BURTON SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES LEASING LAND FOR MINERAL DEVELOPMENT
The Burton School Board approved leasing over 27 acres of school-owned land for mineral development at Wednesday’s meeting.
The bid from GeoSouthern Chalk II was the only one submitted to the board. The oil, gas and mineral lease is set at a 3-year term, at $800 per acre.
With 27.31 total acreage being leased across four tracts of land, the payment comes out to $21,848, with royalty set at 22.5 percent. The contract check will be delivered at a later date, and the funds will go straight into the school’s general fund.
Jeff Runge, with GeoSouthern Chalk II, explained that the lease did not provide for surface use, and the pricing of the contract reflected that. He said typically, more is paid if the surface can be used.
Runge said a majority of the land being considered does not come near the school. As a result, it should not disturb school operations.
Runge said after signing the lease, drilling is done, then fracking, then getting pipelines to the wells. It typically takes about three months once production begins into the pipelines.
Once that is done, it is determined which acreage goes into which well unit. Runge said currently, it looks like three units will be used, so the school would get royalty checks from three different wells.
Following title-work, a division order department decides who gets what in each unit. That process usually takes about three months from when production goes live. Once the division order is signed, then checks start going out.
Runge also said that, even though the contract is for three years, the agreement is binding until production stops. Once production ends, the lease is expired.
The board also met in executive session to discuss a Level III grievance, personnel, and student information. No action was taken.
Since June of 2018, the school board has addressed numerous grievances and appeals at meetings. Many of these have been bitter talking points with school board members, employees, and the public.