<b>Drug arrest made at St. Helena Island home</b><b>
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On September 10, drug investigators with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, along with the members of the U.S. Marshal Service and Beaufort Police Department arrested Erick Kadeem Blash on outstanding warrants and drug charges.

At approximately 1 p.m., contact was made with Blash at a residence located at 230 Seaside Road, St. Helena. While taking Blash into custody, marijuana was observed in plain view.  The residence was secured and a search warrant was obtained.

Upon the execution of the search warrant, investigators located additional quantities of marijuana, as well as MDMA, a small amount of cocaine and drug paraphernalia.

In addition to being served with the outstanding bench and arrest warrants, Blash was also charged with offenses related to the items located and seized during the search warrant.

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<b>County sends out reassessment notices</b>

The Beaufort County Assessor’s office mailed all tax year 2013 county-wide reassessment notices last week.

If a property owner would like to appeal the value on the reassessment notice, they must do so within 90 days. All appeals must be signed and either mailed or dropped off at any of the Assessor’s three office’s (Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island) by December 11, 2013. Failure to file on a timely basis within the appeal period constitutes a waiver of the owner’s right of appeal for the current 2013 tax year.

According to South Carolina Code of Laws 12-43-217(A): once every fifth year each county or the State shall appraise and equalize those properties under its jurisdiction. Property valuation must be complete at the end of December of the fourth year and the county or State shall notify every taxpayer of any change in value or classification if the change is one thousand dollars or more. In the fifth year, the county or State shall implement the program and assess all property on the newly appraised values.

“An important role of the Beaufort County Assessor’s Office is to establish fair market value for all real property in Beaufort County, which helps to ensure that the property tax burden is shared fairly and equally,” said Beaufort County Assessor Ed Hughes.

For more information on this year’s reassessment, go to www.bcgov.net and click on “Reassessment” slider in the middle of the homepage. There you will find the Citizens Guide to the 2013 Reassessment. Due to the anticipated heavy call volume, we encourage taxpayers to use the resources available on the Beaufort County website.

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<b>County holding annual delinquent tax sale</b>

Beaufort County’s annual delinquent tax sale will be held Monday October 7, at 10 a.m. in the Charles Lind Brown Gymnasium located at 1001 Hamar Street in Beaufort.

New this year:

• All bidders must pre-register online at www.bcgov.net/taxsale or register at the Beaufort Treasurer’s Office located at 100 Ribaut Road, Suite 165, before 12:00 p.m., Friday, October 4, 2013.

• The registration fee is $25. Sign-in will begin at 8 a.m., and all bidders must be signed in no later than 9:30 a.m.

• A flat fee of $270 will be charged, per property, for deed preparation and recording fees the day of the sale.

A complete list of properties for sale will appear online at www.bcgov.net and will be updated as properties are paid for.

Property owners who do not want their property auctioned off must pay delinquent taxes before 5 p.m. on
Oct. 4 at any of the three Treasurer’s office locations (Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island). Payments will not be accepted the day of the tax sale.
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