Former Beaver assessor returns to help correct errors

BEAVER – Errors in the Town of Beaver’s property assessments – caught this summer by a former assessor who was replaced – have been corrected, the town chairperson said Thursday.

The Town Board is expected to sign off on the assessment roll at the Sept. 17 Board of Review meeting. The meeting was postponed from July 23 to address a controversy over the way some improved property was assessed.  

“It’s all straightened away, and everything is in place,” said Town Chairperson Dave Bedora. 

Jerry Pillath, the Town of Beaver’s former assessor, said he brought forth the assessment issues after his neighbors called him about the way their agricultural land was assessed. This issue prompted him to look at how improved properties in the town were assessed, too.

“The first error was the over assessment of the agricultural property. Several neighbors called and asked about it. I went to the first Open Book meeting. While we were there, we looked at other buildings that had been constructed and found there was no value for those buildings at all,” Pillath said, which was an error.

Pillath, 77, said he assessed property in the Town of Beaver for 41 years and was replaced by a new assessor after bringing a concern about tree removal on a bypass road to the Town Board’s attention and supporting other candidates in the April 2023 election for Town Board chair and supervisors. The incumbents retained their seats.

Thomas Winters, 60, the current assessor, acknowledged he is new to assessing. He spent 35 years as a computer programmer before retiring from that occupation and becoming trained as an assessor, he said. 

“First of all, this is my first year ever of assessing. Yes, there were some errors made but they’ve all been corrected,” Winters told a reporter in a phone interview Friday morning.

Pillath said the errors resulted in an undervaluation of properties with recent improvements this year in Beaver. Town supervisors didn’t dispute this contention.

The Town of Beaver issued about 30 building permits in 2023, and most of the projects were completed by the end of the year, Winters said. 

While Pillath said Winters used a ratio “way less than 60 percent of what the market value is” and a “wrong method” of assessing some properties, Winters said the issue wasn’t as black-and-white as Pillath suggested. Winters said he used 56.3% to compute the assessed value of properties, which is the correct ratio.

At the July 9 Open Book meeting, Pillath said he met the new assessor and explained the proper method of assessing farmland. “Yes, he was there,” Winters confirmed for a reporter. “He did point out some errors but that’s all been corrected,” he said.

 At a second Open Book meeting a couple of weeks later, Pillath said he discovered inequalities from underassessed properties. “It wasn’t fair to the other property owners,” Pillath said. 

Pillath said the new assessor’s first attempt at the 2023 property roll left off a couple of new houses at 4246 1st Rd. and N5395 County S Rd., despite building permits on the properties. Other improved properties were under assessed, such as a farm expansion at N4304 3rd Rd. with permits valued at $12.2 million that was assessed at about $1.36 million, Pillath said. 

For improved properties, the estimated costs aren’t always the actual costs of improvement, Winters said. “One thing you got to realize, what a person puts down as an estimated cost on a building permit isn’t always what it is,” Winters said. He uses a software model to help determine an estimated value, but he also does his own research by talking to the property owners, he said.

“You can drive by a new home, or you go out and visit and look at the property and ask the owner questions,” Winters said. Among the questions he asks are, how big is the house in square feet and number of rooms?

The problems have been corrected, Bedora said. “He did some errors because he’s a brand new guy on the block,” Bedora said of the new assessor. 

An underassessment could result in the town receiving less money from the state of Wisconsin, said Town Supervisor Jerome Fendryk. 

Town of Beaver residents with questions or concerns about their property assessments should request an Open Book appointment with Winters soon, Fendryk said. Winters of TLW Assessor LLC can be reached at (920) 360-4391. If an issue isn’t resolved during an Open Book appointment, the Town Board will hear the complaint at its Board of Review meeting and act as a jury, Fendryk said.

“The Town Board is the judge, and we either agree with the person who owns the property or agree with the assessor’s assessment,” Bedora said. 

Winters said he doesn’t expect to receive more phone calls from property owners at this point. “As far as I’m aware, I’m going with its all good. We’re accurate now,” said Winters, who is originally from Green Bay and moved to Marinette County in 2020. For now, the Town of Beaver is the only area Winters is assessing. “I just wanted one to learn it,” he said.