July 20, 2020

The Gasconade County Commission met at the Courthouse beginning with Pledge of Allegiance.

BOARD OF EQUALIZATION

Commission will serve today as voting members of the Board of Equalization along with the following: Vincent Klott, Surveyor, Chris Lenauer, Pioneer Truss Co., Rustin Colter, Peoples Savings Bank. Also present, but not as voting members are: Paul Schulte, Assessor, Joe Mundwiller, Assessor’s Office and Lesa Lietzow, County Clerk. All voting members signed an oath to fairly and impartially equalize the valuation of all real estate and tangible personal property taxable by the county.

The only appointment scheduled today is Brian Mueller, attorney representing a commercial property located at 5 Danuser Drive, Hermann, Mo., aka: LaserLight Technologies owned by Frank C. Hannan Irrevocable Trust; when scheduling this appointment, Mr. Mueller stated the market value of the property at $660,650 was too high, but did not give in his estimation what the amount should be. When he did not arrive for his appointment, Clerk Lietzow called and he said that the appointment was meant to be canceled because after speaking with the Assessor’s Office, he was satisfied with their explanation of the value and felt his client would also be satisfied thus making it unnecessary to appear. Assessor Schulte’s recommendation was for the value to remain as is so Presiding Commissioner Miskel called for a motion and roll call vote; Commissioner Lairmore made the motion for the value to remain as is; Commissioner Holland seconded the motion and the vote was as follows:

Miskel YES,

Lairmore YES,

Holland YES,

Lenauer YES,

Colter YES,

Klott YES.

Taxpayer Name: Frank C. Hannan Irrevocable Trust; Parcel ID Number: 01‑9.0‑30‑0‑00‑001.050 Commercial; Assessor’s Appraised Value/Assessed Value: $660,650/$211,410; Board’s Appraised Value/Assessed Value: $660,650/$211,410.

The next property discussed was residential and owned by James M. and Barbara J. Warren, 3266 Highway P, Owensville, Mo., with a market value of $218,730; they also did not appear in person, but Assessor Schulte explained this was a new house constructed with metal siding and was measured and graded by the Assessor’s office for that value. Upon further inspection, Assessor Schulte agreed that the value was too high and recommended lowering it to $181,670 market value. The question was asked by Mr. Lenauer, if the metal siding lessens the value of a house and Assessor Schulte said it does, even though they are many times very nice on the inside. Presiding Commissioner Miskel called for a motion and roll call vote; Commissioner Holland made the motion to lower the value as recommended by Assessor Schulte; Commissioner Lairmore seconded the motion and the vote was as follows:

Miskel YES,

Lairmore YES,

Holland YES,

Lenauer YES,

Colter YES,

Klott YES.

Taxpayer Name: James M. & Barbara J. Warren; Parcel ID Number: 14‑4.0‑18‑0‑00‑003.010 Residential; Assessor’s Appraised Value/Assessed Value: $218,730/$41,560; Board’s Appraised Value/Assessed Value: $181,670/$34,520.

The final property to be discussed by the board is owned by LSC Communications US LLC, Grant Thornton LLP, P.O. Box 59365, Schaumberg, Ill., and is located in the Owensville Industrial Park; it is a 271,000 square foot manufacturing facility that has a market value of $5,154,260 which is being disputed. Assessor Schulte said finding comparable properties that have sold to use as a guide, proved to be nearly impossible; his office was able to find comparable properties in other counties on the books for as low as $9 per square foot. LSC’s opinion of value based on their other locations, was somewhere between $8 and $16 per square foot and Assessor Schulte’s value was currently at $19 per square foot. After spending considerable amount of time researching and recalculating, he felt the correct and fair action to take was to lower the value to approximately $11.64 per square foot which amounts to a loss of almost $2 million in value. While this prompted a lot of discussion among the members of the board, eventually everyone was in agreement with the Assessor’s recommendation based on facts provided. Presiding Commissioner Miskel called for a motion and roll call vote; Commissioner Holland made the motion to lower the value as recommended by Assessor Schulte; Commissioner Lairmore seconded the motion and the vote was as follows:

Miskel YES,

Lairmore YES,

Holland YES,

Lenauer YES,

Colter YES,

Klott YES.

Taxpayer Name: LSC Communications US LLC; Parcel ID Number: 14‑8.0‑28‑1‑02‑007.000 Commercial; Assessor’s Appraised Value/Assessed Value: $5,154,260/$1,649,360; Board’s Appraised Value/Assessed Value: $3,156,320/$1,010,020.

Since all matters before the board were able to be settled today, and with no further business to conduct, there will be no need for the board to reconvene.

ADJOURN

Commissioner Jerry Lairmore made a motion to adjourn commission until July 23, 2020. Commissioner Jim Holland seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned.