Geary County register of deeds reports $356,976 in 2024 collections; meeting approves change orders

Jackie Reisinger, Geary County register of deeds, presented the office’s quarterly and annual financial report during the meeting, saying the office collected $356,976.25 in fees in 2024 and remitted $279,548.25 to the county general fund.

Reisinger opened by saying, “I’m here for the quarterly report,” and walked the meeting through fourth-quarter and full-year totals and document counts. For the fourth quarter she reported total collections of $101,758.50 and an amount to the general fund of $79,002.50. For the full year she said, “For the financial side of things, the file fees, we collected $259,048 in 2024,” added that copy fees totaled $20,500.25, the register technology fund received $38,714, the clerk’s and treasurer’s technology funds each received $9,678.50, and that the Heritage Trust Fund collected $19,357, “with a total collected of $356,976.25. And the amount to the general fund was $279,548.25.”

Nut graf: The report summarizes recording activity and fee allocations that support county technology needs and the general fund. Reisinger said the office uses technology fund receipts to pay for items such as servers, contracts with vendors and routine equipment so the general fund’s burden is reduced.

On activity, Reisinger reported 958 documents recorded in the fourth quarter, including entries she listed as mortgages, mortgage releases and surveys; she said 285 of those were land-related filings and that 189 of those had canceled validation questionnaires and therefore were invalid sales. She said document counts and revenue were higher than the comparable quarter in 2023: “the total collected was up $30,247.50 from the fourth quarter of [2023],” and quarterly revenue was $13,263.50 higher than the prior quarter.

Reisinger also said she provided the meeting packet with a second page showing January–December 2024 document counts and financial totals. She described routine uses of the technology fund — paying for the office’s server, printer and scanning contracts, and saving for larger projects such as label printers.

Discussion at the meeting included brief procedural comments about submitting materials for the packet; a participant asked that distributed materials be sent to the clerk so they can appear in the packet prior to meetings.

Later in the session the meeting took a separate, formal voice vote on “accept[ing] the change orders.” The transcript records the motion and a voice vote: “All in favor? Aye.... Motion carries.” The motion text and outcome are recorded in the meeting minutes; the transcript does not identify a mover, seconder or individual vote names.

The meeting had returned from an executive session earlier; the chair said the body was “back from the executive session. No action taken.”

Ending: Reisinger thanked attendees and said she would continue to provide regular financial and document-count reports; meeting minutes will record the official vote on the change orders and the register’s submitted packet for the year.