Members of the Vienna Select Board, from left, Jeff Rackliff, Chris Smith and Laura Church, listen during a 2023 town meeting in the Vienna fire hall. Church announced after this year’s town meeting that she was resigning after enduring months of complaints and a threat of physical violence following the town’s revaluation. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

VIENNA — Select Board member Laura Church resigned this month after what she said was 10 months of consistent resident complaints — and even a physical threat — over the town’s recent property tax revaluation.

Church, an eight-year veteran of the Select Board, resigned effective immediately after Vienna’s town meeting on March 8. In her resignation letter, she said her position on the board became untenable after the townwide reassessment.

“Ten months ago, everyone received their new valuations,” Church wrote in her resignation letter. “Since then, I have fielded many angry phone calls, so many, in fact, that I had to begin screening my calls. Those calls would come any day and any time regardless of what might seem reasonable working hours. And it seemed that I fielded the majority of the complaints for reasons I can only surmise.”

Church also said residents confronted her at her home to lodge complaints about the revaluation. She had even been threatened physically by one resident, whom she did not name.

“We did not make the (revaluations) and tried hard to be fair and reasonable with finding solutions,” Church said. “But it has reached a breaking point where I am unwilling to be shouted at any more. So this move is to protect my mental (and physical) health. I regret not being able to complete the remaining year on my term, but I just can’t do it.”

Church declined a request for further comment.

Revaluations are a periodic rebalancing of property tax burden, as required by the Maine Constitution. Towns have little to no control over how much an individual property’s value changes from one assessment to the next, but town officials often bear the brunt of resident backlash to those changing values.

Vienna had not undergone a revaluation in at least a decade, select board member Jeff Rackliffe said — leading some residents to vehemently disagree with the new values and overestimate the impact of that new valuation on their tax bill.

Rackliffe said he received similar complaints, but that Church faced most of the resident fury, being the first name on the select board list and generally more available during the day.

“I would say that it was a small population, but some of the ones that were upset were very vocal and very unkind,” Rackliffe said.

Church’s resignation leaves an empty seat on the three-person Select Board. Nomination papers for that open position are available at the town clerk’s office at 346 Town House Road, and will be due April 28 for the June 10 election.