Going online: Assessor's Office digitizing records for public to access at home

Jun. 21—PRINCETON — In the past, checking property records often meant visiting the Mercer County Courthouse, but new technology is putting these records only an internet link and a few clicks away.

The Mercer County Assessor's Office has been working to scan physical records into a computer so they can be available online, according to Assessor Lyle Cottle. Cottle said that the office was "very well run" before he came to it, but he decided to make some changes.

"Well, we started out getting the money approved to get a new server in this office because this is a private server," Chief Office Deputy Todd Kendall said. The office's previous server did not have the memory needed for the updates being planned, so it had to be changed.

The map cards, which are used by every real estate agent and every attorney in the county, are filed at the assessor's office. This meant constant trips to the assessor's office for any agent or attorney who wanted to consult them. Each card details the history of the property, such as who has owned it, since the county started keeping records in the courthouse, Kendall said.

"All the history of it to the beginning, which they have to have when they're making deeds or when they're listing a piece of property in order to answer questions when they are selling it," he stated. "It was almost 50,000 cards, 50,000 pieces of property here. And we had a young lady here that scanned every card and every note made on those cards and we were able to put those online on our new website.

So now a Realtor or an attorney who's making out a deed instead of having to make a trip to the courthouse, can sit in their office, pull up mercerassessor.com and find everything they need. We're just trying to modernize it a little bit."

The assessor's office evaluates the value each piece of property in Mercer County every three years.

"We break that up into sections," Kendall said. "We have several appraisers who go out and visit each parcel. Not each year, but every three years."

The assessor's office assesses the value of a property, and the Mercer County Sheriff's Department tax office collects the property taxes. Cottle said that people often believe they can pay their taxes while in the assessor's office, but this is not the case.

Another upcoming change will help reduce what the office spends on postage, Cottle said.

"It cost close to $10,000 to mail everybody in the county a property card," Cottle said. "So we want to get that at some point, it might take at least another year, we want to get that online. It would save a lot of postage if people can go on mercerassessor, get their property card and fill it out, send it, and we'll be able to pick up on it."

Residents would then be able to renew their car tags without coming to the courthouse, Cottle said.

"We're going to try and fix it so you can show what you own and paid your taxes," he stated.

Making the changes has not been a simple task. Records besides the map cards are being updated as well.

"Getting those 50,000 cards online was just a monumental task in itself," Cottle recalled. "And that is done 100 percent, plus we had a brand-new flyover of the county — there's companies that do that — that flies across the county and takes pictures of everything. The maps that you see online of your property on our website, they come from that flyover. And the pictures that you see on our website."

"They're going to be update shortly," Kendall said. "That will be by July, hopefully."

A company called Eagle View takes the aerial photographs. The county assessor's office works in conjunction with Mercer 911 since the call center needs those photographs as well so fire trucks and ambulances can be routed to the right locations, he added.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com