Without discussion, and with one board member absent, Schuylkill County commissioners on Wednesday hired a Massachusetts firm for $6.6 million-plus to perform the county’s first reassessment since 1996.

Vision Government Solutions Inc. of Hudson will also charge any additional fees for extra services, plus $144,500 a year for a subscription to CAMA software. That rate is fixed for the first year and two subsequent one-year option years.

The company also will charge a one-time software fee of $375,000, to be paid in four installments.

Commissioners Chairman Barron L. Hetherington and Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr. voted in favor of hiring the company; Commissioner Gary J. Hess was absent.

The reassessment must be done under the settlement of a lawsuit filed in 2018 by Community Justice Project, a Harrisburg nonprofit organization, to force the reassessment. The suit named as plaintiffs several county residents.

The organizations, which has filed and won several other such suits, targeted Schuylkill County in 2018, claiming that because it had not reassessed property values in 26 years, it had failed to abide by the state constitution’s rules that property taxes must be equitable.

The county settled the suit on May 16.

“Rather than continue with costly litigation, it was determined that a countywide reassessment was the best path forward for equitability and legal compliance,” County Administrator Gary R. Bender wrote in a news release distributed after the meeting.

The settlement “mandates a reassessment be completed and new property values implemented no later than Jan. 1, 2026,” he wrote.

Commissioners on Dec. 14 hired the company pending a final contract. The lawsuit required a final contract be in place by Dec. 29.

County officials contend that about one-third of property owners will see an increase in their valuations; another third will see a decrease, and the final third will see no change.

Vision Government Solutions was among three companies that responded to the county’s requests for quotes, Chief Assessor Kent R. Hatter said earlier.

By early next year, trained data collectors will begin gathering information from property owners through data mailers, site visits and in-person interviews.

Property owners will be notified by the county before June 1, 2025, and given an opportunity for an informal review and the ability to correct any data errors.

Change of assessment notices will be mailed on or before July 1, 2025, with the new value, and property owners can begin the formal appeal process to the county Board of Assessment Appeals. The new assessed values will take effect Jan. 1, 2026.