DEXTER – About 400 property owners concerned about the new values placed on their properties met with assessors last month.

With the conclusion of the townwide revaluation, town officials committed taxes Wednesday and dropped the mill rate from $21.40 in 2008 to $14.50 per $1,000 property valuation for 2009. Tax bills are expected to be mailed next week with payment due Nov. 14.

“What really dramatically went up were the values of land,” acting Town Manager Dave Pearson said Friday. Property owners who have large tracts of land will see a valuation increase that is greater than the mill rate drop, so they will see an increase in taxes. The town has about 2,300 household and seasonal buildings and another 600 land parcels, he noted.

“Folks on the lake were the other really hard-hit group of property owners,” Pearson said. Of the 2,300 buildings in town, about 290 are located on Lake Wassookeag and another 100 on Echo Lake, he said.

A telephone system that was set up to handle the expected calls for hearings last month encountered some problems and Pearson apologized for the inconvenience that caused some residents.

While some valuation changes were made from the hearing process, those property owners who still have problems with their new values can file an abatement request through the town office.

Once those abatement requests have been filed, the town has 60 days to either deny or approve an abatement, Pearson said. He intends to wait until the town has received all of the abatement requests and then meet with the revaluation team to review those assessments. If property owners are not happy with the town’s determination on their abatement request, they can appeal to the local board of appeals, with Superior Court as their last recourse for relief.

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