Friday, February 23, 2018
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County commissioners approved a contract Thursday with an Austintown company to convert county area court records to microfilm.
The $440,900 contract with Lake Business Products amounts to about $0.04 for each of the 10 million documents that require scanning.
Scott Grossen, office administrator for the Mahoning County Clerk of Courts, said he’s been working to accomplish this since he arrived 18 years ago. “It’s a long time coming,” said Jessy Horkey, who supervises the county’s microfilm department. “It’s going to free up a lot of time.”
The records extend from the early 1990s through 2008 and sit in about 3,000 boxes at Oakhill Renaissance Place.
Each of the county’s area courts, which are in Austintown, Boardman, Canfield and Sebring, has the most recent 10 years of records stored on site.
Ohio law requires counties to store court records in a permanent physical form in addition to a digital form.
Microfilm remains the most efficient physical form, Horkey said.
Audrey Tillis, the commissioners’ executive director, said excess money in the clerk of courts’ title fund will pay for the contract.