Green Home Improvements

Whether you’re building a house from scratch or looking to increase the energy efficiency of your home, there are a number of things you can do to make your home more sustainable and greener.

Buildings have an enormous impact on the environment. According to a report by the U.S. Green Building Council, the design, construction and operation of buildings accounts for more than 40% of energy used and pollution generated in the United States. Typically, demolition and construction debris accounts for 15-20% of municipal solid waste in landfills. According to some estimates, as much as 90% of this waste could be reused or recycled.

Here are some important tips to remember for green and sustainable buildings:

1. Heating and cooling use more energy and drains more energy dollars than any other system in your home. Approximately 43% of utility bills cover heating and cooling.
2. Close curtains and shades at night to keep warmth in and keep them open during the day.
3. Try new lighting control technologies like motion-sensitive or timed off switch lighting. Using these new options can reduce lighting use by 50% - 75% and save the lighting portion of energy bills that account for 11% of overall household energy consumption.
4. Replace ordinary light bulbs with compact florescent light bulbs. If every household replaced just one light bulb with a CFL bulb, America could save enough energy to light nearly 3,000,000 homes.
5. Install a programable thermostat to keep your home comfortably warm in the winter and comfortably cool in the summer.
6. Replacing windows can save between 7% and 24% of the household heating and cooling expense.
7. Plug home electronics such as TVs and DVD players into power strips and turn off the power strips when the equipment is not in use as TVs and DVDs in standby mode still consume several watts of power.

For more information and resources regarding green building technologies, please contact your local building department.

Fire Prevention

The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) reports from 2017 – 2019 an average of 9,200 fires are reported each year to Fire Departments across the United States over the 3-day period around Halloween. These fires resulted in an annual average of 25 deaths, 100 injuries, and $117 million in property loss.

The leading causes of residential Halloween fires were cooking (49%); heating (12%); other unintentional, careless actions (8%); and electrical malfunctions (8%). Halloween fires occurred most frequently in the afternoon and early evening hours, peaking from 6 to 7PM. Fires then declined, reaching the lowest point during the early morning from 3 to 6AM.

Estimating Taxes for a New Home/Addition/Change

The property tax system in Michigan is very complex, and there are not many “rules of thumb” that can be followed when estimating taxes.  It will always be safer to contact the assessing department if you are looking for an estimate of how a new home purchase, an addition to your property, or some other change in a property will affect the taxes.  The assessing office is the best place to go when looking for an estimate of taxes for a new home, which can change dramatically when compared to the taxes of a previous owner.  It is common to see taxes double for a new owner, when compared to the taxes of a prior owner when the property comes "uncapped."  This is one of many reasons it is a good idea to contact our office when looking for property tax estimates.  Give us a call at 517-669-6494 to help prevent the under-estimating of your taxes. 

Home Values

As the leaves change and the weather turns cooler, the assessing department starts to transition towards year-end calculations of property assessments for the 2022 tax year.  Each year, property values are analyzed to determine if our assessed values are keeping up with changes in the overall real estate market.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, we saw a brief drop in housing sales, followed by strong sales and increasing prices.  As we determine the appropriate home values for the upcoming year, we must consider these sales.  We make an independent appraisal of each property; however, we must also factor in changes in the real estate market.  We look at 24 months of sales to determine trends, and then apply them to individual properties, to arrive at your assessed value for the upcoming year.  Our tentative valuations are mailed to each property owner in February, contained in your assessment notice.

Delinquent Sewer Bill Reminder

Sewer bills which are four months delinquent are liened to the winter property taxes on November 1, 2021. In addition, any amounts turned over to taxes are assessed a $20 turnover charge.

Park News

Township parks remain open for residents and visitors to enjoy from dawn to dusk. Restroom facilities will be closed and winterized in early November.  The DeWitt Dog Park will be closed on December 1st.  It will re-open in April, weather permitting.

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