York County is hoping to get the attention of delinquent taxpayers, hiring a high-tech South Carolina team to post front-door tax claim notices.

County Commissioners on Wednesday approved a contract with Palmetto Postings Inc. of Spartanburg to post the notices for $25 each.

Assessment Director E. John Fedor said this year will be the third the county has used the company to tackle the 2,400 to 3,000 postings, which typically start in mid-July.

The county has been able to increase its rate of collection by using the company to post earlier than previous years, with only about a tenth of the properties -- 302-- going to tax sale last year, he said.

Company spokesman Greg Tucker said Palmetto, which also posts in Lancaster and Dauphin counties, has a crew of about five people who travel across York County to post the notices. They use global mapping software to locate the properties and take pictures of the brightly colored posted notices with the global coordinates of the property.

Fedor said that makes it pretty difficult for people to say they didn't know the were delinquent.

"This is what we want," Fedor said. "We want their attention ... The objective is for people to pay."

He said the county paid Palmetto about $83,000 last year, but that's less expensive than the county-contracted assessors who in previous years were paid as much as $43 per notice posted.

The county is eventually reimbursed for the fees when the property is sold or the homeowner pays the back taxes, he said.

The contract with the company runs March 13 through Dec. 31, with automatic renewal for another year unless the county writes a letter of cancellation.

-- Reach Christina Kauff man at ckauffman@yorkdispatch.com.