By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

One fourth of Goffstown homes could be measured and listed by next January as part of a townwide revaluation plan.

Selectmen discussed the idea with Town Assessor Ron Mace on Monday, July 24. Though no formal proposal was adopted that night, selectmen considered hiring an outside inspector to help complete the process in a five-month period.

The town had its last revaluation in 2003. Mace said he inspected properties that year by doing “drive-bys,” or evaluating homes by what he could see from the exterior.

“The thought that I’ve been measuring and listing the town every year is not the case,” Mace said.

The town’s most efficient prospects for town-wide assessments may lie in hiring an outside professional to list and measure residential property, Mace said.

Such a person would do house-to-house inspections throughout town, listing household elements such as bedrooms, bathrooms and finished basements. The inspector would also measure the size of each home.

Of these two functions, Mace said the listing is the more important.

“I don’t think every house needs to be measured. The main thing is the interior inspection,” Mace said.

However, homeowners’ daily work schedules may make the it difficult to achieve consistent interior inspections, Mace said.

“The most difficult thing is finding people home. If you go to 12 or 20 houses, you might find only two or three people home,” Mace said.

The best way to combat such odds would be to inspect houses where the homeowners are available and leave door hangers on the empty residences, Mace said. Further accommodations could be made by inspecting homes on evenings and weekends, he said.

Selectmen Chairman Barbara Griffin asked if Mace could work with an outside measure-and-lister to inspect 1,300 homes by Mace’s retirement date of Jan. 26, 2007. This would cover one quarter of the town’s households, Griffin said.

“I’d certainly be willing to try,” Mace said.

When asked by Selectman Phil D’Avanza how long the measure and listing process takes, Mace said it averages half an hour. He could not say how many inspections he expected to complete each day.

Board members took no formal vote on the recommendations Monday night, but Griffin did request that Town Administrator Sue Desruisseaux draft a proposal on the matter.

“I’m reading that the board wants to get this underway,” Griffin said.