Reassessment of property value was one of the primary topics during Monday night's City Council meeting, as representatives from the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) gave a presentation before the members in open session.

"We explained in some statistical and technical depth how we create a model that we use, and how many sales were involved," explained Graham Stearns, the Southeast Regional Manager of Assessment for SAMA.

"We also summarized some of the different characteristics of land and buildings that add or decrease in value to a property."

He noted that this has importance to Estevan because the city is largely residential.

City Manager Jeff Ward explained what this means for residents.

"People should look at their assessments. If there is something way out of whack, they should be phoning SAMA to get an explanation of why their value is what it is, and if they feel that there is some anomaly, they should be appealing it."

He added that, by bringing in the experts, they hope to alleviate some of the concerns and questions taxpayers might have when it comes to their assessments.

"It's always interesting when we have reassessment. You don't know what to expect, and this is one of the more unusual ones that I have been involved with in my time," added Mayor Roy Ludwig.

"I realize that they have taken 36 guidelines down to 7, but some of the older, well kept homes are going up quite a bit, and some of the newer ones are actually going down."

"I know that a lot of people are struggling with that, and when we have our open house I'm sure we'll get a very good turn out to ask all of these questions," he said.

Ludwig also pointed out that the SAMA representatives plan to go door to door and visit and assess every house in the city this year.