Last week was an awfully tough time for some Lincoln Countyelected officials.

An ongoing ruckus over the recent state-required reappraisal ofproperty values left Lincoln County officials fielding questionsand complaints from not only angry citizens but the Federal Bureauof Investigations, too.

Although the FBI will neither confirm nor deny that aninvestigation is under way, sources tell The DAILY LEADER thattheir interest here is on state level activities, not LincolnCounty ones.

Later in the week it was confirmed that some money — although aspecific amount has not yet been mentioned — is missing from theLincoln County School District. Evidently the district’s recordsare in such a mess that state auditors, who have been working sinceApril, have not yet been able to straighten them out. The StateBoard of Education was meeting Friday to name a special financialadvisor for the school district.

Superintendent of Education Perry Miller, who points out thatthe district is on solid financial footing, said the problems have”been ongoing for some time.” But, as the county’s top educationofficial, the mess is now his to clean up, and it appears the workwill be an long process.

What a summer this has been, but for some, it probably can’t getmuch hotter.