Staff photos / Ed Runyan Noralynn Palermo, Mahoning County recorder, stands next to deed books from 1980 to 1985 that will be scanned using American Rescue Plan funds the county commissioners have received.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners have allocated $185,216 of the county’s $42 million in American Rescue Plan funds to the county recorder’s office to “back scan” deeds, mortgages and other documents from 1980 to 1985.

The effort will make it easier for the public, title searchers and recorder’s office employees to access this information online, although physical copies will still be kept.

Noralynn Palermo, county recorder, said the office has one section of records that have not yet been digitized, and the funding will take care of that. The work will probably begin within a couple of months.

Right now, the 1980 to 1985 documents such as deeds, mortgages, powers of attorney and leases and other records are available only as physical records in books kept at the recorder’s office at the courthouse.

Documents from 1985 to the present already are scanned and digitized, and records before 1980 are scanned and digitized.

“Eventually, we will put them online,” she said.

But first, all of the scanned images have to have Social Security numbers redacted, she said. That step is next after the 1980 to 1985 records are digitized.

Currently, users of the recorder’s office website can access deed index books from 1985 to the present online. Those records provide some information on documents such as deeds and mortgages — but not the documents. Deed indexes also tell someone where to look for documents.

After the records have been digitized, the physical versions of the documents still will be available, Palermo said, noting that there have been times when people have been unable to make a copy from the digital records.

“Thankfully, we still have the book, where we can get the book, back scan it and make it available,” she said. That doesn’t happen very often, she said.

Having the last of the records digitized will be better for title searchers, she said.

Palermo said when the records are all digitized, redacted and placed online, it will reduce the work load for recorder’s office employees and provide easier access to the records.

“We get tons and tons of phone calls every day for deeds to be faxed. And if they are from 1984, for instance, (recorder’s employees) have to go downstairs, run the index, pull the book, make the copy downstairs. Whereas if they are online, you push a button, the copy comes out and you’re good,” she said.

Most of the county’s land records, such as deeds and mortgages, are digitized. But because they have not yet been redacted for Social Security numbers, they are not online, Palermo said.

In 2009, the office had to start redacting Social Security numbers, “so anything from 1985 to 2009 has to be redacted and all of the new records that are going to be scanned have to be redacted,” she said. All of the documents that came in from 2009 to now have all been redacted.

She said when the time comes to redact Social Security numbers from the older documents, it will be done by an automated process that should not be as expensive as the current project.

The records from 1985 to 1989 are scanned but not yet redacted.

Palermo said she does not know when the redacting and digitizing of the remaining records will take place.

erunyan@vindy.com