Chautauqua County

County Director of Real Property Services Kim Meleen said the tax auction took place online from July 9 through 22, “We hadn’t done an auction in three years due to COVID, so there really wasn’t a place big enough to hold an in-person, or a time frame long enough to probably hold an in-person auction with the amount of properties we had.”

Meleen said there were initially 800 properties on the auction list with 400 properties going to auction. She said most of those 400 properties were sold, which is substantially more than past tax auctions. She said total financials from the auction aren’t available yet as people are still coming in to make payments.

Meleen added that the auction helps the County recoup back taxes owed, “The county guarantees taxes to all the municipalities, so they all make their tax levy amounts in their budgeted amounts. So the county takes the brunt of that, so I think this auction was very successful in helping the county recoup some of that money.”

Meleen said she hopes to continue to hold future tax auctions online as well.

Meleen has served as the department’s Acting Director of Real Property Tax Services since February of this year. She has been with the department for just over two years serving as the Assistant Director of Real Property Tax lll from April 2019 until her appointment as Acting Director. Prior to working at Chautauqua County, Meleen worked for 16 years in the Town of Chautauqua Assessor’s Office as a clerk and appraiser.