Knock, Knock: The Assessor Is At Your Door
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
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If you find a strange man or woman at your door in the next six months, don’t assume he or she is a solicitor or a scammer. Beginning in June, tax assessors will be combing the village and knocking on doors to ask permission from homeowners to enter their homes for an assessment.
The first step in the village-wide revaluation is a physical inspection of all properties, and the process will extend from June 2012 to December 2012. Assessors will stop by your house twice to see if they can find someone at home. Once inside, they will measure the interior and evaluate the quality and condition of the home. According to John J. Valente of Tyler Techonologies, the company that has been retained by the village to do the work, assessors are not concerned about your dog, whether or not the house is clean or beds are made. The visit should take 15-20 minutes. If the assessor cannot get in after two attempts, they will send you a letter to schedule an appointment.
After the physical data collection, Tyler Technologies will use additional data to assess the value of your home. They will look at digital images taken from the street, consider recent comparable sales, make an assessment of the neighborhood and develop a valuation model using mathematical techniques.
And what if you decide not to let the assessor in? Will that help or hurt your assessment? According to Valente, if the assessor is not given access, the company will evaluate the house based on the exterior appearance. If the home appears to be in good condition, they will assume it has a full finished basement and give it an “A” rating. So it probably would behoove you to let the company do their work. Assessors will be carrying identification, so if you are skeptical, ask to see their paperwork before letting them in.
In order to inform everyone about the revaluation process, the company will be meeting with village organizations, issuing press releases and posting information online. From similar work in other towns, Tyler expects to gain entry to 75% of homes, though in Bronxville, 93% of homes were inspected.
Since the village sets the total tax levy, the reassessment will not change how much is collected in total. Rather, the reassessment will change the apportionment of the collection. Current thinking is that following the reassessment one third of homeowners will see their taxes go up, one third will have a decrease and one third will remain the same.
And, if a homeowner is unhappy with their reassessment, what is the process? There will be informal hearings and a grievance day where homeowners can come to Village Hall and state their case. Tyler also estimates that following the process, 10% of Scarsdale taxpayers will file formal tax grievances.
If all goes as planned, the new tax rates will go into effect for the 2014-15 tax roll.
For more information, visit http://www.reassessment.scarsdale.com or email Project Director John J. Valente at reassessment@scarsdale.com.
Art Festival in Scarsdale this Weekend
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The Westchester Festival of the Arts returns to Scarsdale for the third year, this weekend May 19th and May 20th. Painters, sculptors, photographers, jewelers, and other talented artisans will display and sell their work on Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm and on Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. This year the work will be shown on Chase Road and admission is free. The Scarsdale Chamber of Commerce is hosting the show. For more information, visit www.Paragonartevents.com/scarsdale.
Carnival Time at Scarsdale Elementary Schools on Saturday
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It’s carnival time at all five elementary schools in Scarsdale this Saturday. Here is some information we received from a few of the schools about what to expect.
At Heathcote, the theme of the 2012 carnival is Camp Heathcote, and kids can enjoy a day at summer camp right in their own backyard from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Play spirit games, make and eat smores, drink slushies, and make keychains and friendship bracelets.There will be cool rides, a photo booth, amazing raffles and fun carnival games with prizes, and Heathcote’s very own phys. ed. teacher, Mark Goldberg will be rocking and karaoke-ing! Plus students are invited to dunk their favorite teachers in a real dunk tank.
Admission is $25 per child over three years old.
At Greenacres, the theme is Candy-Acres and kids will find rides, bounces, raffles, a talent show, arts and crafts, face painting, a bake sale, popcorn, cotton candy, games, prizes and lots of fun and of course candy! Hours are also 11 am to 3 pm. Tickets are $20 in advance and $24 on the day of the carnival.
At Fox Meadow this year’s theme is the Olympics and Quaker Ridge will feature Sports.
Keep your fingers crossed for good weather and email photos of the day to Scarsdalecomments@gmail.com for posting.
Thank you to Heathcote's Debbie Singer for supplying the information above.
Carnival Fun at Scarsdale's Elementary Schools
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Saturday May 12 was the perfect day for a carnival, and all five elementary school events were a success. The warm, sunny day brought out the entire community to enjoy games, activities and good food.
At Edgewood there were rides, games, crafts, a bake sale, boutique, a flea market, a plant sale, face painting, and an amazing array of food.! In the slide show below see kids enjoying the fishing challenge, a girl buying a hand-made for her mom for Mother's Day at the boutique, parent volunteers cooking up a barbeque at the fair and fifth graders eating away at the annual pie eating contest.
At Greenacres, the theme was Candyland and there was plenty to go around. There was also a four-hour talent show and kids of all ages took the stage to perform. Check out photos of these young artists as well as a mom spinning cotton candy, large inflatables and the bake sale.
Fox Meadow held the Olympics. Take a look at the photo of their version of the “Olympic village.” We stopped by at just the right moment to witness Principal Duncan Wilson get dunked! See his photo as he comes up for air, as well as pictures of Fox Meadow PTA President Pam Rubin, an impressive climbing wall and large inflatables.
Camp Heathcote also featured a dunk tank and there were smiles all around with happy face balloons, a photo booth, handmade key chains and friendship bracelets, and slushies and s’mores to eat.
Congratulation to all the elementary school PTA parents who produced the carnivals on a job well done.
Photos contributed by Sunny Feinstein, Tracy McCarthy and Joanne Wallenstein
All Things Green at Sustainable Scarsdale Day
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All aspects of green living and sustainability were on display at Sustainable Scarsdale Day on Saturday May 5. There were electric cars, ecologically responsible home products, new technologies to power your home, gardens to grow your own and more.
Here are just a few of the activities that took place at the event, which was sponsored by the Scarsdale Forum, Scarsdale Village and the Scarsdale Schools:
Tours of the Middle School vegetable garden were given by teachers Cara Forray and Meredith Rivellini and Kaleidoscope Garden Design. The garden is tended by students in all grades who dig, plant, water and weed to cultivate their crops.
From the high school, vegetables and plants were on sale, and for each plant purchased, another was donated to the large garden on the Post Road side of Scarsdale High School.
Annabelle Stanley of the Scarsdale-Edgemont Girl Scouts held a bake sale to raise funds to install a large sustainable border of native perennials and shrubs around the pond at the Scarsdale library. These plants will help to control flooding and will attract butterflies and dragon flies. The planting plan was drawn by landscape designer Beverly Isis. To fund the project, Stanley received a grant from the Scarsdale Friends of the Parks and raised the rest. She will receive a Silver Award for the project. Planting will take place this Saturday May 12 at Scarsdale Library Pond and volunteers are needed.
As part of the new Love ‘Em and Leave “Em leaf mulching initiative, landscaper Anthony Vulpone demonstrated how leaves could be mulched or ground in place, and returned to the lawn to feed it. In just a few minutes, a mountain of leaves was shredded, and became compost, a rich organic resource for the ground.
Three electric cars, the Nissan Leaf hatchback, the Tesla Roadster and the Chevy Volt were on display to demonstrate how drivers could eliminate fuel use, tailpipe pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The Junior League of Central Westchester demonstrated their efforts to organize volunteers to clean-up debris and invasive vines along the Bronx River.
Eva from the Green Design Expo on Central Avenue displayed an array of sustainable building materials for the home and shared a sample of an earth friendly all surface cleaner made with parsley.
Lunch was provided by Lange’s as well as Andy’s Pure Food who supplied an impressive array of veggie dishes including kale salad, roasted butternut squash and quinoa.
And Middle School students who were part of the One Million Bones club demonstrated how they were making “bones” out of toilet paper and art paste that will be sent to the mall in Washington D.C. to represent those who died in genocides in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Funds from this initiative will be used to build schools in these countries in an effort to educate children and create a sustainable economy.
Pictured here are Hannah Fuehrer, Sabrina Knaack and Sarah Kurien. Nakul Srinivas and James Xu are also involved in the effort. Learn more at onemillionbones.org .
The day ended with a joyful concert by Tom Chapin and friends who sang “whole grain” songs from their album “Give Peas A Chance”, about locally grown foods, gardening, recycling and the food chain. Clever lyrics such as “a berry shipped from Chile,” and ”buy your food from a local dude,” kept everyone in the audience from toddlers to grandparents amused.