East Granby Selectmen Consider Ambulance Service, Property Assessment, Waste Removal

The East Granby Board of Selectmen addressed a variety of topics at its meeting Wednesday night, discussing the town’s upcoming property revaluation, the status of the town’s volunteer ambulance service, town trash collection and much more.

Mary Ellen Brown, town assessor, said East Granby’s five-year property revaluation, set to take place in 2013, will be based on sales records and comparisons involving the value of other properties in the same neighborhood as the assessed property. Visits to each and every property in town aren’t required as that task was performed in 2008 and is only required once every 10 years. This revaluation will focus on what changes have occurred to East Granby properties since 2008.

East Granby has worked with Vision Appraisal, which performs computer-assisted property appraisals, since 1999 and will continue that relationship in the coming year.

“It’s a great company,” Brown said.

The revaluation project is budgeted at $75,000, split between two fiscal years, although a significant amount of that figure is reserved for issues including possible legal fees, the potential need for additional clerks during the busy time and technical issues.

Brown’s computers stopped working during the 2008 revaluation process and she said having the extra money in the budget helped her office work around the issue.

“My computers went down, it was horrendous,” she said of the major technical problem that affected her during an extremely busy time in the assessor’s office.

Brown said having the funds available to solve that issue meant the project could be completed.

Changes for the East Granby Volunteer Ambulance Association were another item on the agenda. Service sharing with other towns is a distinct possibility.

The town has experienced difficulty maintaining a solid volunteer corps and the financial issues related to operating the service is making the town consider all options.

“We’re a little too small to be on our own with the cost,” First Selectman Jim Hayden said.

Hayden said there are definite possibilities for service sharing amongst other towns surrounding East Granby, although the involved parties are just beginning to figure out details.

The town’s trash removal contract was also discussed, with Hayden noting that there is an escape clause in the 15-year contract that can be used in 2014.

CRRA, the organization that handles garbage removal for East Granby and many other towns in the area, processes some of the collected waste in a trash-to-energy plant and sells the product to area power companies.

Because of the stagnant economic climate, the sale of that power is down from a high price of 8 cents per kilowatt-hour to 3 cents. The organization is seeking legislative relief for the cost downturn but hasn’t reached a resolution.

The value of those kilowatt-hours affects the price per ton, or tipping fee, the town pays to CRRA for removal. The town’s current fee is $60.50 per ton and the price will remain stable in the next financial year.

“We know, for the next financial year, we’re safe,” Hayden said.

But the tipping fee could go up if there is no relief for CRRA. The town could choose to opt out of the contract and work with companies that haul waste to West Springfield, MA if there is no resolution to CRRA’s financial problem and the tipping fee rises.