The most recent townwide property revaluation has resulted in a crush of approximately 200 valuation appeals, including more than a dozen involving local commercial entities with property assessed at more than $1 million.The Newtown Bee, even one of those emergency appointees had to resign, leaving only Mr McFarland and the remaining appointees to complete the many hearings and appeals decisions.

That excessive workload on the three elected members of the Board of Assessment Appeals (BAA) is daunting enough - but since last fall's municipal elections, two of its members have resigned, and an additional member appointed to fill one of those vacancies has informed colleagues of his intent to resign as well.

This has put tremendous pressure on a process that not only must address concerns of residents, property, and business owners who feel their valuations are for whatever reason too high, but that also has to meet state deadlines as the town formulates and reports 2017 grand list information to the state's Office of Policy and Management (OPM).

Former Republican BAA Chair Marianne Brown, who was elected last November, recently resigned along with Democrat Maureen Crick-Owen, who had no choice as she was elected to the Board of Selectman.

That left the responsibility of handling all the assessment appeals on the shoulders of incumbent Republican BAA member James McFarland and recent Democratic appointee Tom Dwyer, as the town continued to seek an appointee for the third open seat.

But according to Assessor Penny Mudgett, Mr Dwyer informed the board that he intended to resign because of the unanticipated work load demand as appeal application flooded the Assessor's Office ahead of the February 20 deadline.

As that pending departure was revealed, First Selectman Dan Rosenthal was already seeking an extension to file grand list data at a later date from the OPM. At the same time, Mr Rosenthal and the Board of Selectmen also sought an endorsement from the Legislative Council to appoint four emergency BAA members exclusively for the 60-day period during which the pending load of appeals will be heard and processed.

Unfortunately, Ms Mudgett told 

The four appointees are former Board of Finance Chairman John Godin, former Charter Revision Commissioner Deb Zukowski, and residents Connie Cooper and Charles Framularo. Mr Framularo has since resigned his appointment, Ms Mudgett said.

During a BAA meeting March 27, Ms Mudgett said that Mr McFarland was elected chairman, set hearing dates for commercial properties valued at more than $1 million for April 12 and April 25, and determined that the remaining members would take turns sitting in on appeals to ensure that there would always be at least three members on hand to take in information and render final decisions.

Those hearings will reconvene on Thursday, March 29, and continue on April 4, 5, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 26, and are scheduled to conclude on May 1 and 2.