Casco residents have been surprisingly quiet since receiving tax bills earlier this month, after a long overdue property revaluation that raised some waterfront property values significantly.

Tax bills were mailed Nov. 1 after a delay that town officials say was caused by a review process to accommodate property owners who were unhappy with property value proposals. The total valuation of the town is now about $627 million, with a tax rate of $9.65 per thousand.

John O’Donnell, the town tax assessor and owner of O’Donnell Associates, the firm hired to do the town-wide revaluation, said there have been about a dozen appeals since tax bills were mailed, most of which he said have related to clerical errors, and not property values.

“We’re very pleasantly surprised at how low the volume of appeals has been,” said O’Donnell.

Based on the initial reaction to the first revaluation in more than a decade, O’Donnell expected to hear more complaints from residents whose property values jumped significantly after revaluation took place this summer. But, he said many concerns were quelled through an informal appeals process some residents participated in early in the fall, where O’Donnell Associates reviewed properties to see if the values needed to be recalculated.

In addition to this process, O’Donnell said the majority of Casco residents saw their property values stay the same, or even decrease slightly. It’s the waterfront properties, and those with right-of-way access to the water, that saw significant increases.

“Eighty percent of the town of Casco is rural residential or commercial land, and 20 percent is made up of water properties. Virtually all of the rural residential and commercial property owners saw their bills stay the same, or go down,” said O’Donnell.

But one resident, Robin Leavitt, said her property was valued too highly, even given its access to Thompson Lake. She and her husband live on Keepa Way, which is almost in Poland, and they say their property increased $50,000 as a result of revaluation. She said the value of their water access is overstated, because it is shared with 15 to 20 other lots, and is a small area.

Leavitt said that she and her husband did not take advantage of the informal appeal process during the summer, but they are considering making a formal appeal now. Living on the edge of town, and 20 miles from the schools, Leavitt believes it would be difficult to sell her home for its new appraised value.

“It would be worth fighting over, because the (water access) is nothing…if our houses went up for sale today, there’s no way it would go for anywhere near what they’re saying it’s worth,” said Leavitt.

In response to the revaluation, some residents have come together to fight what they believe is an unfair tax burden on the people of Casco. The organization, called the Casco Tax Fairness Association, is led by resident Bob Levesque. Levesque has spoken at town meetings, protesting high property values, and has talked about the possibility of legal action against the town of Casco on behalf of the organization. But since receiving his bill, Levesque has not made any major moves.

“At this point, it’s too early to say anything,” said Levesque last week.

Although only a handful of formal appeals have been made, John O’Donnell said residents have six months to appeal their tax bills. Formal appeals carry with them a high burden of proof that values are too high, unlike the summer’s informal process.