Upper Township Committee Deals with Property Revaluation Queries; Beach Vandalism

PETERSBURG – Upper Township Committee met July 27 and recognized a number of groups through resolutions and making presentations. The perennial question, “Will the current beach replenishment have its intended effect?” was addressed along with fallout of the township’s recent property assessment initiative.
Latest Property Assessment Exercise
Mayor Richard Palombo opened the discussion on the recent property assessments and associated tax rate reevaluations by noting a related issue that “among many questions, there is still a large question that most people have trouble with and that is that the township actually serves as a collection agency for the county, the school district, our own municipality and the fire district.”
Palombo said the municipal tax collector had prepared three slides which will be posted on the township’s website, one of which he exhibited. The slide showed that of any property tax collected, 15.23 percent goes to the county, 72 percent goes to the school district, 8.37 percent goes to the municipality and 4.43 percent goes to the fire district (in the example shown, this fire district was listed as Marmora).
“I know it is difficult for people to grasp that the township does function as essentially a collection agency but that is how the system works,” he explained.
A resident said his property of 90 acres had been reevaluated for tax purposes as having a value currently of $ 853,000, up from its old value of $ 600,000, even though the property had been on the market for sale at $500,000 with no interest from any buyers.
In answer to Solicitor Daniel Young’s query as to why he had not appealed, he said, “I was expecting the actual tax rate to decrease which would have made my overall tax to pay decrease as well. As it is, I now have to pay $ 16,000 in property tax up from $9,200. My opinion is that the assessors who carried out this latest evaluation are incompetent with no knowledge of the local market.”
In response, Young noted that this year’s assessor team was comprised of professionals from Wildwood and Ocean City so there was indeed local expertise and that while he could not go into specifics of individual situations it did sound like comparable ratables or “comps” might be difficult in this case.
Another property holder of a campground commented that the assessment of the land portion of her property had decreased from $ 1.475 million to $499,000, but that the value of improvements had increased from $1.842 million to $4.925 million.
“Even our industry association can’t understand this increase; it seems it’s based on really exorbitant prices being paid for campgrounds around here, some in the range of $25 million plus. As a result, we’re going to have to increase our rates and in this economy who knows what will happen and it will also affect our ability to keep employees?” she said. 
Young said when “The assessment results came in we were surprised to see the increases for the campgrounds, commercial also went up while overall residential went down. After October, more specifics will come out during any appeals.”
Beach Replenishment
Township Engineer Paul Dietrich reported that the replenishment undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers is finished as far as the township’s beaches are concerned.
The dredges will move to Sea Isle City where the work there will be ongoing until mid-autumn.
In response to the complaint by a Strathmere resident that the replenished areas are already exhibiting signs of erosion, Dietrich said the corps will do another survey before departing the area and finalizing the overall project.
At that time any erosion questions can be addressed. “We need to have this discussion sooner rather than later, we had to accept the project when offered since it was so huge and we couldn’t do it on our own, it’s state land on top of that, but we need to make sure it’s being done right, maybe we need to bring in NJDEP,” said Palombo.
Dietrich said he will get in touch with both the corps as well as DEP and report back on what he’s learned.
Vandalism on Strathmere Beach
In a related problem Palombo said that over the weekend of July 25-26, 15 to 18 poles that are to support beach fencing had been ripped out and used for a bonfire on primarily Sherman Avenue as well as on Willard Avenue in Strathmere.
“This really concerns me, there’s no fencing yet attached to these poles and that makes it easier to rip them out,” said Palombo. Dietrich said he will contact the contractor to better secure the area and materials.
Recognizing Performance
Committee passed resolutions honoring Boy Scout Troop 97 of the township and the Cape May County Sheriff’s Explorer Post 1692 for its assistance during the Fourth of July celebration. Committee also congratulated the township’s soccer association U-14 and U-12 teams for their champion seasons.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.