State reviews appraisal bids for hydro stations
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: December 14, 2009
Seven firms, including one from Vermont, have submitted proposals to conduct appraisals on the eight hydroelectric dams TransCanada Hydro Northeast owns along the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers.
The 2009 Legislature set aside $200,000 for the appraisal, which legislators said would help small cash-strapped towns – and the state – get up-to-date appraisals of the hydroelectric facilities.
Bill Johnson, director of property valuation for the Department of Taxes, said that he was evaluating the proposals, including one from Graham & Graham, which he said listed one office in Vermont.
Synapse, a firm based in Cambridge, Mass., which had evaluated the dams for the state 10 years ago, and also appraised the hydroelectric dam at Bellows Falls for the town of Rockingham in previous years, also submitted a proposal, Johnson said.
Johnson said one requirement of the appraisal contract was that the new tax figures would be available for towns and their listers to use in the 2010 tax year. He said it was up to the towns whether to use the figures that would come from the state-funded study.
While the value of property is set as of April 1 of every year, he said that towns' grand lists, the list of taxable properties, aren't usually finalized until most towns set their tax rates in June.
The dams that would be included are Moore Dam, between Concord and Littleton, N.H., Comerford Dam in Waterford and Monroe, N.H., McIndoes in Barnet, Wilder in Hartford, Bellows Falls in Bellows Falls, Vernon, which are all on the Connecticut River, and the two dams on the Deerfield River: the Searsburg dam and Harriman Dam, which is in Whitingham.
Johnson said the seven firms had varying degrees of experience in the field of hydro facility assessments. "All have some level of experience," he said.
susan.smallheer@rutland herald.com
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