Ossipee’s Mullet Extension

Survey Says: Crazy Theory, or How Ossipee’s own records keep suggesting the map was not exactly “fixed” before everyone’s tax bill got a makeover

In New England, we are very good at pretending things are fine.

The road is “a little rough,” even when it could swallow a Civic.

The furnace is “making a noise,” even when it sounds like it has accepted death.

And the town map is “current and accurate,” even when the town keeps revising it like a casserole recipe nobody wrote down right the first time.

So yes, I know. Here I go again talking about the lines.

But the problem is, the lines are what decide the bills.

And the reason this is starting to look less like a “crazy theory” and more like proof unfolding is simple: the town’s own records keep saying the quiet part out loud.

Proof on Record

Back in 2008, Ossipee voters approved $118,000 to re-map the entire town using aerial photography, recorded surveys, deed research, and parcel measurements so the town would have “current, accurate tax maps” in digital form.

That was the pitch.

Spend six figures.

Fix the map.

Move on with life.

Reasonable enough.

Except the map did not exactly come out of the oven fully baked.

In December 2021, Planning Board minutes say Jim Rines of White Mountain Survey & Engineering presented a draft revision of the new town maps and demonstrated the changes and corrections needed.

Then in April 2022, the board discussed receiving revised maps from White Mountain Survey while already knowing they might change again the following year.

So let’s just pause there.

The town paid $118,000 to get “current, accurate tax maps,” and more than a decade later the maps were still being revised and corrected in public meetings.

And right in the middle of that, the survey firm itself changed jerseys.

On January 18, 2022, Horizons Engineering announced it had acquired White Mountain Survey & Engineering of Ossipee and said the office and staff would remain under the leadership of James Rines.

So the logo may have changed, but the local leadership did not exactly get airlifted to another county.

Same local captain, bigger corporate boat.

Then came the bigger problem, which was not really a map problem anymore. It was a tax problem. Which, to be fair, is how map problems eventually introduce themselves to the public.

Then something happened

In 2022, the New Hampshire Board of Tax and Land Appeals ordered Ossipee to complete a reassessment in tax year 2023, and an August 2022 BTLA order said the town had engaged in “irregular assessing practices.”

That is the sort of phrase that should make every taxpayer put down the Dunkin’ and squint.

Not “minor housekeeping issues.”

Not “a technical discrepancy.”

Irregular assessing practices.

Then, at a November 14, 2022 Selectmen’s work session, the town said it had budgeted $450,000 in the revaluation warrant article “for now” and left the paving article at $1, with the idea that if the BTLA allowed a regular revaluation, around $300,000 could be moved from revaluation into paving.

(Yes paving, again!)

That is not boring accounting.

That is money doing costume changes backstage.

By 2023, the reset hit the public: in the wallet

The town’s 2023 annual report says Ossipee completed a town-wide revaluation to bring assessments to market value as of April 1, 2023. The same report says the BTLA-ordered revaluation delayed the tax rate and tax bills, and the Selectmen’s Report says the town engaged Avitar Associates in a five-year contract as its new assessor while also dealing with an ongoing BTLA case involving past assessing practices.

So this was not one person in a town office with a ruler, a prayer, and a suspicious amount of confidence.

This was a full system reset.

And no, 2023 did not magically mean everything was now neat, settled, and wrapped up with a little municipal bow.

The assessor’s report says the town processed 17 abatements, inspected more than 400 properties, and continued a rolling five-year verification process covering 25% of the town each year to keep the database current.

Which is another way of saying: even after the big revaluation, they were still checking, correcting, and verifying the same system already being used to bill people.

That may be normal maintenance. But from a taxpayer’s point of view, it also sounds a lot like:

“Please trust this final number while we continue adjusting the ingredients.”

Now let’s get to the part that makes ordinary people start looking at town government the way they look at a mechanic who says, “Well, funny story.”

Because this is not just about bad lines on paper. It is also about the same names appearing over and over around the map, the assessing, the boards, and the explanations.

Jonathan Smith is not just one town official in one chair. The town’s own site lists him as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and town records have also listed him in zoning-related roles. In February 2024 Selectmen’s minutes, Dallas Emery asked whether Smith was still the Deputy Health Officer, and Smith said yes. Those same minutes also note that he stated he currently serves at the State House as Ossipee’s state representative.

That is not one hat.

That is a whole rack from TJ Maxx.

And guess who is also now on the Board of Selectmen?

James Rines.

So one of the main names tied to the revised town maps and the local survey operation also ended up on the board itself.

Does that prove wrongdoing by itself? No.

Does it make people raise an eyebrow hard enough to pull a muscle? Absolutely.

And that is before you even get into years of meeting minutes where Mr. Rines’ survey work and board activity kept crossing paths often enough that recusal was a recurring topic. Sometimes he recused. Sometimes he offered. Sometimes the board decided he did not have to.

Now, maybe that is all perfectly explainable in a small town where everybody knows everybody, everybody’s cousin plows something, and three people somehow run half the committees.

But it still leaves a fair public question:

Why do the same names keep showing up at every stage where the lines are drawn, revised, presented, debated, approved, and later explained to the people paying the bill?

And this is why the GSX mapping theory is starting to look less like somebody’s weird obsession and more like a tested theory that keeps proving itself.

Because the theory is not complicated.

If the base map is wrong, then everything built on top of it gets shaky too. Parcel lines. Assessments. Revaluations. Abatements. Budget decisions. Public explanations. All of it.

And Ossipee’s own records show:

• The town spent $118,000 to fix the maps.

• The maps were still being revised in 2021 and 2022.

• The BTLA found irregular assessing practices in 2022.

• The town had to complete a full reassessment in 2023.

• The system still needed abatements, inspections, and rolling verification afterward.

• And the same small circle of officials and professionals kept appearing around the map, the board seats, the surveys, and the budget explanations.

  
  

That is not a “crazy theory.”

That is a pattern with minutes.

And the reason this matters to everybody is not because everyone enjoys reading planning board documents for fun. It matters because everybody pays for this one way or another.

If you own a home, you pay in property taxes.

If you rent, you pay when those costs get passed down.

If you are older and on a fixed income, you pay in stress every time the tax bill arrives looking like it just got back from the gym.

If you are younger and trying to stay here, you pay through affordability evaporating faster than a dry town-meeting promise.

So the real question is not whether taxes exist.

Sadly, yes. Like black flies and spring mud, they do.

The real question is this:

What exactly were those taxes built on while the town’s own records show the map and assessment system were still being corrected?

Because if the lines were still moving, or still being revised, or still being verified long after the expensive “fix,” then people are not crazy for asking whether their tax bills were based on settled ground or on paperwork that was still being patched together with official letterhead and a straight face.

And at some point, when the town’s own records keep backing up the same concern, it stops sounding like a theory people laugh off.

It starts sounding like a question the town does not really want asked.