SIDNEY — “I don’t know if things will ever get back to the way they were but it appears that everyone is adjusting to the new normal. And, like it has always been, normal means change,” said Shelby County Treasurer John Coffield.

His report continues:

There have been a number of changes in the Shelby County Treasurer’s Office this past year. Along with the Auditor’s Office, we starting using a new accounting and budgeting system. While most of these changes were invisible to the public, it changed the way we handled some of our back office functions.

Adding new doors to the front of the Annex forced us to change the location of our night drop box. You can now drop off your tax payments after hours using the night drop located next to the employee entrance on Main Street. This drop box location has more parking, has better lighting, and a security camera installed for added safety.

We also started using a new credit card/debit card vendor. Our old vendor had increased the convenience fee that customers pay when using a credit card to 2.95% of the transaction amount. We were able to find a new vendor that charges 2.5%. The new vendor also allows you to search by your name and pull up all of the parcels that belong to you. You can pay all of your parcels in one transaction. You can also pay your taxes by echeck and the amount is a flat $1.30. Payments can be made online 24 hours/day, seven days a week.

Most people still pay their taxes by writing a personal check and sending it through the U.S. Mail. We also accept payment in person at our office.

Finally, we welcomed Collin Claywell as a new employee in October.

The amount of taxes owed, for most people, stayed relatively the same this past year. You may have noticed an increase if a new levy was passed in your location. The total amount of taxes billed for the 2021 tax year was $54,848,895. For tax year 2022, for which bill were sent out in January, the total is up slightly to $55,305,376.

I am happy to report that the amount of delinquent taxes is at our lowest level since I took office in September 2017. The total amount past due was a little over $800,000. This is the first we’ve been below $1,000,000 in many years.

If you follow the financial markets, you know that the Fed has increased the fed funds rates several times this year. While this may be bad news for borrowers, it is good news for our investment portfolio. The amount of interest that we earned in 2022 was just shy of $600,000. This was an increase of over $200,000 from 2021. In 2023, we are expecting to make over $1,000,000 in interest income. This money helps fund many of the county services.

The Treasurer’s office continues to work closely with the Shelby County Land Reutilization Corporation, known as the Land Bank. The Land Bank is now the owner of the old Wagner Manufacturing property. We hope to start demolition of the remaining structures this spring or summer. This demolition is being funded with the help of several state grants and local matches from the City of Sidney and Shelby County.

Our office will continue to help all taxpayers in any way we can. Hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. – noon on Friday. Our website is https://co.shelby.oh.us/treasurer and our main phone number is 937-498-7281. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns that you may have. We hope you have a healthy, safe and happy 2023.