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Show 1 - 1 1 y , L-i ili Count' Assessor Kenneth Reach and Deputy Assessor Norma Stocks ,re finishing up the necessary work for next year's tax roll I is ieir duty to see that every piece of property in the CmLv appears on the rolls and is assessed. In addition, their office collects tlxes on personal property in the County. 5 laxts Assessor, Treasurer, Recorder Provide Important County Function: This is the second in i series of articles siting with the works's work-s's of County govern -rent as it now operates. is being done to nke the public more are of just w hat ram-iearions ram-iearions a change in the form of County government, if adopted, might have. The offices of County Assessor, Recorderand Treasurer work together, to-gether, although all have separate functions. Each of these offices has v V i K h fit' ( Km , ' " 5 x Eier Somerville, who has served as County Reorder for the past 20 years, is responsible br microfilming county records. Her duties in-tlude in-tlude recording of mining deeds, mortgages, keeping up County plats, and many others. ;, '. . X.' - S Treasurer Donna Loveridge is responsible Co n Electing taxes on all real property ir the Q- This time of year begins her busy season, Cvtr- notices, usually mailed by this time, ?terbeen held up by a conflict with the State Commission. - dealings with land descriptions de-scriptions and ownership owner-ship in the county. In the case of the Recorder, a position held by Esther Somerville Somer-ville for the past 20 years, deeds, mortgages, mort-gages, and other information infor-mation including boundaries boun-daries of property are recorded. These recordings recor-dings must be made if the other two offices are to run effectively. In addition, Mrs. Somerville is responsible respon-sible for recording mining claims, oil and gas leases, proofs of labor done on mining claims and recording of separation papers for young men released from the armed services. ser-vices. This last function func-tion is done by the county without charge in appreciation for the men having served their country. All other recordings re-cordings carry a small fee. Public Information All files in the Recorder's Re-corder's office are open to the public and those who have need of them should feel free to come in and search the records, Mrs. Somerville Somer-ville said. Since 1969, all such records have been microfilmed, prior to that time, such information in-formation was kept in large bound books now located in the safe of the office. The microfilming of documents is done in the Recorder's office and these films are then sent to the State Archives for processing. pro-cessing. After their return, re-turn, the Recorder is responsible for seeing that all original documents docu-ments are returned to their owner. Recording fees are turned over to the County Clerk twice each month for audit and receipt. All plats, which outline property boundaries bound-aries and ownership, are to be kept up to date in the Recorder's office and this information informa-tion is used by the office of-fice of the County Assessor As-sessor in determining a valuation of each piece of property in the county. From the plats in the Recorder's office, each piece of property in the county is put onto the tax rolls by the Assessor, Kenneth Beach. . Mr. Beach, a veteran of 11 years, is also responsible for assessing the value of personal property, such as cars, boats, trailers, campers and snowmobiles, snowmo-biles, in the county. Property Changes Although it would seem a simple matter to refer to the rolls of (Cont. on Page A3) Important County Functions . . . aMt. from Al) ,(S( car for infornu-('u,n infornu-('u,n ",m valuation of .vperty. other eon-sij,.r;ilions eon-sij,.r;ilions are made by Jj,,. ssessor. He chocks buiKti' permits each nlh to familiarize himself with "U im-piovomoiit im-piovomoiit work done on homes or businesses so it the additional valu-jtiiin valu-jtiiin can be taxed. He nuist also assess cattle and sheep in the county. In this case, some such inimals belong to ran-.hfrs ran-.hfrs in Colorado and cnlv range in I'tah for i part of the vear. The sheep owners are then jessed taxes for half of a year to allow for this 'change in range area. In addition, it becomes be-comes necessary in axins livestock, especially es-pecially sheep, to collect col-lect the 70 mills of bounty tax due in the state. Deputy Assessor Mr. Beach is aided in his office by deputy-assessor deputy-assessor Norma Stocks. She does a great deal of thebookwork included in the office and in addition types many of the forms which are needed. Mrs. Stock's duties also take her to the Treasurer's office to help in mailing tax notices and to the County Coun-ty Clerk's office whenever when-ever she is needed. The office of the Assessor, in addition to assessing property, is charged with the responsibility re-sponsibility of actually collecting the taxes for personal property. For most residents, this is the place you go each year to pay taxes on your automobiles prior to getting license plates . In the case of real property (real estate) the tax rolls are turned over to the County Treasurer Trea-surer Donna Loveridge by the first week of May each year. Treasurer's Office Mrs. Loveridge's job, after individual taxes are prepared by the 'County Clerk, is to send out tax notices for each property in the county. She thou collects the taxes from this real property. Usually at this time of year, she is busy receiving monies from residents who wish to pay their real property taxes in advance of the November 30 deadline. However, this vear the levy has been' held up b.v the State Tax Commission Com-mission because of a discrepancy on the School District Levy, so notices have not yet been mailed. This mailing, which includes about 3,000 notices each year, is usually done during the first week of September. Sep-tember. Mrs. Loveridge stated that although the tax notices have not yet been sent out, they will still become due by November 30. Mail Notices In addition to completing com-pleting and mailing tax notices, Mrs. Loveridge is responsible for mailing valuation notices no-tices earlier in the year. These valuation notices give the taxpayer a chance to appear before the Board of Equalization Equal-ization to protest his taxes if he wishes, before be-fore the tax notices are mailed. Other duties include collecting, issuing receipts re-ceipts and banking all monies paid to the County and investing such monies as may not be in current use. As mentioned previously, pre-viously, Mrs. Loveridge then collects taxes for all real property, banks it, and then apportions it to the various taxing districts such as. Schools, City, mosquito abatement, etc. She must also collect and apportion monies from tax sales and pay a proportionate share to all the taxing units. City Counterparts Of these offices, only that of Recorder is duplicated in City government. gov-ernment. The County is responsible for assessing asses-sing and collecting all taxes, including those which are used by the city. Although there is il City Recorder, her functions are not the s;"o as those of the County Ueeorder since she is not working with mining claims or property pro-perty descriptions for residents. Changes in government which may be brought about by choosing one of 12 form's of City-County government govern-ment as passed by the State Legislature would affect these offices only slightly. Such changes would be brought about primarily if a form of government which allows al-lows appointment of such offices instead of election of officials was adopted. |