The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1922-09-30
BEGINS 4ADJUDIC4TINC
TAXATION GRIEVANCES
Barre Board Of Civil Authority Starts
Work After Putting in -Four
Nights Of Hearing.

Nights OF nearing.
u The Barre board Of civil authorit.
held ito fourth session Of the weel
last night at the city court room fo
hearing grievances on quadrennia
appraisal. The hearing Of grievance
was soon disposed of as there wer,
only few left over from the previous
i evening. These were all presented b,
James Mackay, chairman Of the board
i Mr.. Mackay stepped down from tht
chair for the purpose and g. Herbert
Pape was elected temporary chairman
Mr.. Mackay presented the appeals ol
the Miles Coal GO. against $4,000
| appraisal on property located on
Smith street, which had been in the
| list at $5,450 and against $1,000 val
uation on property at 448 North Main
street, formerly listed ait $500.
Acting for the Buchan estate, he
asked for reduction on tenement
house at 20 Pleasant street, the quad
rennial appraisal and the former ap-
praisal being $1,000 Two personal
appeals were presented by Mr.. Mac
kay, being on his home property at 4
| Park street and tenement at Plain
4 street, the former having been raised
| from $4,000 to $4,000 and the latter
having been placed at 81 800, the same
as formerly.
After these cases had been presented
| the board started to set itself to the
arduous task Of adiudicating the APP
peals. Chairman Mackay made an
opening statement in which he ex-
pressed the view that it would be bet
ter for the board to take up discus
sion of the general question of in
creased property valuation and deter
mi,e what line Of action would be
followed and then get down to the
individual cases.
L. G. Beck stated that it was GO
ing to be q difficult task to get at
the merits Of the appeals by granite
civil authority had detailed specifca
tions from the assessors as to what
the various granite plants we're com
posed Of the size of the buildings,
their condition and their equipment.
He then called upon the assessors TO
furnish the detailed data concerning
each stoneshed.
This request the assessors were not
inclined to accede to, Mr.. Ballard
stating that they had valued the prop
critics to the best of their ability aft
er making personal inspection Of
each, measuring each plant, noting the
equipment in each and viewing the
physical condition of each, the asses
sors adding that after they had done
this ii was up to the board of civil au
thority to determine the merits of the
appraissls.
Mayor Shield. a member of the
board OF civil authority, thought the
board would be working very much in
the dark to attempt to adjudicate the
grievances unless they had some spe-
to go by. and he asked if
the assessors would not inform the |
board BY word Of mouth concerning |
the indivsdual eases. This request, |
too, met no responsive chord from the |
assessors.
At this point in the proceedings, /
City Clerk James Smart, also mem
Der of the board, stated that the four
nights' sessions this week until 10
o'clock each night had brought the
members into state bordering on ir
ritability and that they would s"go OF"
It some really trivial matter and he
thought they could settle the issues
,etter by adjourning over to early |
next week
Desirability of adjourning before
iaking up the individual cases gained
avor among the board members. so
.hey decided to go into an executive
session. beforehand in order TO dis
uss the general phases Of the situa
ion.
Before being shoo-ed out of tln
oom, however. the assessors asked
cave to present a prepared statement
m their stand in the matter of the
The board received
he statement, as read by Mr..
,allard and supplemented by Mr..
AYERS. In the statement the as
essors declared that they had honest
v striven to apprsise the properties
4 the city fairly. that they did not
lain they were infallible and that
hey had made some errors, which had
cen corrected. The results OF the (,
rork they turned over to the city ,
rith the hope that the assessors would
e "backed up
The assessors statement went at 7
ONE length into the matter of stone
he'd assessment and the assessors de-
Jared that If the board of civil au 7
hority saw fit to reduce the apprais n
Is on any Of the stonesheds they !,
nght to reduce the appraisals on all,
a percentage basis.
This statement brought forth from !
embers of the board of civil author J
v the query whether the assessors b
cant by "all" the stonesheds those
hich had not put in appeals, the !;
me as those that had. The asses
RS then amended their statement to :,
clude merely those that had entered
,pesls.
The board will take up the appeals y