[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Hello, I'm Jackie Broach, and this is First Friday with Georgetown County. For those who have not yet met her, I want to introduce you to a very special lady here in the Georgetown county library system. This is Sylvana Collins, our new head of children's services for the Georgetown County Library system. Silvana is doing some really great and exciting things for kids over at the library branches, and she's going to tell us a little bit about that today.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Well, most of you know me. I used to work with Ms. Sheila. I was her assistant for five years. And prior to that, I had worked with her as the Hispanic outreach librarian. So I was with her for 10 years, and she kind of taught me a lot of what I know. Now, some of it are my own ideas. And most of what is going on here at the library is teamwork. You know, we have a wonderful staff that bring ideas to me. We just had a T testing that was inspired by the Black History Month. And Ashley, who's a coworker of us, was the person that introduced us to Kidogo Farm. And it was an amazing program that was last week, very informative, fun and delicious.
So we will be repeating that again. But the programs that we are right now putting are kind of a tryout.
We started doing programs in November when I started back at the library, and we started with Thanksgiving. So we did four, four or five programs for Thanksgiving. Then we did five programs for Christmas. January was a little bit of a downtime to get ourselves organized, get things out of boxes, see what we have. And basically February, we really kind of got programs out. We had candy sushi for Valentine's Day, and that went really well. So wonderful that the parents asked us to do more stuff like that. So we decided based on that when we have, you know, people coming to our programs, we like to do them and repeat them. So we're gonna be doing this month for St. Patrick's Day. On St. Patrick's Day, Monday the 17th, we're gonna be making decorating cookies. So we'll have icing and sprinkles and we'll decorate the cookies. I have a limit of 40 participants. So if you're interested, please either come and sign up or you can call us at 843-545-3310 or 843-545-3311.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: We also also have a fun scavenger hunt coming up. Right.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: So the whole Monday from the time we open 9:00 until the time we close 6:30, you can come and find the Leprechauns So what you're going to do is you're going to come to the library and you're going to tell me a number of leprechauns you've seen in the children's department. And if you get the right number, then you get a surprise price in our golden pot. And all you have to do is just dig in and whatever comes out that is yours to take, that's in the same day.
This week we had story time. And what we did is we did Dr. Seuss birthday story time. So Vanessa and Sarah, they kind of dressed up like the Cat in the Hat. And the kids were invited to come dressed up as their favorite character from the books. And it was a fun day. It was a fun event.
We also are doing on Friday, so today is our first movie and I.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Believe is A League of Their Own.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: A League of their own at 3:00. And we'll have Mulan, Encanto and Hidden Figures. So that way we check all our boxes. You know, we do Women's History month with its Dr. Seuss. We're doing St. Patrick's so that gave us about 51 programs for this month.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: 51 programs, wow.
[00:05:06] Speaker C: Well, the thing is that it sounds.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: Impressive, but I mean, take the credit, that's impressive. 51 programs.
[00:05:14] Speaker C: But the key is that what we're doing is we're trying programs at 10:30 and 3 in the afternoon. And basically the program mirrors each other. So if in the morning I have a story time, in the afternoon, I have book club. If the morning I have music time in the afternoon, I have something similar for older kids. And we're trying to see what programs are going to continue. You know, there are some programs like crafting and board games and things like that that are free. So you, like, you come and you play with them. It's not like you have to have somebody on top of you doing them with you.
Those might change a little bit depending on how many people use them. The goal is that we want to take everything that we have in our storage time, in our storage room, in our boxes and put it out there for the public to use. Some of those things you will be able to take home and use them and then bring them back.
There are some fun games. We have a huge Jenga that people like to use is fun.
And. And then we, if, if a program does not work, we give it three to six months, then we replace it with something else.
Right now we're focusing very much into getting ready for the summer reading Program, which is our most popular, popular and stressful time of the year.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: What is the theme for this year's summer reading?
[00:06:56] Speaker C: The theme for this year is Color Our World, which brings a lot of art, a lot of. So we're going to be doing the first thing. Our kickoff event is going to be with April Bench. She is the person that did the mural here at the library.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: In the children's area.
[00:07:18] Speaker C: In the children's area. And she is going to do a program where she's going to teach the kids how an illustrator goes about doing that. When you're writing a book and they are going to kind of do one themselves, then we're going to paint color, toe bag, where they'll take, you know, their summer reading program. We're going to make a calendar. We're going to have bookmarks and other things that they can take with them that day. And then the Same day at 11, the sheriff's department will have their ice.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Oh, they're. They're slushy.
