The Coffee County registrar urged the Budget & Finance Committee on March 20 to approve equipment and service funding to preserve deteriorating land records and support digitization.

The registrar (name given in remarks) described fragile survey cabinets and older bound books whose mounting materials and covers are breaking down. She said the office bought a new flatbed scanner this budget year and is requesting a book-cradle (A3) scanner and a 24-by-36 flatbed capable of scanning oversized plats that cannot be run through the office plotter.

The registrar said the office has engaged a part-time specialist with archival experience to begin remediating the most at-risk records and is seeking funds to rebind severely deteriorated volumes; she cited per-book rebinding estimates of roughly $2,800 to $3,200 depending on condition. She said data-processing (DP) fees collected per recording (a fee noted as $2 per recording in the transcript) fund preservation projects and the requested equipment will be paid from those reserves rather than the county general fund.

The registrar asked the committee to support the capital purchases and noted the flatbed scanner has already been acquired from RJ Young, which the office selected after getting multiple proposals.

Committee members asked how many sheets in the problem cabinet would require flatbed scanning; the registrar said the first affected cabinet contains just under 400 plats that will need the flatbed treatment. The registrar said digitization will improve access and reduce wear on the original materials.