EDDINGTON – The property tax rate is dropping significantly, but with the completion of a townwide revaluation, many residents will see higher tax bills, Town Manager Russell Smith said Wednesday.

The town’s board of assessors set the property tax rate at $9.80 per $1,000 of assessed property value during a meeting on Wednesday.

“Last year the mill rate was $16.80,” Smith said. “We dropped seven mills, but the valuation did go up.”

Some residents “had minor increases, some had some decreases,” he said. “Shorefront property is the biggest hit.”

The last time the property values were updated was in 1979, which means that some properties have weighty value increases. Property values are based on market value – the amount the land and buildings would sell for – and properties that have water frontage saw large increases, Smith said.

Selectman Donn Goodwin, who is a resident with land on one of the town’s ponds, said on Tuesday that his draft tax bill, issued last week by Hamlin Associates, is three times what it was last year.

Seven residents were at the Wednesday assessors meeting and all but one had shorefront property, Smith said.

Local assessor Hamlin Associates was hired to revalue the town over a two-year period in 2005 for a cost of $65,000.

In recent years, the town has been assessed at 71 percent, well below the 90 percent required by the state to qualify for several state-funded programs. By not meeting the benchmark, the town saw a drop in state revenues last year, Smith said. With the new property values, Eddington is now rated at 100 percent, he said.

To prevent this type of jump in property values in the future, Selectman Charles Grover Jr. suggested more frequent property assessments.

Tax bills will be in the mail within the next two weeks.