Last week, the Woods County Excise Board heard from Assessor Renetta Benson that taxable valuation for Woods County was down $1.3 million. Different parts of the county were affected in far greater amounts.

Monday night, Superintendent Steve Parkhurst told the Alva School Board that the valuation for the Alva district was down $22,384,228. Benson said the Waynoka School District is up by an almost identical amount: $22,053,435. She said the Freedom School District is down $612,231.

The excise board was relieved at seeing the county was down only $1.3 million, because initially they had heard estimates of a $4 million decrease.

The county is still in a lawsuit trying to collect taxes from DCP Mistream. One lawsuit is over a 2016 fair market value of $453,700 with an assessed value of $54,444. The other portion of the law suit is for 2017 with a fair market value of $569,870 with a valuation of $68,384. These funds are in question for county budgeting until the lawsuit is settled.