BERLIN, Md. -- At Berlin's most recent council meeting, a heated debate unfolded during the public comment section. It centered around the property value of a local Dollar General store.
"Now the town I've invested in is working against me, what a slap in the face," said Delegate Wayne Hartman, speaking at the Berlin council meeting on Monday, May 12th.
Hartman was at Monday's meeting, not as a representative of the state, but as a representative for himself as the property owner of the Dollar General at 105 Decatur Street.
"So for two years I had been appealing through the State Department of Assessment and Taxation, the valuation of the property here," Hartman told us in an interview in the days following the meeting.
Hartman believed his property, previously valued at around $2.2 million, was too high. So, over a two-year period, he gathered evidence. He tells WBOC he reached out to and had the property valued by multiple real estate professionals.
"They put the valuation on the property at $1,725,000 at a 7.5% cap rate," said Hartman.
Hartman's appeal was successful. The state dropped the property value by $491,000. The decrease, being greater than 20%, triggered a letter to Berlin officials.
"What we're talking about is a change in valuation of pretty much a half a million dollars," said Mayor Zack Tyndall. "It's not a small change."
So, according to Tyndall, town staff filed an appeal to gather more information.
"They chose to take the appeal route, to get more information because the information we received was just a one-page letter that was very vague," said Tyndall.
The letter notified the town that the property value had decreased and provided the property address and applicant(Wayne Hartman). Outside of that, Tyndall said it didn't give the town much context.
Hartman did help fill in the blanks, telling WBOC his goal was to lower his property tax bill, which is nearing $40,000 per year, to a fair value. Dollar General reimburses Hartman, so by reducing the tax bill, Hartman believed the store had a better chance of staying open for the foreseeable future.
"There is an underserved community here that this store serves as their Food Lion, this store serves as their Walmart, people walk here, they depend on the store," said Hartman.
Given his reasoning, Hartman believes the town's move to appeal was unfair and not in the best interest of local businesses.
"I just want to position my tenant so that they're successful here," said Hartman. "I would hope that our local elected would be trying to make sure that the businesses that are invested in their community are successful and [would say] 'how can we help you?'"
Tyndall, however, said the town is just looking for more details on a unique situation.
"It's very easy to paint it as Berlin has a stance against reassessments, but keep in mind, we've never done this," said Tyndall. "This is our first time that we have ever encountered a situation like this."
Tyndall said the town is working to resolve this at the state level. At least right now, there is no timeline for a resolution.