Young County approves $40,400 contract to begin online deed records; larger archiving plan tabled

The Young County Commissioners Court approved a $40,400 contract with a vendor described as I‑Three to create online deed‑record verticals and move county deed processing toward a digital system.

County Clerk staff explained that the I‑Three contract will handle modern online filing and stamping workflows and estimated annual maintenance costs. The clerk said deeds from 1951 and earlier must be archived per state requirements and that the larger CoFile archival project would be handled in phases so the county does not expend the entire amount in a single year.

Commissioners reviewed budget lines and confirmed money exists in a county archive account to cover the phased approach, but asked for CoFile’s costs to be broken out by year. The clerk said the County Clerk Archive account currently holds funds that can be applied and that the administration plans a budget amendment to move those funds into the implementation year; staff said the digitization of new deeds will be an ongoing annual cost.

After discussion, the board approved the I‑Three verticals contract for implementation this budget year (motion by Commissioner Wiley; second recorded). The CoFile archival contract covering older records was tabled so staff can obtain a year‑by‑year cost breakdown, and the county will implement archiving in stages rather than all at once.

The court requested that the contract documents be adjusted to show implementation and cost timing clearly before signing the larger archival agreement. No additional fiscal commitments for CoFile were approved at this meeting.