Grievance Day goes into night on Grand Island

Reassessment challengers meet with review board after hours

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Grand Island residents and businesses had one last day – May 28 – to make their case for adjustments to their property reassessments.

Grievance Day went into the night at Town Hall. Although hours were set at 4-9 p.m., there were more than a dozen property owners still there after 9 p.m., awaiting their turn to meet with the town’s Board of Assessment Review. Some had gone through the earlier informal review process, were unsatisfied with the result, and sought further reduction in their assessments.

They were challenging the full market value assigned to their property by Emminger, Newton, Pigeon & Magyar Inc., the appraisal company under contract with town for the 2025 reassessment project. Assessed value is used to calculate the property owner’s tax liability.

ENPM’s job is to provide an equitable redistribution of the property tax by establishing uniform, fair and equitable assessments, according to the firm’s website.

Robin Shipman has two residences, a farm house and a carriage house side by side, on Fix Road. In that last batch of property owners to meet with the review board, she awaited her turn, sitting on the floor with her paperwork in hand. The Grievance Day interview took about 5 minutes, she said.

“The unfortunate thing is they were to bring up pictures … they didn’t have any pictures of for my property. So, the individuals in that room didn’t really have anything to go on,” Shipman said.

“I went through the informal interview process and I was unhappy with the result. They reduced it (the reassessment figure) a little bit when I went through the first process. I just thought they were too high, so I came here.”

She said she put in about 12 hours of work, studying the recent sale price of five properties comparable in size, style and type to her own to prepare for the interview with the review board.

“Their average square footage was (valued at) $122 – and mine was $352. That’s a huge difference,” Shipman said.

She was told Tuesday night after her meeting that she would have a determination within two or three weeks. “And if we’re unhappy with that result, we can still take that further,” Shipman said.

“We are all willing to pay our fair share, but it’s unrealistic that some are assessed … very differently in the same neighborhood with the same comparables.”

She said she asked that her assessment to be reduced to $122 per square foot.

“I like that we get to advocate for ourselves, because it’s the American way,” Shipman said. “And when we’re not being heard, we will sit on the floor and yawn, and wait until we are heard.”

Becky Everett of Love Road also had sent in paperwork to ENPM for the informal review of her assessment.

“They reduced our assessed value, but not enough to suit us,” she said. “My house is not worth over $400,000. They are out of their minds. It’s an old house. It’s one of the original farmhouses. We have a nice-sized lot. Our house is in need of updating.”

The house was built in 1940. She and her husband moved in in 1981. They had replaced a number of walls in the basement, but the walls have since cracked again from the clay on Grand Island, Everett said.

She said that, in 2021, “My house was assessed at $212,000, and now it’s up to $400,000, which my husband and I both said, if somebody came in and offered me $400,000, I’d be gone in a minute.”

Everett said in the informal review process, “The value was dropped down to $349,000 – it’s still not worth that much.” An acceptable assessment would be in the $300,000 range, she noted.

The Everetts did research on Realtor.com and Zillow in preparation for their assessment challenge.

Debbie and Jim Driskel of North Colony Road got what they termed a minor adjustment after emailing information for their informal review. They said their property was previously assessed at $330,000, and that figure went up to $640,000 in the 2025 reassessment.

“We did file the online grievance and they took us to $628,000. So, of course, that’s not enough, so we are here now to file a formal complaint. We’re hoping to land around $500,000. I think that would be fair compared to the properties that sold that we’re being compared to – and also fair to our neighbors,” Debbie Driskel said. “A lot of the homes on our street are valued less than ours. They have attached garages and basements, where we don’t.”

“We just want it to be fair and, right now, it’s not,” Jim Driskel said.

They said it has been a difficult and cumbersome process in the attempt to achieve the results they want.

“You have deadlines, and then they are not getting back to us with the deadlines,” Debbie Driskel said.

The deadline to receive a written response was May 1, but the Driskels said they didn’t receive a letter until the week of May 19. They were told the delay was due to the post office.

Niagara Frontier Publications reached out to the Town Assessor’s Department several times, but did not receive a reply before the newspaper went to press.