County property information available on the Web

Rural residents saved potential trip to courthouse, assessor says

Want to know how much your property is worth, or who owns the apartment building next door?

Thanks to a new Web site unveiled by the Grant County Assessor's Office, the answers to those questions, and many more, are only a mouse click away.

Assessor Laure Grammer said the county recently unveiled a new site that will allow Web surfers to access all information available at her office from the comfort of their own homes.

The Web address is http://gismapserver.co.grant.wa.us. Within its pages, users can check which school district they live in, what their property taxes should be or whether the live in a flood zone.

Sometimes, rural dwellers need to know which section township range they live in for phone companies, and this site provides that information, Grammer said.

"Everything on here is public information. There's nothing confidential here," Grammer said.

Web browsers can also access the site by going to Grant County's home page, www.co.grant.wa.us, and clicking on the link to Geographic Information System maps.

County and city officials have been working together to develop the Web site since 1996, she said. The cost has been minimal to taxpayers, Grammer said, because she used existing staff to compile the information.

The most expensive part of the site, Grammer said, is the 99 satellite aerial photos that cover every land parcel in the county. Those photos cost $160,000 to take, but that cost was borne by a cooperative of Grant

County public agencies, including fire districts, hospital districts and cities, to be used for other means, she said.

The people who will see the most benefit from Web site, Grammer said, will be people who live in unincorporated, rural areas. Those people call the assessor's office often with questions about which taxing districts they live in, she said.

The site was created in part from encouragement from local realtors, who wanted a central place to check property values, Grammer said.

In fact, she called the launching of the Web site "real estate agencies' dream."