the tough economic times. As a result of the council’s action, he said he would be referring the name of an employee who deserves a promotion into an unfilled position within the borough.