ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030107
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: & NOW THIS...
When Michael Quinn called Roanoke County officials and asked if any community work was available, he was assigned to a volunteer's hell: a project that involved long hours, 589 angry taxpayers and lots of math.
What county officials asked Quinn to do was evaluate how accurate this year's real estate assessments were.
Most volunteers end up with far more innocuous assignments, such as library duty or recreation programs, but Quinn isn't your typical volunteer. He's an attorney and accountant who oversees property assessments and taxes for Norfolk Southern Corp. Since the company's land holdings are spread out along 24,000 miles of railroad in more than 600 counties and cities, Quinn is quite familiar with various assessment programs.
Quinn's name had just been added to a list of volunteers when County Administrator Elmer Hodge got some bad news from the Virginia Department of Taxation. Even though the 589 assessment appeals received this year were only 12 more than the number last year, Hodge had asked the state to expand its review of Roanoke County's assessment process. He received a reply last month stating that the county would have to hire a consultant to do the work. In the meantime, state officials assured Hodge that they were plugging along on their routine reviews. The most recent one for Roanoke County covers its 1994 assessment.
Quinn's calculations are similar to what state officials will eventually get around to sometime next year: He compared sales prices for properties sold in 1995 with their 1996 assessments.
The results: Properties that have changed hands thus far this year typically were assessed at about 94 percent of the selling price, with most sales falling within five percentage points of that median.
Quinn gave a presentation on his findings to the Board of Supervisors last week, and it was broadcast live on cable television, but he said he's not worried about the reaction from those 589 taxpayers who disagreed with their assessments.
"I don't think anybody should be mad at me," he said.
- CHRISTINA NUCKOLS
29th Infantry Division recognized
Members of the 29th Infantry Division Association presented the division's flag and patch recently during a ceremony at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
The division will be recognized in a rotating display of flags from U.S. military units that helped liberate Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II.
Retired Brig. Gen. Alvin D. Ungerleider of Burke, senior vice commander of the association, recalled, "we stumbled upon this camp guarded by about 45 German SS troops and quickly overpowered them. We freed about 300 prisoners, most of them looking like walking cadavers. The sight that met my eyes is still burned into my soul - we thought we had encountered the gates of hell."
The 29th Infantry Division was formed originally of National Guard Troops from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia and had replacement soldiers from across the United States. The division's 116th Infantry regiment was headquartered in Roanoke and made up of units from across Western and Southside Virginia.
- GREG EDWARDS
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB