The township will solicit bids for a company to revalue the assessed value of private properties in the township.
   Mayor George Chidley said as of 2006 the ratio of assessed values to true market values was at 59 percent. He said if that number had gone much lower, the county would probably have stepped in and forced the township to conduct a revaluation.
   "This is an example of us being proactive and taking care of it now before we're in that position," he said.
   Mayor Chidley said the earliest the revaluation could be completed is 2009. The process will involve about two years of field work, he said, before new assessed values for private properties are determined.
   The need for the revaluation came because many residents are either paying too much in taxes or too little due to an incorrect market value for their property, he said.
   "We've been aware of it for the past couple years," Mayor Chidley said. "It needs to be taken care of."
   He said the project will cost about $500,000 to $600,000.
   "Looking at other communities of roughly the same size, that seems to be the ballpark," he said.
   Mayor Chidley said the township hoped to open the bids for the project by Tuesday.
   Many other nearby towns have also revalued private property when their ratios hit about 50 or 60 percent. Mayor Chidley said now is a good time to conduct the revaluation.
   "This is actually a better time to do it because in recent years property values have actually lowered a little," he said.
   A revaluation is different from a reassessment in that a revaluation takes longer because the company conducting it has to go into private residences.
   In contrast, Mayor Chidley said a reassessment is quicker, but is done by reviewing local sales and sales in nearby communities, which could make it less accurate and therefore less fair.
   He said the revaluation should equalize tax rates in the area. For some residents, tax rates will go lower, though others could see a rise in their taxes.
   "It'll equalize," Mayor Chidley said. "Some will go up, some will go down"