County locks in bid to digitize records

Washington County Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a contract with Cott Systems to digitize the government’s highest-use and highest-risk documents, days before the company’s $250,000 offer expired.

While the vote to approve the contract was unanimous, some board members were hesitant about committing too much of the county’s $4.3 million COVID relief funds without a more comprehensive plan. The board eventually voted to partially fund the deal with ARPA money after lengthy discussion.

“We’re getting the cart ahead of the horse a little, I’m not in favor to approve spending any of this money until we specifically have an itemized list of all the ARPA funds, and then we compare that list to the prioritized list,” Supervisor Marcus Fedler said. “It would be inappropriate for us to spend any of this money until we’ve populated our prioritized list with dollars. And then we can gather as a group, we can determine what line items on that list we’re going to spend the money on.”

A committee — which included Fedler and Supervisor Stan Stoops — had been working on such a list as early as August of last year, but the conversation petered out as department heads requested more time to figure out their proposal costs, along with some complaints about the county’s ranking system. Fedler said the county could expect monetary estimates in “under a month” after a last call to department leaders.

Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said some potential ARPA projects, including digitized records, were worth pursuing early.

“I think there are a few things on this list of things that have been suggested that are kind of no-brainers, in my opinion,” he said. “I don’t see why we need to wait for every last thing on that list to get a price. Plus the fact that any contractor or architect or whatever, is going to take all the money you’ve got to propose a move … it’s not going to leave anything for the rest of us.”

Board Chair Richard Young said it was time to get the ball rolling for ARPA funds, one way or another.

“The reason I wanted this on here is because I haven’t heard anything for quite a while,” he said. “We need to sit down and prioritize that list ourselves. If they’re not giving us what it’s going to cost, then it’s out. It comes off the list. They’ve had plenty of time.”

County Recorder Jo Greiner agreed, making note of the county’s deadline before the offer from Cott systems expired.

“I feel like we’ve come down and pushed this on you guys really quick, but the problem is it expires (this) week,” she said. “And when it comes back, it’s not going to be less.”

Supervisor Bob Yoder said there were less pressing but still urgent concerns about losing the older books to time.

“We go back pre-Civil War, and some of those records are from the 1840s … before Iowa was even a state,” he said. “A lot of those old books are getting so brittle and faded, the paper’s starting to disintegrate, so we’re going to have to do something very soon if we’re going to do something. If we lose those records, there’s just no way to replace it.”

The agreements breaks down to three contracts: $68,325 for the Auditor’s records, $152,500 for land records and $33,980 for birth death and marriage records. The records entail just under half the county’s 799 books, prioritizing the oldest and most heavily used.

The auditor’s office has allocated enough cash from its own budget to pay for its share, while Greiner said the recorder’s office, GIS and the IT Department could each allocate $50,000 over the next two years.

That leaves a little over $35,000 for ARPA fund, assuming no unforeseen change of circumstances. The resolution passed by supervisors on Tuesday allocates up to $50,000, just in case, although they said they’d look into allocations from other department budgets as well.

Fedler said he found the final plan agreeable.

“I think it’s valuable, the project itself is a valuable project to pursue and it’s on our list, it was in the top four … so to authorize less than $50,000 made sense to me,” he said. “You also heard just now, maybe we can come up with the money for the other 50, so I think maybe there’s an opportunity there.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com