Kathleen Chase and Lonnie Ridgeway, who are doing the property reval for the village, missed the official Feb. 1 deadline, but have been given a reprieve by the state.

Otsego County Real Property Tax Services director Steve Child said Tuesday the state is giving Ridgeway and Chase a little leeway to get the reval done and filed.

"The state said, 'OK, you missed it. Now get it done,"' Child said. "They've been given a grace period to get it done."

Chase and Ridgeway were busy Tuesday afternoon working on the upper floor of the village municipal building finishing up some details and getting ready to deliver it to the county where impact notices were to be printed Wednesday.

Child said he had requested representatives from the state be on hand in Cooperstown Wednesday to help reprint the notices. The impact notices go to property owners and contain the old and new assessments and the impact the new assessment will have on property taxes.

Although the state allowed some breathing room, the schedule is "getting tight," Child said.

Trustee Glenn Hubbell said Wednesday morning that it was his understanding that with the help of the state, Ridgeway and Chase would get the impact notices printed Wednesday.

"I hope they do," he said. "I really hope they do."

Hubbell credited both Child and village assessor Al Keck for their efforts to get the reval completed.

He said Child was "very instrumental" in the process and that without Keck's willingness to help finish the data collection, it was unlikely that the reval would have been completed.

"I don't think it would have been done without Al Keck," he said.

Impact notices must be received soon enough to allow property owners an opportunity to meet with Ridgeway and Chase in an informal hearing prior to grievance day which this year is Feb. 21. During an informal hearing property owners can learn how their new assessment was computed and check to make sure all the property data is correct and no mistakes were made.

Property owners still unhappy with their new assessment following the informal hearing may then file a formal grievance which is heard by the board of assessment review. In the village, the board of trustees serves as the board of assessment review.

Ridgeway said it would be difficult to tell right now where the greatest impact will be felt in the village, but that the general rule of thumb is that one-third of the properties go up; one-third go down and one-third remain about the same.

Child said he was interested to see where the greatest shift in property assessments will be seen.

"It will probably be the higher end homes, but I'm guessing," he said. "Commercial properties have been undervalued also."

The new assessments will be applied to the village tax bills which go out in July, but will not be used to compute school, county or town taxes for that portion of the village that is in the town of Otsego. For those tax bills, the town assessment role is used.

According to Child, the new assessments will eventually be adopted by the town, but that will not occur until the town completes its own reval.

Child said that is the reason he tried to convince the village and the towns of Middlefield and Otsego to all do a reval at the same time.