UPDATE: ROCK ISLAND, Illinois - Tuesday night, August 21, the Rock Island County Board approved the plan to hire Fidlar Technologies, a company that will digitize more than 100 years of records. Now the recorder's office will move to the county administration building on the second floor.
The record books are too heavy to be stored on the second floor, so the physical books will now be safely moved to the basement. The decision passed unanimously with all board members in favor of it. It is estimated to cost more than $1 million.
EARLIER: - The Rock Island County Board reviewed a plan to move the county recorder’s office during its committee of the whole meeting, Wednesday, August 15. A big part of that is finding out what to do with the county records.
The $1.3 million plan would allow the county to hire Fidlar technologies. A team of eight people would work around the clock for two weeks to digitize more than 100 years of records.
Rock Island County Recorder, Kelly Fisher says she already has a quarter of the money needed through the department’s document storage fund. The rest of the money would come from the county’s general fund reserves.
“It’s going to be fully funded eventually by my office. I’m able to put up $330,000 up front and we have about a million left. The county is going to put up a portion of that also, but that’s going to be paid also by the recorder fees that I bring in on a daily basis,” said Fisher, who expects to increase the costs of recorder fees once those documents are digitized.
During the presentation to the board, county auditor, April Palmer praised the idea because of the potential extra money it could bring to the county.
“It’s new revenue that we’ve never collected before and this is what we keep talking about and keep pushing for,” says Palmer.
If approved, teams would start the transferring of the documents online in early September, the Recorder’s Office would then move to the 2nd floor of the County Administration Building, and the books would move to the basement by November.
The board intends to discuss the recorder’s request to digitize the records during its regular board meeting Tuesday, August 21.
