|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Avitar News &
Notes...
|
|
|
|
March 24, 2008
User Group Meetings will be held in
on the following dates and times -
Chichester Office
Weds, April. 16, 2008 at 10:00am - Tax Collect
Weds, April. 16, 2008 at 1:00pm - Clerk
March 24, 2008
Software Updates
New Hampshire Assessing
Our next update for Assessing is planned for April/May.
The most notable item we plan on including is a change to allow conservation easements to remain on
parcels that are designated as exempt. We have had several questions about this and will provide you
the ability to resolve these parcels with an update prior to your first tax bill calculation for 2008.
We have a number of other slight changes planned for the comparables module and several reports.
Please let us know if there is something you are eager to see included.
On a virtually unrelated note, we've spent a significant amount of time over the past year assisting
several towns with the process of converting their map and lot numbers. Without exception, this has
been a byproduct of a remapping project, and sometimes the results are surprising to the towns.
What was previously depicted on 50 maps, numbered from north to south, is now shown on 100 maps,
numbered from south to north. Or what was previously a nice, clean map-lot-sublot PID in their assessing
database is suddenly not so nice or clean anymore as the naming scheme on the tax maps is now comprised
of map-lot-sublot-building-condo.
Our point in mentioning this here is not to counsel you against embarking on remapping projects.
It is simply to suggest that it's a process with which you might want to be involved -- even at the risk
of maybe having to attend an additional meeting or two -- so that everyone is aware of what the final
product will be. We have been able to assist towns with automating the process of renumbering PIDs
throughout each application (Assessing, Collect, Building Permit, and Utility Billing) based on conversion
information provided by the mapping vendors. We cannot, however, use that same information to systematically
update parcel acreages as this will virtually always involve an assessor's judgment (e.g. does the 3.75 acreage
increase in the parcel's size discovered during the remapping project get added to the parcel's existing
Unmanaged Hardwood or Wetlands?). We encourage you to contact us if you questions about this process.
Tax Collect
We will be rolling out the Tax Collect On-Line Kiosk for our initial user
(Madison) in March. We are almost done with the development and are really excited, as it is even better than the initial
pilot project we demonstrated several months ago. For those of you who are not familiar with the Kiosk, it will allow you
to export tax bill and transaction information as often as you like and post it to the Internet. The process is seamless,
similar to exporting the real estate tax service information, and is posted directly to Avitar's web server. You are then
able to refer taxpayers, banks, and real estate services to the web site for a complete display of a parcel's current
invoice status. This will be ready for first tax bills so please contact us if you are interested in this service.
We are also planning to have a user group in mid April specifically geared towards tax collectors that are either new tax
collectors or are new users of the Avitar Tax Collect system. We have found that the typical user groups often get into
such specific questions that new users sometimes leave more confused than they were when they came. If you are interested,
have deputies or new staff that would benefit from attending, or just feel like you yourself need a refresher course please
let us know.
Clerk/Motor Vehicle
We have played an active role on the MAAP Laser Printer Steering Committee
from its beginning, and the project is proceeding rapidly. The best news came when Commissioner Barthelmes decided to
provide the cities and towns with free laser printers. (So if you've been waiting to switch from the Browser to our
complete on-line MAAP system until you knew whether you would have to buy your own printers this is especially good news
for all of us.) The printer selected is an IBM Lexmark model T640. We will be working with DMV in June to certify our
software for use with the new laser registration form. The State will soon be finalizing the laser printer roll out schedule.
As stipulated by the original grant, the final laser printer project must be completed by September 2008.
The new registration is a blank plastic coated sheet of paper. Therefore, the Clerk system will retrieve all of the information
to be printed on the registration from the MAAP system, including the data to be formatted in a 2D barcode so a State Trooper
can scan driver/vehicle information from the registration into a laptop computer. If MAAP is unavailable for an extended period
of time, the DMV Help Desk will instruct the Municipal Agent to issue a 30 day temporary registration.
Thereafter, the registrant can obtain a permanent registration at either the DMV substation or the Municipal Agent.
For town only transactions, the existing registration (four part form) will be used. The next phase of this project will
focus on the redesign of the various DMV forms and the eventual complete elimination of impact printers. We will continue
to keep you informed and advocate on your behalf.
Building Permit
The January update included a number of new features that were discussed
at the December user group meeting, including the scheduler and the ability to add pictures to projects.
We appreciate the participation of those who attended. Perhaps more than with any of our other applications,
we rely on feedback and requests from our Building Permit users to guide us as we add new features and
capabilities to the program. So please keep your great suggestions coming. We will plan on distributing another
update during the summer.
Utlity Billing
Utility Billing update will be distributed in March --
we are just finishing it now. It contains several improvements requested by users.
We typically do not schedule user group meetings for this application as the attendance is relatively small
in comparison to our other programs. If you feel these would be useful let us know. If there is enough response
we can certainly schedule one at a time most convenient to everyone.
Welcome To Our Newest Clients
Town of Tilton
Town of Fitzwilliam
Town of Monroe
The Downloads page has been updated and now includes a brief slideshow on assessing views
as part of the market value, as well as our User Software Manuals.
Just click on the Downloads link (on the left side of the screen) to see what is available. Some downloads require Adobe Reader.
If you do not have Adobe Reader installed on your computer,
or if you want to get the latest version, you can scroll to the bottom of the Downloads page and there is a link for you.
If you need help with the download or do not have internet access, please contact us.
Older news...
Software Updates
Assessing CAMA System
New Cad Cam Sketch Program
Our new cad cam based sketch program is now available
and has created quite a stir with all of its features and ease of use. The most significant part of the upgrade is the conversion saving conversion program
Josh wrote to convert our current sketch information to the new format, saving
numerous hours of editing sketches. The conversion is done by us on site and generally takes
several hours, depending of course, on the size of the town, as well as the number of sketches that do not
convert perfectly. These will need to be addressed individually during the process by us or your assessor and us.
Tests and actual conversions seem to show the converted sketches with errors are less than 5%, with the new sketch being
the more accurate one. Conversion costs are as follows:
$500.00 less than 1,000 parcels
$750.00 less than 3,000 parcels
$1000.00 greater than 3,000 parcels
Check back to this page periodically for news on upcoming events...
|
|
| Copyright ©
2008 Avitar Associates of New England, Inc. All rights reserved. |
|
|
