Suffield’s Assessor announced on June 9 the completion of a pandemic-long project to streamline access to older survey maps by adding the information to property cards. The undertaking involved over 4,700 maps. Deputy Assessor Lisa Trase said, “First Selectwoman Mack challenged all departments to think outside the box and use the time the pandemic provided to improve services. This project has been on my ‘To Do List’ for quite some time and I’m grateful for the opportunity to partner with the Town Clerk and Tax Departments to get this job done.” Trase also noted that the town recently transitioned to Equality for its property card database, saving over $25,000 in upgrade fees required by the town’s previous provider, Vision. To locate a property card, go to the Assessor page at www.suffieldct.gov.
Prior to the project’s completion, finding older property survey maps often involved time-consuming sleuthing, by hand, through inter-departmental documents including deeds, Assessor map books and Town Clerk land records. The cumbersome process resulted when the town transitioned to an online Geographic Information System (GIS) but existing survey map numbers were never converted and remained accessible only via the above circuitous route. To fix the problem, Assessor map books were cross-referenced against Town Clerk index books to identify the volume and page where survey maps were stored. Those maps and lot numbers were then entered into GIS to be visible on property cards.
“This was a tedious project but our efforts paid off with simple, online retrieval of printable survey maps and time-savings for employees,” said Trase. “For residents, that means if there’s a property map filed in the land records, that map number is now readily available.”
For additional questions, contact Deputy Assessor Lisa Trase at 860-668-3866.