PARIS – It’s going to be another month before the Bear Mountain Inn v. Town of Waterford tax abatement case gets settled, Oxford County commissioners decided Tuesday.

This has upset inn owners Deborah Hall and Lorraine Blais because of the time this case has taken. Commissioners heard the first arguments Aug. 15.

The situation has upset Waterford Selectman William “Whizzer” Wheeler because he said commissioners looked to a third party before hearing his side of the story.

Commissioners had voted last month to hire a professional assessor to handle the case, where inn owners claimed their land was assessed unfairly. Questions over the town’s 25 percent property tax surcharge on businesses also came up through the proceedings.

Commissioners sought professional help because the complexity of the case was beyond their expertise.

Wheeler maintains that there was no wrongdoing in the taxation process. Reached by phone Tuesday, he also said that commissioners have not given him a fair amount of time to present his case.

“They haven’t let me talk yet,” he said. “All they have to do is call it; it isn’t over their head.”

Wheeler was not present at the meeting where commissioners made this decision.

After going through a list of seven, commissioners were able to hire David Sawyer, certified Maine assessor, to examine the case, however he didn’t have enough time to look at all the aspects or talk to involved parties, Commissioner Jeffrey Fagan said during Tuesday’s meeting.

Both parties were not sure what information he got, and neither had talked to him.

Sawyer released a recommendation siding with the Town of Waterford on a technicality, claiming that the inn owners had not filed the abatement in a required amount of time.

Commissioners, however, determined that this recommendation sounded like too easy of an out for such a complex case.

“I am of the opinion that something is not right in terms of waterfront evaluation in the town of Waterford,” Fagan said.

He later added, “As much as I appreciate Mr. Sawyer’s letter, it was done very quickly.”

County Administrator Carole Fulton will contact Sawyer and ask that he examine the case more thoroughly by taking a longer look at the facts and spending 90 minutes with each party.

Wheeler said he doesn’t understand why commissioners are seeking outside opinions when they haven’t even bothered to hear his side.

The case started during the August commissioners meeting, where parties made their initial arguments. Wheeler said then that he could not properly prepare because he did not have copies of the information given to commissioners. After nearly two hours, commissioners had to call it quits.

During September’s meeting, the arguments were rushed because one commissioner had to leave for a doctor’s appointment. Wheeler spent about half of his 20 minutes arguing that he was being treated unfairly.

The commissioners were scheduled to make a decision in October. At that point, they decided they needed an expert’s opinion.

By the time December’s meeting rolls around, the case would have lasted four months – way too long, in Hall’s opinion. Even at that point, she’s not sure that it will be over. Hall also said that she does not want to have to go through the motions of presenting their case again to the assessor.

The case is also costing her and Blais in legal fees, Hall said.

Hanley, however, said he is confident that, under the measures taken by commissioners, the case will come out in the inn’s favor.

“The light of day is going to bear out our point,” Hanley said.

Blais and Hall have put the inn up for sale, although it has not been sold. They said they are sick of the way Wheeler has treated them.

“The Town of Waterford can’t just be renegades and develop their own form of tax assessments,” Hanley said. “He has no basis to do that. Something needs to be done.”