With the impending retirement of long-time Gorham Assessor Mike D’Arcangelo, the Town Council is considering the option of contracting with Cumberland County for assessing services rather than replacing D’Arcangelo and his assistant, who recently resigned.

Town Manager David Cole noted that it can be difficult to find qualified assessors, and towns have been hiring them away from other local communities. Several communities including Falmouth, Yarmouth and Casco, are using a regional assessing service. Town Manager David Cole expects it would probably be less expensive for the Town than hiring a new assessor and an assistant assessor. The Town Council will review the situation and make the determination as to whether to hire a new assessor or to contract with Cumberland County for assessing services.

The Assessing Department is responsible for assigning and updating tax values on all existing and new tax parcels as well as doing property inspections, sales studies and providing information to realtors and others. The department also assigns addresses for new lots and subdivisions, processes all property transfers, administers tax exemption programs such as farm use, homestead, veteran and others that result in tax savings for property owners.

The main value components of a given property are the square footage, quality of construction including design features such as high/cathedral ceilings, and the use of building materials such as granite. In Gorham, location has a big impact on the sale price and therefore on the tax value along with age, upkeep, neighboring properties, and room size.

According to D’Arcangelo, in 2015, the Gorham Assessing Department completed a town wide revaluation using market studies and other information to reassign new tax values to all Gorham properties. This was done to more accurately reflect market values. Because of the Town’s rapid growth, he believes that another revaluation should probably be done within the next two years or so.