GUILFORD – Data mailers will go out to all Guilford property owners next month, containing the inventory on which their new assessment will be based.

According to Guilford Assessor Susan McIntyre, this is a crucial step in the revaluation process the town is currently undergoing, because it allows the information which will be used to calculate the value of each property to be verified by the person who knows it best.

“We want it to be accurate,” McIntyre explained. “And the single best source of information is the property owner.”

The mailers are the third step in the reassessment process, according to Don Weber of the New York State Office of Real Property Services, which now falls under the auspices of the Bureau of Taxation and Finance. Weber was in Guilford last night for a public information meeting, held at the Town Hall.

The reassessment, which Weber described as reappraisal of all real property at 100 percent of market value – began in February, after the town board voted in support of conducting a town-wide property assessment revaluation. It is the first town-wide revaluation to be conducted in the Town of Guilford since 1993.

Over the past five months, McIntyre has spearheaded an inventory of each of Guilford’s approximately 2,000 parcels, using prior records as a baseline cross-referenced with building permits, etc. It is this information which property owners are being asked to verify via the data mailers, she explained.