Andy Close
WARREN, Pa. – Warren County is assigning a company for property reassessment that has drawn strong reviews for similar work in both Clarion and Tioga counties.
Vision Government Solutions will be tasked with conducting data collection through exterior inspections and the use of street-level imagery via Desktop Review.
Warren County hasn’t undergone a property reassessment since 1989, and the goal is to finalize the reassessment by 2024.
“When I first started studying reassessment, I was uncertain if it was necessary,” said Commissioner Ben Kafferlin. “We all know that it would be a good thing, the question was whether it was worth the cost to spend $2 million for reassessment. We know the good that would come out of it, namely that the properties would all be equal. In 2018 it became clearer and clearer that we couldn’t justify the assessed values we had.
“It’s time to do it, it needs to be done, and we have set aside money to do it. We would do a disservice to our community by not doing it.”
For more information on how reassessment works, click here.
Warren County solicitor Nathaniel Schmidt said there were two companies that made presentations to conduct the reassessment, Vision and Tyler Technologies.
“The reassessment process is pretty expansive as far as the scope of the project,” Schmidt said. “The biggest criteria we looked at was the ability to accomplish this in a timely basis. Vision is already implementing reassessment with boots on the ground in Clarion County.
“It’s an ambitious timeline that we set forward. Also, Vision presented a package that had a good public relations concept. We think it’s really important that the public understands what each step is going to entail. We looked at what Vision has implemented in Clarion and Tioga counties and that was impressive. Our due diligence did involve reports expressing satisfaction with how that is going so far.”
It was noted that Tyler offered a slightly lower bid, but overall the confidence was there with Vision.
“The cost was less than one percent difference, so we didn’t see that as a major factor,” Schmidt said.
That was a sentiment echoed by the commissioners as well.
“I was impressed with Vision and their ability to work with the county employees as we take up this venture,” said Commissioner Tricia Durbin. “From every angle, it’s very clear.”
