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Assessors are required to submit these values to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue for certification every three years. In the years between certification the Assessors must also maintain values and make adjustments according to market conditions. The Town of Needham reassesses values each and every year. This is done so that the property taxpayer pays his or her fair share of the cost of local government in proportion to the amount of money the property is worth, on a yearly basis rather than every three years.
The Needham Assessors Office appraises and assesses approximately 12,000 parcels of real and personal property each year.
The Board of Assessors is required to annually assess taxes in an amount sufficient to cover the state and local appropriations chargeable to the town. These taxes assessed will include state taxes, which have been duly certified to the Board, town taxes voted by the town (including Prop. 2 1/2), and all taxes voted and certified by the annual Town Meeting.
The Assessors' Office has nothing to do with the total amount of taxes collected. The Assessors' primary responsibility is to find and list the "full and fair cash value" of your property, so that you only pay your fair share of the taxes. The tax rate is determined by all the taxing agencies within the town, and is the basis for the budget needed or demanded by the voters to provide the services, such as schools, roads, and public safety. The tax rate is the factor that is applied to the total value of all property in the town and the levy.
The object of an assessment program is to estimate "full and fair" cash value as of January (known as the assessment date) of the year preceding the fiscal year.
Certifying a vernal pool with the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program provides the pool, and up to 100 feet beyond its boundary in some cases, certain protection under several local, state and federal laws.
These regulations help to eliminate direct impacts to certified vernal pools and to minimize indirect impacts. Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Spec
• If you do not have the bill, send a check with the owner's name, the vehicle's license plate number, the tax period being paid and the amount being paid clearly indicated to: Tax Collector, Town of Needham, 1471 Highland Avenue, Needham, MA 02492.
• If you pay your bills via your personal computer, you may use the bill payer option from your own bank account. Please be sure to only reference the Tax Account ID # if you are paying an Excise tax bill. If you include any other verbiage, your payment may be rejected.
• If you want a receipt or need to pay by cash or simply want to pay in person, come to the Needham Town Hall at 1471 Highland Ave, 1st Floor Collector/Treasurer’s Office between the hours of 8:30 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Friday.
• If you have been notified by the Registry of Motor Vehicles that you can not renew a license or registration because of unpaid auto excise taxes, you must call the Office of the Deputy Collector @ (781) 828-4219 or visit Mass. Deputy
Diamonds: renovation, edging, infield mix and conditioner, organic weed control, backstop repair. Multi-purpose Fields: aeration, sod for goal mouths, organic treatment, renovation, overseeding. Miscellaneous: irrigation and bubbler repairs, equipment repair and parts, soil testing, soil amendments, fence repairs, supplies.
• The Needham Firefighters/EMT’s have over 40 years of continued experience providing EMS care within the Town. They offer tremendous knowledge of the Town, it’s buildings, streets, fields and parks. There is no need to depend on GPS systems that transient workers would require. Further, fire personnel develop intimate relationships with sick and infirmed residents over time. These relationships help re-assure those most vulnerable of our Town and reduce the need to re-explain their medical history in depth over and over.
• A fire based EMS system allows for patient treatment to begin immediately, even if the patient is trapped in a building on fire, pinned in a car crash or in a collapsed building. The same people who will conduct extrication can also begin patient treatment during those operations.
• Firefighter/EMT’s are among the most stable workforce in Town. It is common place for fire service personnel to remain at their jobs for well over 30 years. This stability translates into a special commitment to the Town and its people that no private ambulance service could offer. Private ambulance workers are often transient, working shifts in a number of communities without commitment to any town in particular. • Firefighter/EMT’s assigned to the ambulance are available to respond to all types of emergencies and can offer services beyond the scope of EMS when needed, thus increasing the productivity of our department services.
• A fire based EMS system is seamless and timely. Once the 911 call is made, dispatch needs only to make one announcement to activate a single response that will provide an all hazards response. There is no need to make a separate call to a private ambulance service, thus saving valuable time form the already tight critical time parameters available for effective response.
• A fire based EMS system insures that there is continuity of medical training, equipment, medical direction and administration. Unity of command is always maintained, as there is no competing agency on scene with their own protocols and procedures to contend with.
• Ambulance revenues help to offset personnel and related equipment costs.
• Private ambulance services lack the infrastructure of the Needham Fire Department. At this time there is no ambulance service situated in Town that could offer the centrally geographical locations that the fire department already has. To acquire similarly located facilities may prove prohibitive for the introduction of a private ambulance company within town.
