Union County Promotes Madeline Schuster to Chief Assessor After Duncheskie Retires

Madeline Schuster, who spent years walking Union County properties as a field assessor and mapping parcel data as a GIS technician, is now the person whose decisions will shape the tax bill for every property owner in the county. The Union County Board of Commissioners confirmed her as the new chief assessor on March 27, the same day long-serving Chief Assessor Joan Duncheskie formally retired.

Schuster began leading the Assessment Office on Monday, March 30, stepping into a role that directly controls property valuations, homestead and farmstead exclusion determinations, and the timeline of Union County's ongoing reassessment project. Those processes feed into the tax rolls that municipal governments and school districts use to calculate what property owners owe each year.

Duncheskie's retirement closes a long chapter for the county's assessment operations. By choosing Schuster from within the department rather than conducting an outside search, commissioners signaled a preference for continuity: someone who already knows the parcel data, the mapping systems, and the field-level work of establishing property values across Union County's municipalities.

For property owners, the near-term expectation is operational stability. Routine assessment functions, including property record maintenance, appeal processing, and homestead and farmstead filings, will continue under established procedures. The larger question is whether Schuster will announce any updates to the reassessment timeline or valuation methodology, two issues that municipal finance officers and school district administrators track closely because assessment decisions directly determine their revenue.

The county's reassessment project has been underway for several years; its schedule and any methodology adjustments under new leadership are likely among the first policy questions Schuster will face from local government stakeholders.

Taxpayers who want to verify their current property record, check on a pending appeal, or confirm homestead or farmstead exclusion status should monitor the Assessment Office's public postings and the commissioners' published meeting minutes, where operational updates and deadlines will appear first. Schuster now sets that calendar, and any changes to appeal windows or reassessment notices will flow directly from her office.