Complete reassessment coming due this year, or next

Lake Holcombe Town Board

It’s almost time for a complete reassessment of the Town of Lake Holcombe, but in recent months, board members have not been happy with their current assessing services and are looking elsewhere. That’s why Randy Prochnow, Prochnow Assessing, was on hand during a regular meeting March 12, on request of the board, to discuss what he offers those who retain his services.

Prochnow has assessed various townships/cities for 20 years, and does a lot of work in Chippewa County.

“I take pictures of every single improvement,” said Prochnow, who wants to ensure he justifies the value of a property with visual evidence. “It’s very important to have your records straight and know exactly what’s out there.”

The town’s current assessor uses a program that is not compatible with most other software systems, while Prochnow uses the standard assessing tool – Market Drive – the most popular and easy to transfer system. Through Market Drive, all permits and requests are scanned, then emailed to a central laptop for the town to access at any time.

“All my records go on your laptop so you have a record of everything that’s ever been done,” said Prochnow.

“Our assessor does not provide that information to us now,” said board chairman Brian Guthman.

Prochnow says he also tries to get back to everyone, as soon as possible, who has a concern and answer their questions as best he can. In order to do a reassessment with little to no records, Prochnow said he would have to essentially measure every single house in the township.

It’s been around 10 years since Lake Holcombe’s last reassessment and Prochnow says the town is close to being out of compliance.

“You’re borderline right now,” he said.

Assessments are based on many things, such as the number of improvements, number of parcels, what is lake property, what isn’t, and how many lakes are within the area, with many variables. Prochnow says he can do a three-year contract or a five-year one, to spread out costs to help the town’s budget.

Prochnow says, with all costs, for a three-year contract, it would about $17,000 per year for his services.

“This ain’t cheap to do,” he said. “I believe in working for every single taxpayer, to make it as fair and equitable as possible.”

As part of public comment, Darrell Hornick, Lake Holcombe Improvement Association (LHIA) approached the board about what the group’s focus is this summer.

“One of the projects that we’re working on, is to put a sign on the north end of Holcombe,” said Hornick.

The new sign would be similar to what is located on the south entrance of Holcombe on State Hwy. 27. Hornick says the LHIA is talking to landowners and to the electric provider to see if they can get the proposed sign lighted.

A musky currently adorns the sign on the south end.

“We’re gonna change it (new sign), and put a bass and a couple bluegill on there,” said Hornick.

Once the sign project is complete, Hornick asked, since they already have an account, if the town would consider paying the electric bill for the new sign and charging the LHIA, who would then pay the town back.

“All cost is going to go through the LHIA,” said Hornick, “but if we could actually work with you guys to get that done…it would save the association money.”