Following last year’s controversy over a county-wide propertyreappraisal, Lincoln County supervisors voted Monday to seek bidsfrom state-certified appraisers for this year’s property valuework.

“I think with all the controversy last time, I think it willhelp to advertise,” said District 1 Supervisor Cliff Givens duringMonday’s board meeting discussion.

Certification issues and other questions arose last year after acounty-wide reappraisal, done by Reid Herring and Associates,resulted in many people seeing higher property values. Herringassociates at the time said old property values were too far out ofline and had to be brought up to state fair market valueguidelines.

In an effort to avoid a repeat, supervisors and TaxAssessor-Collector Nancy Jordan agreed to advertise for this year’sappraisal maintenance work. Bids will be accepted fromstate-certified appraisers who are residents of the state and have10 years of experience in the field.

“The people of Lincoln County spoke that they wanted it bid,”Jordan said. “That’s what we’re going to do.”

Jordan cautioned that this year’s work would not be acounty-wide reappraisal. The focus will be adding or deletingproperties from the tax roll for the entire county.

“It’ll be adding new property to the roll or deleting propertythat’s no longer there,” Jordan said.

In a related matter, county officials will seek a month-to-monthrenewal of an office space lease in the Kees Building. Jordan’soffice uses the space to house some of its appraisal services.

The county has been paying $3,500 a year for the space, butsupervisors are seeking a shorter renewal period because of theindefinite need for the space. The current lease expires at the endof June.

In other action Monday, county officials are continuing to studyan approximately $71,000 request from BFI for supplementalcompensation related to the county’s household count.

The count is used to determine how much the county pays forgarbage collection, and a recent survey revealed more houses thanwhat the county was being charged. The contract has provisions forthe opposite situation if it were ever to occur.

Bob Allen, board attorney, said he expected to be able to make arecommendation on the request at the board’s next meeting.

In road matters, supervisors voted to plan a county-widerestriping of State Aid roads using State Aid funds. CountyEngineer Carl Ray Furr said that would be a good move because anumber of the stripes were no longer visible.

“It’s dangerous, especially at night,” Furr said.

Supervisors also discussed pending plans for a new industrialpark. An Industrial Development Foundation recommendation on anengineer to study six possible sites is expected soon.

Furr, one of the engineers seeking to do the study, encouragedofficials to maximize use of federal funds in pursuing the parkproject. He also said the park should be developed and haveinterstate exposure.

“Industry is not coming to look at no pine trees,” Furr said,referring to factors businesses consider when thinking of locatingin an area.

City, county and chamber funds, along with a $70,000 economicdevelopment grant, are being used to fund the park study. Furrurged continued use of grant funding where possible, but added thatfederal money cannot be used to purchase land for a new park.

Furr expected a site could be chosen by early next springfollowed by determination of funding sources over the next sixmonths. He suggested an interlocal agreement between the variousentities as the new park is pursued.

“That’s probably the way to go,” Furr said.