I forget what they're called. For the moment. Snow cones.
[00:08:03] Speaker C: That's snow cone. So that would be outside. So it will be a fun day where you'll do stuff in here and then on your way out, you get a treat.
And then basically we have all the programs, the major programs that we're sharing with the branches, all branches. So if you miss something in one branch, you. And you heard that that program was awesome, and that you. You just feel like, oh, I should have been able to make it. Chances are you can in a different branch.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Another opportunity.
[00:08:34] Speaker C: Another opportunity, exactly.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I love that. When you walk through the doors at the Georgetown branch, there's immediately this big sign that has little flyers on it. You can see how much is going on at the library. There is just always, always something happening here. And everything pretty much is free.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: So it's.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: It's just a wonderful place to come and enjoy family time.
[00:08:55] Speaker C: But, Adam, for interrupting you for a second. And I gotta thank the community because this year we had a lot of volunteers.
The Watercolor Society is volunteering to do in the summer class. It is limited, so some of the programs are definitely limited. So you need to call and register because they are bringing everything for that program.
It has some programs, has an age limitation, you know, that also has, you know, to be considered. But like I said before, you know, we have these 10, 30 programs for 0 to 5, and then three 30 programs for 6 to 13.
So chances are you'll find something fun to do at the library.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: I want to hear about Your favorite thing to do here at the library. What's the best part of your job?
[00:09:52] Speaker C: The play with the kids all day long. We do fun stuff. I do love doing story times.
We are outreaching to the daycares right now, so we see about 210 kids a month. We visit the daycares every Monday.
We have them scheduled. So so far, I believe we have two or six, eight daycares that we're visiting.
It is fun because when you do a story time, it's very participative. You know, in our story time is basically trilingual because we use some Spanish words. It could be colors, it could be counting, it can be animals, it can be as we are clapping, we can say manos instead of hands, things like that. So there's a little bit of Spanish vocabulary there. But it also has sign language. And my.
I love sign language. I'm not great at it, but I train myself and I prepare myself every week so that we can do something really fun with the kids. And it's beautiful to see how the first time we do a song, they.
They catch up with it, you know, as soon as we start signing. And then like, we have the hello song, where we start the story time and we sing it one time where they see me doing it, then they sing with me, then we sing it fast, then we sing it really slow, and then we sing it with no words, which means it completely signing. And it's fantastic to see them do it. And then they thank me. This is thank you in sign language. But the little ones do this way, and I'll take it every day.
And you're welcome. Is this way. So I go to YouTube.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Oh, that's wonderful. And I love your enthusiasm.
[00:11:59] Speaker C: I love working with kids. It's just.
It makes my day worth a billion, billion, billion, billion pieces of gold.
Yeah.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Well, if you guys have not met Sylvana yet, her office is at the Georgetown branch, but I believe she's out and about and visits all of the branches as part of her programs and such. So come on out, say hi. Bring your kids. They will love her, and they will love all the programs.
[00:12:24] Speaker C: Go to your branches. All the branches have beautiful programs. The library is not only a place where you can gather information, but it's also a place where you can learn things in a fun way. You can learn math by playing a board game. You can learn about the parts of a story by acting it like imagining. We have a small group of homeschoolers, and they use sometimes the story time room. Where they come dressed up like girls, come dressed up as princesses, they build castles, and they talk and teach the kids about the parts of the story. This is the beginning, this is the end, this is the middle. This is the plot. These are the characters by kind of, in a way, performing it. So give your library near you a try and you might be surprised that there's a lot of fun stuff to do.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: Absolutely. Libraries are books are, of course, still a wonderful, huge part of it, but they are so much more these days. Savannah, thank you so much for joining us.
[00:13:38] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you, Jackie. Thank you.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: Up next, we're going to talk with Walt Ackerman, our director of administrative services, and Timothy Holt, our county assessor. Reassessment has been a topic on everybody's minds lately, and I think it has probably got some people worrying just a little bit. So we're going to have these two gentlemen talk with us a little bit about reassessment, what that means. Of course, it only happens once every five years. So often between one reassessment and the next, people forget a little bit about how it works. So, gentleman who wants to lead off.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Let Tim go tell us about reassessment.
[00:14:18] Speaker D: The countywide reassessment is conducted every five years. It's required by state department revenue.
We do go back and try to get as much information as we can throughout years. This year is our 202025 reassessment, and it will be based on the values of property that sold in 2024, this being the reassessment that going to be taking place.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Let's start simple. What does reassessment do? Why do we have it?
