WS Chronicle

Forsyth County Tax Department’s John Allison was recently named the Appraiser of the Year by the N.C. Association of Assessing Officers.

Allison received the award during the NCAAO fall conference in November. County commissioners recognized him for this honor during their briefing on Thursday.

“He certainly is a gentleman of high appraisal ability and of the highest integrity,” said County Tax Assessor/Collector John Burgiss.

Allison has been with the Forsyth County Tax Department for 24 years and is its lead commercial appraiser. One of his main responsibilities is training senior appraisers and supervising their work.

He transitioned to lead appraiser during a time when the department was short-staffed and carried out his new position’s responsibilities while taking on many projects a senior tax manager would have normally done. He was also instrumental in assisting the county during its transition to a new web-based Mass Appraisal Software system.

He is a state certified residential appraiser with the N.C. Appraisal Board, a certified appraiser with NCAAO and the NCDOT and is also licensed as a real estate broker, home inspector, and general contractor.

He was nominated by staff at the Tax Department, who described him as being courteous and respectful, while putting in extra effort to get things right and to teach others. He is the first appraiser in the department to receive the award.

Allison said he was flattered and humbled by the honor.

“A lot of nice people have done a lot of nice things for me to have the ability to stand here today and I’m very appreciative of that,” he said. “I’m only as good as my staff and my mentors, and I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by a lot of quality people in both those categories, and really those are the people who deserve the credit, not me, but, again, I’m appreciative of it.”