If the Sutherland ethanol company’s property tax form was lost in the mail, it is tough luck for the company.

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The Lincoln County Commissioners denied an appeal Monday from Midwest Renewable Energy; leaving it to MRE to pay a $55,000 penalty for a late filing, or else appeal to a higher authority.

MRE has $10 million in taxable equipment at the Sutherland plant, according to a schedule that arrived in the county assessor’s office months after the deadline.

County Assessor Mary Ann Long levied a 25-percent penalty against MRE because the annual property tax schedule arrived in September, long after the May 1 deadline.

Midwest Renewable appealed to the county commissioners. The commissioners review property tax protests, serving as the county’s board of equalization.

Omaha attorney Jerrold Strasheim told the board that an Omaha CPA mailed the form by April 23. Also, CPA Jim Jandrain and employees Peggy Thelan and Amy McFarland all told the board they worked on the schedule and it was mailed it from their office.

Strasheim said a mailman personally picks up mail each day from the accountant’s office.

He said the law is “well-established” that if a properly addressed letter is mailed, the receipt of the letter can be presumed.

Jandrain told the board that his firm files hundreds of property tax statements each year and never sends them by certified mail, nor has he ever had one come back.

But Deputy Lincoln County Attorney Joe Wright said the legal presumption that a “letter mailed” is a “letter received” is not clear in state statues or case law.

“There are two views,” he said. “I would rather err on the conservative side than have us allow something that we shouldn’t.”

In his presentation, Strasheim also noted that the county assessor was confused about the tax schedule. A staffer in the assessor’s office even called Jandrain’s office to request a copy of the schedule, because a county worker accidentally deleted the assessor’s list of taxable equipment at the plant, compiled after MRE’s schedule did not arrive.

Additional confusion stemmed from the fact that the ethanol plant added a significant amount of equipment in 2008 during an expansion. That equipment first belonged to Marquette Equipment Finance, which leased it to MRE. But, MRE officially owned the equipment when the time arrived to file the schedule.

Strasheim said the company did not try to avoid filing the schedule. He said the fair thing would be to set the penalty aside.

After the board discussed the legal issues with Wright, they voted to deny the protest and leave the fine in place. The board said state law requires the schedule to be filed on time, and the county assessor must receive the form for it to be filed.

MRE has 30 days to appeal the county decision to the Nebraska Tax and Equalization Commission.

In other business, the board:

• Unanimously approved the appointment of Heath Bellinger as a reserve deputy for the Lincoln County Sheriff. Reserve deputies are volunteers, work approximately 100 hours a year and are paid $1. Each deputy must be a certified law enforcement officer.

Bellinger meets the criteria, Chief Deputy Dean Sparks told the commissioners.

“He could be a good candidate for a deputy sheriff, if and when a position opens,” Sparks said.

• Tabled a request from Rich DeFreece to abandon a county road near Hidden Lakes. DeFreece owns land on each side of the road -- South Shore Drive -- by the smaller of two small “Interstate-80 lakes” east of North Platte.

That land has been platted for homes but never developed.

DeFreece said the road has never been graded to county specifications, nobody uses it and he doesn’t want to sell it, so he stacks hay on it now.

DeFreece said he discussed the issue with city-county zoning director Judy Clark, who suggested he talk to the commissioners. The commissioners advised him to meet with Clark again and carefully check the county’s zoning ordinances.

• Closed the doors to discuss real estate purchases for a new overpass on the west end of the Bailey Yard.