Benton Township is outsourcing its assessing department.
The Benton Township Board of Trustees voted Tuesday night to hire Northrop Assessing, Incorporated of Marcellus to take over assessing services. Township Supervisor Cathy Yates tells us the task is currently handled by internal staff, but to save money, Benton Township is now going the way many other townships have gone and hiring out.
Trustee Linda Scarbrough was skeptical that only having an assessor in the office a few hours per week will be enough, but Yates says a Northrop staff member from Stevensville and Northrop’s Shalice Northrop will be available to help residents when needed.
“When people are building, they want to find out what is going to be the value, ‘What are my taxes going to look like,’ and she’ll be helping them with that,” Yates said. “She’ll be here so many hours a week, and it’ll be posted that people can come in and talk to her.”
Trustee Joseph Taylor welcomed the change, saying, “I’m glad we’re back into the 21st Century.”
“When we look at New Buffalo Township, Royalton Township — great townships, right? Everybody’s going this way,” Taylor said. “We have to save in order to save ourselves, right? Because this is a business.”
The cost of contracting with Northrop will be $125,000 per year.
The current township assessor and her assistant will be laid off. Yates says the money saved from this move will be used for better ordinance enforcement and maintenance.
