Grand Island Town Board hires property appraiser

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Reassessment grievance day on Grand Island might not draw quite the crowd that it did in 2025.

One reason is that the town will have its own real property appraiser, effective March 30.

The Town Board on Monday approved appointing S. Baird Tucker at a rate of $34.95 per hour. He will join Assessor Jill Murphy’s staff.

Last year, the town went to 100% full market in its property reassessment. On grievance day, May 28, a steady stream of both residential and commercial property owners expressed dissatisfaction with the revaluation results. They complained that there were inequities and they sought adjustments in their assessments, which were produced by the appraisal firm of Emminger Newton Pigeon & Magyar.

Supervisor Peter Marston said, “The long-term goal is to take over – do our own reassessment in-house. This guy is considered highly sought-after in the residential arena. Commercial is a much different arena. But residential is 90% of our product, so I think that is a heck of a good start.”

Council member Rhonda Diehl said, “He (Tucker) comes with the knowledge we’re going to need. But we also have a retirement coming in that department, so we need to start preparing.”

Marston said, “I think this is a good move forward for the town, and maybe we'll have a little less angst next ‘reval’ time.”

He later added, “We've been wanting a real property appraiser here on Grand Island knowing we needed one, for probably seven, eight years now. So, it’s a big move in the right direction, I think, for this town as far as starting to take care of their own.”

Other news

•Sgt. Joseph Reeves of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office provided information about a new confidential tip line that can be downloaded for free on either iOS or Android devices.

“Any information you have about crimes that have occurred, suspicious activity in your neighborhoods, narcotics activity, traffic complaints, anything and everything, we’d like to hear about it,” he said. “We will work with Grand Island Police Department to address those issues.”

•During the public comment period after the regular agenda, the board heard from Kayleigh Furth, a project developer with Soul Source Power. She said the company is interested in proposing a battery energy storage development on Grand Island.

The town is currently working to draft a battery storage law.

“I've been following really closely the due diligence you’ve been putting in. I just want to commend you all,” Furth said.

Marston told her a public hearing has not yet been set on the town’s proposed battery storage law.

•In closing remarks from the Town Board, Diehl announced the plan to establish, by the end of the month, the Grand Island Service Organization Coalition. She said it’s “a gathering of all of our service organizations as a beginning to see how they might be able to work together and share their events and ideas.”

Diehl said the goal is to ensure events are planned to avoid scheduling conflicts, and to help the town’s service organizations pull their resources together.

•In other action, the Town Board:

√ Appointed retired highway superintendent Richard Crawford as an alternate on the Traffic Safety Advisory Board for a term ending Dec. 31.

√ Hired Luke Gworek as a part-time laborer in the Parks Department. Gworek is an Eagle Scout whose project was to help put on display the original Town Hall cupola. He designed and built the stand for the cupola, working with town employees and the Grand Island Historical Society to complete the project.

√ Voted to increase the annual stipend of Town Historian Jodi Robinson on the Historic Preservation Advisory Board to $5,000 from the previous amount of $2,500.