Alva Review-Courier -

A special meeting of the Woods County Equalization Board was held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning where tensions ran high between Woods County officials and a group of men representing three different oil companies.

Present and responding were Bob Seivert, Joe Shirley and Chris Olson for the hearing of formal appeals from SandRidge Exploration & Production LLC, SandRidge Midstream Inc. and BCE-MACH LLC.

Assessor Renetta Benson and Woods County Clerk Shelley Reed sat in on the meeting with the equalization board on behalf of Woods County, along with Jerry Wisdom of Total Assessment Solutions Corporation (TASC) – a company that specializes in real estate appraisal, oil and gas equipment appraisal, business personal property equipment appraisal, and all forms of expert testimony for assessment purposes.

On Wisdom's left sat Luke Adams of Tisdale & O'Hara law firm. On the other side was Jeff Mills, a Certified Member of the Institute (CMI); Drew Rogers, whose job is to manages clients’ property portfolios; and Nathan Cahill, sales and use tax director of Merit Advisors. The full-service provider focuses on property tax, sales and use tax, and severance tax economic development consulting and compliance.

The protest session began with Merit and TASC presenting their information on SandRidge Exploration & Production to the board. Maps were requested from Olson that would show where pipelines were located; Mills agreed to provide them by the week’s end. SandRidge Exploration & Production previously requested an appeal of several well site fair market values in belief of excessive appraisal valuations. The hearing was tabled for further review of the maps.

Next, information on SandRidge Midstream Inc. was presented from both sides of the table. TASC requested sales agreements on generators; Mills agreed to provide those within the next few days. That matter was tabled, as well as the formal appeals hearing on BCE-MACH LLC.

The next hearing meeting date is scheduled for Dec. 19.