8/24/12 Natural gas industry puts strain on recorder's supply budgetecorder's office

  • By Nick Sabo
  • August 24, 2012
  • 360
                        
SUMMARY: Increase in revenue to offset increased demand for documents The natural gas industry has hit the Holmes County Recorder’s office in a big way, necessitating an increase in revenues to its supplies budget. The Holmes County Commissioners Monday Aug. 20 approved an increase in dollars that Recorder Anita Hall is able to hold back from fees, to use in her office. The increase, from $4 to $6, will help build up the recorder’s equipment fund and perhaps fund a software upgrade that will allow records to be posted on line. Hall said activity related to gas and oil leases has necessitated the increase. The fees are collected on document copies and are paid by the persons requesting the documents. “There’s a lot going on at the recorder’s office right now,” Hall said. “We’re talking 8,000 to 10,000 copies a month.” The increase allows Hall to keep $6 of set fees that are split between equipment, the general fund and state housing trust fund. Fees will not increase, Hall said, only the amount that the recorder can keep. For example, the $28 fee for a deed will remain the same. The recorder will receive $6 from the charge, rather than the previous amount of $4. Hall said her office is investigating the possibility of posting records on-line by spring of 2013. She does not yet know how much it will cost for the software, as well as the job of putting scanned records on-line. Hall said the office has been scanning records since the late 1990s, and these would go online first. After that, older records would be scanned and added to the on-line database. In the mean time, the fees will also be put to use repairing some of the older record books. The recorder’s office has records dating back to the founding of Holmes County, Hall said, and many of the books are in poor shape.


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