Pomfret Town Supervisor Dan Pacos used that word property owners despise: Reassessment.

Pacos suggested at the January town board meeting that a reassessment of property values is overdue, noting the last assessment was in the early 1970s. An assessors office Pomfret is sharing with other towns could help do the job, he explained.

“Several” of the towns are interested in doing their own reassessments, Pacos said. He thinks the shared assessor can do a collective Request for Proposals on a reassessment for all the towns, to save money.

A reassessment is “a lot of work to get ready,” Pacos noted, necessitating many months of records review. That’s one reason they happen so rarely in any municipality. Another reason, of course, is their extreme unpopularity among residents, who can expect to see higher taxes after their property values get adjusted for inflation.

The towns of Dunkirk, Hanover, Portland and Villenova share the assessor’s office with Pomfret. Portland was just added in January, the Pomfret Town Board resolving to let the town join in.

Pacos touted a recent $25,259.33 grant from the state to Pomfret as a “shared services” reward for not only the assessor’s office, but the joint comprehensive plan with the village of Fredonia.

“I was hoping one or the other would qualify, but we qualified for both,” he said.