WATERLOO -- Black Hawk County is working on plans to catch up with other counties and accept land records via e-mail.

Recorder Judy McCarthy is hoping to upgrade her office technology with a new indexing and imaging system to improve the efficiency of filing land records and vital statistics while making it easier on frequent users.

"Attorneys and banks can just e-file their deeds and mortgages," McCarthy said. "Black Hawk is one of just two counties (in Iowa) now that can't take electronic submissions."

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $150,850 contract with Cott Systems Inc., of Worthington, Ohio, for the purchase of the new records system for the office.

"The three counties that are larger than we are already have Cott," McCarthy said, noting the system was selected from among several proposals received in August.

And the price was well below the $225,000 the county budgeted for the system this year, although McCarthy noted there may be some additional expense in transfering records from the existing sytem into the new Cott equipment.

The county has been participating in a statewide program that makes land records available on the Internet. But staff are required to remove Social Security numbers by hand before Black Hawk County records are submitted to the program.

McCarthy said Cott Systems equipment automatically redacts Social Security numbers.

It may take two to three months for the new system to be up and running, she said.

Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.