"Official business" was a minor part of the regular monthly meeting of the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners as discussions concerning recent property tax assessments and continuing loud, heavy traffic on Bailey Road occupied most of the meeting time.

Wilkes County taxpayer Wiley Crittenden was not on the agenda but had asked to be heard.

Crittenden said he was one of some 3,600 Wilkes County taxpayers who recently received property tax assessment notices from the county. He said that 300-400 of those taxpayers had attended a "well-maintained" meeting from which the commissioners were "conspicuously absent." The purpose of the meeting was to provide information to taxpayers concerning the assessment process and to offer suggestions and instruction for appealing the new assessments. That meeting has already been reported in this newspaper (August 14, 2008).

"The thing that I discovered at that meeting," Crittenden said, "was how little the group knew about ad valorem taxes." After seeing that, Crittenden set about determining how the taxpayers could "get educated" on how to understand the taxing process. He reported that he found a book, now out of print, but still available online.

Crittenden explained that after reading the book, he made two or three trips to the Wilkes County Tax Assessors office where he "had a good experience." In trying to understand what their problems are, he said, he determined that the county commissioners "should really get educated on how bad this tax thing is. It [the tax digest] is grossly inconsistent and it is bigger than you think it is," he continued. "It has been that way for so long, it's going to be hard to find a way to get back to reality."

Commission Chairman Sam Moore pointed out that the commissioners have no responsibility for handling tax assessments and, in fact, are prohibited by law from dictating any instructions to the tax assessors office. He said that all the surrounding counties are suffering the same problems and while that doesn't make it right, "you can't just snap your fingers and get it corrected."

Crittenden countered by insisting that "if you follow the money, it turns out that it's you people up here [commissioners] that are their supervisors." Again, Moore explained that it is the state that provides the schooling and the direction to the assessors.

"You've got pretty good qualified people and they want to do a good job," Crittenden said, "Let's just do the job right." He suggested that the tax assessors office was understaffed and unable to keep up with the work load.

"That department actually has more staff than it has ever had," Moore said.

"I beg the commissioners to take a better, stronger look at this situation,' Crittenden continued. "There are too many items in the assessing process that have gone astray - like land use and soil productivity. You should be looking at consistency."

Moore reiterated that the commissioners are not allowed to tamper with how the assessors office does its job and said, "We just want it to be fair."

Agreeing, Crittenden said, "You can't do their job but you can furnish them with the tools and the staff."

After the meeting, Crittenden said his goals are to educate the taxpayers and to create harmony in the assessors office. "We have some good people in the tax assessors office and we need to capitalize on that and take the distrust out of our assessments."

The Board of Commissioners met for their regular monthly meeting on Thursday, September 11, at 7 p.m. in the Wilkes County courthouse. Commissioners Divenski Lee, Donna Hardy, Moore, and John Howard were in attendance. Also present were County Administrator David Tyler, County Attorney Charles LeGette, and a small number of visitors. Commissioner Jerry Stover was unable to attend.

Patsy Bailey appeared before the commissioners to voice a complaint about "freightliners, log trucks, and chip trucks" driving on the county road where she lives (Bailey Road) at all hours of the night. She reported that the trucks disrupt her sleep and are so loud and heavy that they actually make her house shake as they go by.

Bailey said she had talked with the Department of Motor Vehicles and found out that no trucks over 56,000 pounds are allowed on county roads unless they are making a delivery. She said she had "called and written to everybody" in complaining about the problem.

"I have been harassed and stalked because I've been up here complaining about it," she said. "I think something ought to be done about it and I don't care what their last name is or how many dollars they've got."

Moore said that he didn't know of anything locally that could be done and explained that the road weight limits are set and enforced by the state.

"They [the state] came a few years ago and claimed that they stopped some and thereby cut down on it some," Bailey said. "But now they are back at it all over again."

In regular business:

l Brenda Phillips was granted a tax refund for taxes paid on a hot tub that has now been determined to be personal property.

l The commissioners' policy on meeting agenda was modified to bring some wording issues up to date.

l Tyler reported that Local Option Sales Tax received for the month of June was $70,970.99, and the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax was $95,714.50 for the same month.

l Moore reported that the rest rooms and pavilion at Holliday Park are almost complete and that a boat dock had been donated and would be put in later. Work crews from the Wilkes Pre-Release Center "have done a great job and it really looks good," Moore said. "We are really looking forward to all that being completed and we saved probably half the cost by having the Pre-Release crew do the work. We really appreciate all the help they have been."

The next regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners will be on Thursday, October 9, at 2 p.m.