County clerk wins budget amendment to continue digitizing historical records

Greene County supervisors approved a budget amendment that allows the county clerk to move revenue from online-document fees into the clerk's digitization project budget so the office can continue scanning and publishing historical grantor/grantee and mortgage records.

Why it matters: County Clerk Marilyn Barrow told supervisors the digitization effort has already brought records — including grantors and grantees — online back to the 1800s in the county's indexing system, enabling remote public searches and preserving older documents.

Details from the clerk County Clerk Marilyn Barrow said the office, which shifted many functions online during the COVID-19 pandemic, had budgeted $10,000 for digitization and that outside work for other jurisdictions has generated additional revenue to fund the project. Barrow said the county now has grantor/grantee indexes back to the 1800s in the computer system and that work on mortgage tax reporting and other scanning has continued: "So out of those 4 things for 02/2024 has brought in 6 thou $646,025. That's not including what we did with the walk ins from Greene County. That's just the outside agencies that are in. With what we've done in the office is $893,320, which was all the transactions..."

Outcome and formal action Supervisor Rivera moved the budget amendment to allow the transfer; Riveramotion was seconded and carried by voice vote. The amendment permits the clerk to add the identified online-fee revenue to the existing digitization budget and continue the scanning project.

Ending Clerk Barrow said the project will continue to extend indexing further backward and that the office will use the transferred funds to complete planned scanning phases.