Midland Park September 21, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 3 The revaluation of all of Midland Park’s residential and commercial properties is on target and rapidly nearing completion. Councilwoman nancy Peet reported at a recent borough council meeting that inspectors for Realty Appraisal Company have completed their visits to all 2,194 of the borough’s residential properties, including 39 vacant properties. Field visits to Midland Park’s commercial sites are also progressing, with 177 completed and 71 to go. Of the borough’s tax exempt properties, 56 have been completed and 23 have yet to be done. The goal is to have all of the remaining visits completed Revaluation process nears completion in borough by mid-October. Residents will receive mailed notices regarding the updated values of their homes once Realty Appraisals completes its report and will be given the opportunity to review the assessment at an informal hearing. At that time property owners may ask questions and even challenge the findings by pointing out special circumstances the assessor may not have considered. If not satisfied with the final figure, property owners will have until May 1, 2012 to file a formal appeal with the Bergen County Tax Board. The new values and the adjusted tax rate will be used to calculate the tax bills sent out in August 2012, retroactive New line Andrea Delmont, manager of the Kurth Cottage Gift Shop at the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, displays one of the new fashions for sale at the gift shop this season. Delmont, who has extensive connections in the fashion industry through her previous merchandising experience with national retail chains, gave a preview of the new clothing and accessory lines at a recent meeting of the Midland Park Branch of the Valley Hospital Auxiliary. She also presented a recap of last spring’s Midland Park Auxiliary fashion show. The branch meets on the second Wednesday of the month at Faith Reformed Church on Prospect Street. Call CoChairman JoAnn Levine at 201-652-0873 or Gilda Gilmartin at 201-444-8614 for further information. New members are welcome. to Jan. 1, 2012. At present, the assessed value of an average borough property is $300,000. Increased values due to the revaluation do not automatically result in higher property taxes. Following the revaluation, a new, presumably lower tax rate is struck, and this lower rate is applied to the new assessed value to determine the new taxes on each property. Traditionally after a revaluation, taxes on one third of the properties stay unchanged, while one third go up and one third decrease. Midland Park Borough Attorney Robert Regan noted that there had been four postponements of the current revaluation, which had been mandated by the state in 2007, only four years after the previous revaluation. He pointed out that municipalities where mandated revaluations were carried out at the height of the real estate market, are now facing a spate of appeals. Midland Park, he said, gets very few residential tax appeals. Most of the borough’s appeals concern commercial properties.