The log cabin Democrat. [volume] (Conway, Ark.) 1908-current, 1912-09-19
WATER BENEFITS
ARE RfADJUSTED
NO COMPLAINT IS FILED
NEW LAW ENABLES ASSESSORS
TO GRANT RELIEF TO MANY
OF THE TAX PAYERS.

flee of City Recorder Opie Hartje for
the required ten days and no appeal
to the city council having been taken,
the assessment of Waterworks Dis
trlct of Conway, as readjusted by the
board of assessors, will stand without
change for another year. Changes
were made in the benefits assessed
against several hundred parcels of
property in the district, but no COM
plant against the action of the as
SCISSORS was registered by any proper
ty owner.
Until the passage of law by the
general assembly of 1912 it was i'm
possible to make any change in the
annual benefits collected from any
piece of property within an improve
ment district. During the time with
in which Il district was paying out the
value of lot might be greatly en-
HANGED or decreased by reason of i'm
provements or destruction by fire, yet
the owner of the property had to con-
tinue to pay the same annual benefits
as provided in the original assess
ment.
The new law referred to enables the
board of assessors to meet annually
and re-adjust the assessment. No in
creases may be maze in the tax on
amy piece of property except by rea-
son of Improvement placed thereon,
but the gain thus obtained may be APP
Piled to the reduction of assessments
against property whose value has de-
creased as well as to any other prop
Ierty which in the opinion of the board
was originally assessed too high, and
appeals from the action of the assess
ors may be taken to the city council,
the same as when the district is orig
inally organized.
In arriving at a plan of assessment
for the local waterworks district, the
board of assessore, which is composed
of J. ii. Hartje, J. II. Bailey and w. b.
Wilson, first estimated what in their
opinion was the actual cash value of
each parcel of real estate in the city.
The property was then divided into
classes in accordance with its proX-
unity to the waterworks mains, pro-
lection from fire, etc. Under the first
assessment the classi ificatio was as
follows: business property, residence
property adjacent to mains, residence
property not adjacent to mains but
protected by fire hydrants, unimproy-
ed or vacant property adjacent to
mains, and outlying property not ad-
jacent to mains or protected from fire,
these classes being denominated re-
spectively a." "B," &C." "D" and
e"
The total amount of benefits assess
ed against the property was fixed by
the assessors at the following percen-
tages of the boards estimate of the
cash value of the property: Glass A,
S% per cent; class b, tx per cent;
l-lO per cent; class +, 6 l-2 per
cent. The benefits thus assessed
aggregated total of $l15,8S5.79. In
order to retire the bonds and pay the
interest, however, it was found that
it would be necessary to collect only
83 per cent of the total benefits thus
assessed, and the council ordered that
z AS per cent of the total benefits be
collected annually for period of II
years.
In readjusting the assessments this
year, the board found increases in the
value of real estate in district by rea-
son of improvements aggregating
S92,7l0 and decreases by reason of
destruction by fire and errors aggre-
eating $lS,950, making net increase
in the valuation of the real estate in
the district of S73,760 The gain on
account of improvements permitted a
large amount of reduction in benefits,
and the board decided to make
change in the classification of prop
erty. Church and college property,
which had previously taken the same
rate as private property, was placed
in a separate class and given the
same rate as had been charged against
outlying property, which is 1-2 per
cent of the estimated cash value. The
assessments against the outlying
property inaccessible to water service
was reduced from 6 l2 per cent to
4 l-2 per cent, thus forming new
class, denominated "F."
After granting this substantial re-
duction in the assessments against
school and church property and out
lying property and also granting
many petitions for decreases by indi-
viduals, there is still net gain in the
total benefits assessed of $2,9S359.
This will cause an increase in the fu-
ture collections of sufficient amount
it is believed, to retire the bond issue
at least one year earlier than antic-
iDatcd