[00:14:51] Speaker D: The state wants us to try to equalize the values across the board.
So every five years they want us to do like a reset, bring it up to the market. Because right now we're running off of 2019 values. Everybody knows what the market's done in the last five years. So we have to go back and reset the market values to what's current, keep everybody uniform.
There are certain guidelines and sets in place to keep that from being a tremendous burden to people. The capping issues we have that state law put in there to keep people from being taxed out of their homes.
But we do have to go back and maintain the correct market values.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Okay, so let's go back to that cap.
Just, you know, my house has increased way more, I think, according to the banks and stuff, than I feel like it has. I think a lot of people are going to see that because as you said, the market value has just gone up tremendously over the last five years. But if my house has doubled in value, that does not mean that my property taxes are doubling in value, correct?
[00:16:01] Speaker D: Not necessarily, no. There is a 15% maximum on your house. They can only be tax at 15% above market value of what it was prior.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: Okay, so if my. I bought my house in say 2005, and that's the price that you guys have been using going forward because it hasn't been sold again since then, it is probably going to be. Your value is going to be way less than what the market value is. Correct.
[00:16:29] Speaker D: Not necessarily 2005. We've had two other reassessments since. You have 1 in 10, 15 and.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: 20, but it was capped at 15% for each.
[00:16:38] Speaker D: 15% above each one. So the 2010 reassessment, it went up to the market value to 2010. If there was an increase, it was only, you know, taxable amount was only increased 15%. It did it again in 2015 and 2020, and it'll do it again. 25.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Okay, but it's not going up like 50% because that gap is in place.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: Yeah. So, and, and I think the part to clarify for people is there are two different numbers that we're talking about. One is, as Tim said, the market value, which is what your house would sell for.
The other is the taxable value. The market value can be as much. It's going to be a true number. Whatever the, whatever the sales market dictates is what the market value is going to be. The taxable value is what is capped at no greater than a 15% increase over the five year period. So it's going to be two different numbers, but the one that's going to affect people the most is that taxable value.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: Okay, so what can the average person in Georgetown county probably expect to see happen to their tax bill as a result of reassessment?
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Probably not much at all. So the other side. And so Tim being in the assessor's office, he deals with the values on the houses. Once those values are established and the cap is calculated, then another calculation is done outside of the assessor's office to adjust the millage.
It's called a rollback. So county council by law has to adjust the millage or roll it back so that they don't. So that the county doesn't collect any more taxes than they collected the prior year on those previously taxed homes. This wouldn't apply to homes that were recently built. You know, with that had not been taxed in the previous year. So if all the property values across the county go up by 15%, which is highly unlikely, but most are going to be close. So if the entire value goes up 15% then the millage has to roll back 15%. So everybody's taxes stay the same as they were the year before.
Now county council also has the option to increase millage rate by inflation. So there are some inflation factors. The number they're going to be working on this year for the CPI consumer Price index inflation value is 2.95%. We have yet to get the growth factor from the U.S. census Bureau. So we don't know exactly what their limitation would be this year. But the, the part that's affected by reassessment will be rolled back to make a neutral tax impact to people.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: And then there's school taxes and all this other stuff that has to be factored into. There's a lot that goes into to your tax bill but apart from reassessment. The bottom line is that reassessment won't impact your tax bill very much.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Correct. It's a good thing you mentioned school taxes because I think it's important for everybody listening to know if you own your home and that is your primary residence, you need to make sure you apply for primary residence discount in the assessor's office. So by state law, if you are being taxed on your primary residence, you don't pay the school tax portion.
You're taxed at 4% of the value of the home versus 6% of the value of the home. And you also don't pay the school tax portion that's paid by the state to this local school district. So it basically cuts your tax bill by more than half. So if you're living in your home and that's your primary residence, don't stop, don't pass go, don't collect $200, come down to the assessor's office and file for primary residence.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Is there a way to check and see if somebody is already signed up for that if they're already getting that tax break?
[00:20:49] Speaker D: It's a one time application, they don't have to do it any other times. When they get an assessment notice. On the front page of the assessment notice it's going to have ratio, it's going to be 4 or 6%. 4 percentage. The 1 signifies your legal residence. If it's listed as a secondary home, it's going to be six.
You can go on our county websites, you can see on Q. Public especially it's got land use. If it has a queue in the front, that's 4% as the end is 6%.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:21:21] Speaker D: Or they can call our office.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: So you can access all that via our county
[email protected] and when will the tax assessment notices go out?
