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economic obsolescence figure. Were he still in that office we believe we would have received a fair amount of obsolescence depreciation, if not the full amount that he recommended At least he understands the situation we are in of maintaining an older historic property such as the Oliver Inn, and what it means to have donated the fagade of this structure for the public good. We have attached copies of the original Deed of Easement; an opinion regarding conservation easements from the Commissioner, Dept. of Local Goverment Finance State of Indiana; a letter from the Historic Preservation Commission, a copy of John Voorde's recommendation on Form 130, plus a letter from us which we presented to the appeals board on September 2, 2004. We had another meeting with them around the end of September in which we were represented by Jamie O'Brien, Attorney at Law. Mr. O'Brien presented figures on our past income and expenses to try to provide the information which the Board had requested. He and John Voorde both advised that it wasn't in our best interests to provide our tax statements for the past seven years, which seemed an invasion of our privacy and unnecessary for obsolescence depreciation determination. Now, on December 23, after waiting almost three months, we received a final decision from the Appeals Board (through our attorney, nothing was sent to us) stating that they declined to provide any fiuther reduction to our property's assessment. Mr. O'Brien stated that "frankly, I am shocked at this determination". We are enclosing copies of that determination as well. We feel that we have been treated unfairly. We have gone to great expense and effort to bring the value and beauty of this historic property up, which enhances the entire neighborhood. At the very least we would think that there should be some type of tax relief, especially since other structures iu our neighborhood at the same Grade B are receiving some consideration. We understand the reasons why the State changed their tax assessments and the need for additional revenue for our city, but believe that there are also viable and legal ways of providing some consideration for old historic homes such as this one. We are not located in Granger with million dollar homes surrounding us. We know that the authority is given to the county tax assessors to make determinations to address the differences in some areas of the county versus others and to allow considerations where warranted. We just don't understand why the current Portage Township Tax Assessor, Rosemary Mandrici, refuses to consider any deprecation allowance for our property. She even stated in the last Tax Appeals Board meeting that she could probably give us at least a 10% allowance. And, according to the Historic Preservation Commission letter, that should only be the minimum. It states "You will note that the amount of the reduction in property taxes justified by a preservation easement is generally determined by the tax assessor, and is not always automatically 10%." (Please see paragraph 5 of her letter dated November 25, 2003 attached.) We are requesting that you intercede for us in some manner. We know your time is limited and that you are a very busy man and we are just one local homeowner/business that needs help. We would surely appreciate any help you can offer. If you are not able to address this issue, would you kindly pass it on to someone else who can?