County officials are zeroing in on a timeline that will bring the county its first property reassessment in over 40 years.

But the effort will be contingent on the Warren County School Board signing on to two other county initiatives.

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said during Monday’s work session that a study of assessment values in the county as well as a Council of Governments municipal committee have “emphatically” suggested the county take this step.

He asked the commissioners to approve the tentative schedule during the Wednesday meeting to assist in soliciting school district and municipal support, including a resolution for those entities to approve.

“The goal here is to build as much awareness,” Eggleston said, “and municipal support for it.”

Eggleston explained that the county moving on reassessment would require the school board signing on to a landbank initiative as well as a LERTA, or tax abatement program.

He said their participation in those efforts “would be required to continue with reassessment.”

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said that it is “unfortunate” that they “have to put in the carrot, I suppose, about LERTA and the landbank.

“Those two should stand on their own,” he said. “We aren’t the ones that tied them together…. That’s politics.”

On the reassessment more specifically, Eggleston explained that the county aims to issue a request for proposals and get responses by roughly the end of September. The goal then would be to have a contract signed early next year to permit the data collection process to commence.

He said the timeline proposals are based on proposals submitted to the county in 2014.

“When we get into the project,” Chief Assessor Brian Bull noted that the timeline is “going to be pretty much dictated” by the contractor.

He speculated the data collection will take a year.

“We want to get it right,” he stressed.”

While this reassessment will be a massive project, officials indicate subsequent reassessments down the road can be less involved.

Kafferlin said the recommended time frame is to reassess every seven years.

“They get cheaper the closer they are because (you are) not changing very much,” he said.

But the first reassessment in 40 year doesn’t bring that benefit.

“This is kind of like deferred maintenance,” Kafferlin said.