County land records project gets grant

Jefferson County will back up the remainder of its land records through a $68,260 grant from the state Archives Department.

The deeds, mortgages and other land records from 1851 through 1966 will be scanned or put on microfilm.

"Members of the public and abstractors will be able to bring up those files on our computer," County Clerk Cheryl D. Lane said. "They're part of our history, so we need to keep those available."

The grant is through the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund. The county also received a similar grant in 2004 to put land records from 1967 to 1989 onto microfilm and in 2006 to scan the records from 1990 to 2002.

"We naturally have to store the records for the future, so we need a duplicate copy," Mrs. Lane said. "They need to be stored somewhere else in case of fire."

Cott Systems Inc., vendor of the Resolution 3 software the office uses, stores the microfilm in case the records in Watertown were damaged or destroyed.

The county receives half of the money now and half when the first portion is drawn down.

"For the first time ever, the government is giving us an extension to get the work done," Mrs. Lane said.

Normally, the grant requires archival work to be done by the end of June, but this year, the office gets until the end of the year due to the slow release of the money.

"We should be able to get it all done," she said.

In other county clerk business, Mrs. Lane said former County Clerk JoAnn M. Wilder will stay on as deputy clerk "at least to September," when Mrs. Wilder has her next birthday.

"Then it depends," Mrs. Lane said. "She likes working as deputy."

Mrs. Wilder, who served 20 years as county clerk, had intended to retire to Texas after Mrs. Lane's election. But Mrs. Lane asked Mrs. Wilder to stay with the office after Mrs. Lane's son, David, was killed the day after the election in November.