Debbie Dunnegan Waters has announced she will run for a fourth term as Jefferson County’s recorder of deeds.
Waters, 57, of the Hillsboro area is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for the office in the Aug. 2 primary election.
The Recorder of Deeds Office is responsible for maintaining land records and related documents, plus providing public access to the records. The office has seven full-time employees and a part-time worker.
The annual salary for the recorder of deeds is $86,120.
Waters said despite the challenges from the ongoing pandemic, she and her staff have moved forward with initiatives to improve office operations and she would like a chance to continue working on them.
“Over the last term, our computer system has been upgraded,” she said. “The software also has been updated so we can find information faster. If we’re faster, that means we can get the documents the public has requested earlier, and if we’re talking about a land sale, that means you get to close faster.”
Waters said an ongoing project to correct errors and omissions in the indexes is proceeding, making it easier to find information concerning records that go back to the beginning of the county in 1817.
“Those older documents have all been digitized,” she said.
However, Waters said, documents entered into older computer systems in the mid-1980s need to be brought into the modern age.
“The indexes back then only allowed very few characters, so the staff has been going back to get everything on one system. It’s a laborious process, but we’re making progress,” she said.
Waters said her staff, like other offices, has been tested by the COVID virus.
“I’d say 2021 has been one of the busiest years we’ve had in terms of having to retrieve records data,” she said, because of the real estate market boom.
“At times, we’ve had half of the staff out at one time, either sick or quarantined, and we haven’t missed a beat. We’ve never lagged behind, not even by a day. I’m really proud of all of them.”
Waters said the part of the recorder’s job that she enjoys most is helping people.
“With all of the explosion of land sales, that’s caused a lot of turmoil for those who have old records,” she said. “A lot of times, an easement was a handshake deal between two young men who are now grandfathers, or who aren’t around. I can’t fix it for them, but I can let people know what is and isn’t a record.
“It’s heartening when a widow or widower comes in and needs information on their property, and I can let them know that the process isn’t going to be as confusing as they thought. Sometimes they say, ‘I don’t know where to go. I don’t know where to start.’ I like being able to help those people through what seems like a frustrating process.”
Waters, a 1982 Northwest High School graduate and 1984 Jefferson College graduate, and her husband, Ken Waters, have a grown daughter and are expecting a grandchild this year.
She said she has not heard of anyone else who has announced for the office.
Filing for the August primary election opens Feb. 22 and closes March 29.
Each party’s winners in the primary election will then face each other in the Nov. 8 general election.