[00:21:31] Speaker D: We're trying to get them out in July.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:21:34] Speaker D: We have till October 1st to have them out, but we're trying to get them ahead of time to help the council set millage rates and things like that. So we'll have that file ready to.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Go and that will have your new property value on it. People should not confuse that for a tax bill though, Correct?
[00:21:49] Speaker D: Correct. It says across the top this is not a tax bill.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Well, we know people don't always see all the, this is a fine print but sometimes they don't see the large print either.
[00:21:59] Speaker D: There's three good items they need to seal here. One was the ratio, the capped value and also the appeal deadline. If they feel like the market value is not correct and they want to have a change, they have a 90 day window to appeal the ceremony.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: And talk to me about how appeals.
[00:22:16] Speaker D: Work, the bill process. It depends on what they're they're appealing. If they're appealing to market value, they have to realize that everything is compared off of homes that sold in 2024 and that's what we have to have. It can't be before or after.
If they see we've made a mistake and they think it's, you know, too much or, you know, they want to check the square footage, check the age of the house components and things like that that do increase or decrease your taxable value. It is available on the website as well. Q. Public it tells the square footage, the age of the home, things of that nature. That'd be a good place to start. Also have some of the homes have sketches on them. Most of them do. If they feel like there's an error in the square footage of the house, that's an item we won't correct, that would directly affect your tax. If they want to appeal it, the biggest thing to do, if they have some sort of evidence that contradict what we have, they would need to bring it to light and let us see it.
That would be the easy. They can do it in our office. They don't have to hire an appraiser, really don't have to consult anybody. Just, you know, make a one page note to us. There's appeal form on the assessment notice at the bottom and call our office we make it as simple as possible and easy to do.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: Okay. And what would happen after that?
[00:23:39] Speaker D: We would go back and review it all, consider it, see what if there was an error, find it. We talk with the owner of the property, explain our findings, and, you know, whatever the results were.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think it's important for people to know we do make mistakes. You know, I mean, everybody. Tim and all of his staff are. They're not perfect. And to put it in perspective, we have 57,000 pieces of property in Georgetown county, and we got five people that are reviewing 57,000 pieces of property. It's pretty easy to make a mistake when you're dealing with those kind of volumes.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: So if something doesn't look right, in short, call the assessor's office, bring it to their attention, and they can probably get it worked out. You don't need an attorney, you don't need to hire an appraiser, anything like that. Sometimes a phone call is all it takes to get it taken care of.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: And we would prefer people to fill out the appeals form. That way we have a documented record. They can follow up with a phone call if they'd like later on. But it's, you know, depending on the volume of appeals, it will take some time to work through all of them.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:24:49] Speaker D: Had people bring me in their house plans 20 years ago and say, oh, there's upper room here. It's not there, but it was on the plan. They said we didn't build it. And so those kind of things would change stuff.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Okay, great.
Well, what else? Is there anything else people should know before these assessment notices go out this summer?
[00:25:13] Speaker D: That's really kind of the scope of it. The biggest thing was I just asked that they don't have to go spend a bunch of money getting an appraiser to come out. A lot of people would just turn it over to an appraisal management company or somebody. You see an ad or they get a flyer, you're paying too much taxes. Before they go spend a bunch of money or any money at all, that we're free and we're the ones going to have to help them. And we're not there to navigate taxes. We just want the values correct. That's our job.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: Because, again, whatever the value is, we don't make more money this month, so.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: All right, well, guys, thank you so much, and I appreciate your coming on with us this month.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Thank you so much.
[00:25:57] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: As Sylvana said earlier, there are plenty of events going on at the library to choose from, including story times, a St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt and a Women's History Movie Month series. There's also an adult program on the biology of the American Alligator at the Georgetown Library at 10am on March 18 featuring Dr. Thomas Rainwater of Clemson's Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science.
Over in the Parks and Recreation Department, registration for youth track and field is open through the end of this month, with meet starting April 5th. Register online at gtcparks.org on St. Patrick's Day, Georgetown Outdoor Adventure Trails, better known as Goat, will host a Shamrock Hike at Rocky Point and a Goat Globe at Choppy Creek. The hike is from 10am to noon and the paddle is from 1pm to 4pm Email goatherdtcounty.org to sign up. That's also the day the Fit Goat Team Challenge starts. Learn
[email protected] goat Georgetown County Council meets the this month on March 11th and the 25th. The Planning Commission meets on the 20th. For more upcoming events, check out our calendar@gt county.org this has been First Friday with Georgetown County. Thank you so much for joining us. Please join us again next month.
