NORWICH – Chenango County Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard B. Decker has fulfilled a goal that he made for the county two years ago with the creation of a stand-alone real property tax department.

Announced just before Thanksgiving, well-known property assessor Steve Harris, 46, of Sherburne, was hired as the department’s director, effective Jan. 1. He will supervise a staff of four and report to the Finance Committee.

Decker, R-N. Norwich, has repeatedly asked town supervisors to streamline and reorganize assessment duties out from under the auspices of the treasurer’s department where they had been for nearly a decade. Real property tax services have been handled by part-time Assistant Director Donald MacIntosh, who stepped away from the post earlier this year.

Harris has been the assessor for the towns of Cazenovia (16 years), DeRuyter (15 years), and McDonough (2 years), and for the City of Norwich (12 years). He is a member of the New York State Assessors Association, Madison County Assessors Association and a past president of the Chenango County Assessors Association.

“We hope to improve the relationship between local assessors in the county, and I think this is a positive step in that way,” Decker said. “Steve knows almost every one of them personally, and he can work with the county’s treasurer and clerk to make this system work better.”