• Housing a private ambulance vehicle within either or both fire stations is impractical, as these buildings lack the space to accommodate more vehicles. Further there is no space to house private ambulance personnel either.
• If housing space were to be found within Town facilities, the Town would in effect be absorbing costs of a private enterprise, thereby creating a corporate welfare structure. Further, the burden of maintaining such buildings would likely add to the Town’s overall budget obligation.
• With a private ambulance model the Town would receive no EMS related revenues, as only the transporting ambulance can bill for services.
• The fire department would likely be needed to provide support services for most if not all EMS incidents that the private ambulance responds to without any remuneration. Firefighters would be used for lift assist, extrication and other tasks that a two person private ambulance could not provide.
• There are contractual obligations that the Town has to provide pay rates for various levels of EMS certifications that would need to continue until such time, if ever that they would be negotiated out of the collective bargaining agreement with the firefighters union.
• A private ambulance model would by definition require that profits be the primary motivator possibly even ahead of the level of patient care that our townspeople have come to expect over the past forty years.
• The staffing models of most private ambulance services depends heavily on the usage of newly trained EMT’s and generally offers little incentive for personnel to remain with the service. This model does not value experience in the same way as the fire service nor is it conducive to building patient relationships over time causing anxiety for our neighbors.
• The commitment to the Town and the obligations of a private ambulance service is only as good as that company’s business model and subject to be disrupted at any time. This cannot be better illustrated than by referencing the situation created by the bankruptcy of Med Corp EMS and their parent company First Med EMS. This company was one of the largest providers of ambulance services in the country at the time of their bankruptcy filing serving over 70 municipalities over six states. The company shut down ambulance services without notice or explanation over a weekend firing over 2,000 paramedics and other emergency workers. The move left communities scrambling to provide EMS services at a moment’s notice. To vary from the current fire based EMS system that our Townspeople now enjoy and shift to a model carrying this level of risk does not appear to be in the best interest of the community.
In addition, our Keep Well Clinics are available to all and are offered on the first Wednesday of the month at the Seabed's Way community room, from 10:30 am to 12pm. Also on the fourth Wednesday of every month at the Linden and Chambers community room, from 10:30 am to noon.
Visiting Nurses Associates Care Plus, Inc clinic is the first and third Wednesday of every month at the Senior Center, 83 Pickering Street from 9 - 12pm.
There is no fee for this test and no appointment necessary.
If all Needham copies are out, or Needham does not own a copy, you can request it as you would any other item. Your request will go to another library in the Minuteman Library Network and be transferred here via the State delivery system. Expect it to take about a week to arrive. (exception: New DVDs and Blu-rays less than 6 months old are not available on Network Transfer. They are reserved for the owning library’s patrons for the first six months). See the Interlibrary Loan section for further information. ILL, Commonwealth Catalog and OCLC
The previous year magazine titles may be found adjacent to the master staircase on the second floor. Older newspapers are located opposite the elevator on the second floor.
Your service to the Needham Free Public Library is truly appreciated. For specific questions please click this link.
• If you have the bill, send a check and the Collector's copy of the bill in the envelope provided. If you don't have the envelope, send it to: Tax Collector, P.O. Box 920636, Needham, MA 02492-0908. Please do not include any correspondence as this envelope goes directly to the Town's bank for immediate deposit.
• If you do not have the bill, send a check with the owner's name, the property address, the tax period and amount being paid clearly indicated to: Tax Collector, Town of Needham, 1471 Highland Ave., Needham, MA 02492.
• If you pay your bills via your personal computer, you may use the bill payer option from your own bank account. Please be sure to only reference the Tax Account ID # if you are paying a Real/Personal Property tax bill. If you include any other verbiage, your payment may be rejected.
• If you want a receipt or need to pay by cash or simply want to pay in person, come to the Needham Town Hall at 1471 Highland Avenue, 1st Floor Collector/Treasurer’s Office between the hours of 8:30 am and 5:00 pm Monday though Friday.
• Questions regarding the payment of your bill can be directed to the Office of the Collector/Treasurer at (781) 455-7504.
Filing an appeal does not put your tax payment on hold. Tax payments need to be rendered in a timely manner in order to protect further appeal rights to the State. For further information contact the Assessor's Office at (781) 455-7507.
For directions and information about parking go to www.needhamma.gov/youth/directions.