A proposal to digitize records was given at the Washington County Board of Supervisors’ meeting Tuesday.

Account Executive Don Beussink of Cott Systems, Inc. gave a proposal on digitizing land records for the county auditor and recorder’s offices, some of which date as far back as 1840, before Iowa’s statehood. Cost of digitizing the recorder’s books estimated from about $122,000 to $150,000, and for the auditor would cost around $68,000. Beussink explained the range of cost for digitizing the recorder’s books depends on whether the county would pay for Cott employees to digitize the more difficult to scan bound books offsite. The agreement would also include a $170 fixed monthly fee for five years for technical support. County Auditor Dan Widmer shared that he received multiple bids for this work, and he recommended Cott, “Those books are only as good as our fire protection. A tornado, a fire, whatever, those books are damaged right now if that occurred we have a problem. Second of all, it will eliminate the need for people to come into the courthouse to research and do their thing, where that really became evident was with the COVID situation.”

An online database of records would allow anyone to search remotely for a particular county record at any time. Widmer shared that his office’s portion of the work is already included in his budget. County Recorder Jo Greiner said this project is something she’s long wanted to do, but does not have the funds. The potential for using American Rescue Plan Act funds was mentioned, which the supervisors have not yet allocated any of the approximate $4.3 million the county is receiving. This topic is anticipated to be on next week’s meeting agenda.