Dinges running for tax assessor

EPHRATA - Realtor Dave Dinges announced Thursday he is running for county tax assessor.

He faces off against incumbent Laure Grammer and county public record's officer Melissa McKnight.

Dinges said that he has more than 20 years of experience in the real estate field including assessing properties.

"Some of the property assessments that I see (in Grant County) just don't make sense," he said.

As a part of his business, Dinges said he valued 250 properties last year.

He said while most land, homes and farms in the county do appear to be assessed fairly there are some serious problems with the way lake lots are assessed.

He also said he thinks some of the factories in the county may be incorrectly valued.

"When you're trying to determine fair market value for a factory built for a specific use, you can't include (the value) of the equipment. You have to look at the probability of selling the building for its intended use and there is no way in the world that in this climate that they could sell that specific use property for what they assess it at. It needs special attention," he said. He said that he did not want to identify the specific properties to which he was referring.

He said he appeared before the county's Board of Equalization to appeal property assessments and said the board members were very fair and knowledgeable.

He said he also managed 20 employees with a previous business venture and feels comfortable managing people. He served on the Grant County Planning Department during the late 1990s when the group was developing the county's Growth Management Action Plan.

Dinges moved to Grant County in 1990. His son is a Big Bend Community College graduate and works for a company that maintains MedStar helicopters.