By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@thecitizennews.com

By the middle of August, nearly 10,000 homeowners will receive tax assessments on their property.

But fear not, long-time residents, the assessments are only going to those residents who have added something to their homes or live in a new subdivision.

That's the verdict from Coweta County Tax Assessor Mickey Rogers, who said the county wanted to do a full-scale reevaluation of all the property, but couldn't because of computer glitches.

“We had planned to do it all this year, but then we had to switch computer programs in the middle of last year to be Y2K compatible,” he said.

When deciding which property to reassess, Rogers said it's far easier and more accurate to do a new subdivision with 20 homes sold than a single home out in the county.

“You might not have another sale for five miles, which doesn't give you a lot of data,” he said.

The county's last reevaluation of all the property was in 1991 and Rogers hopes to do it again next year, once all the computer glitches from the new program are solved.

The new system is DOS based, and Rogers hopes to switch to a Windows based program in the next two months.

If the appraisals go out Aug. 15, Rogers said the tax digest and millage rates for the various municipalities could be finalized Oct.1 with tax bills going out later in October.