Users to pay 25 cents per page to print copies at home or their offices
| Carbon County’s Board of Commission approved the new Recorder’s Web site and decided to charge 25 cents per page for user to print out the information they find on the site. |
It took a little wrangling but the Carbon County commissioners were able to tie up the last loose end of the new Recorder’s Web site at their March 5 meeting.
Last Wednesday’s discussion was a continuation of one held at the Feb. 21 meeting in which the details about site content and licenses were hammered out. The one issue unresolved was how much and how to charge users for printing copies at home.
“I need to get approval to charge for the printing,” Carbon County Recorder Vikki Barnett said. “However, there have been questions whether people should be charged for using their own printers and ink.”
Barnett explained that other counties with these types of Web sites have set up a pay system for printing the charges range from 1 cent to $1 per page. Commissioner Mike Milovich recommended that Carbon County’s site charge 25 cents per page, which is the amount charged presently in the Recorders office.
Barnett suggested that users set up prepaid accounts from which the costs could be deducted.
Despite the cost for printing, users will find a wealth of free property information on the new site including:
• Tax identification numbers
• Owner’s name and mailing address
• Legal descriptions
• Lot sizes
• Tax rates
• Back taxes
In addition, as the design is expanded, Barnett said that there would be links to several other county facilities including the North Springs Shooting Range and the Carbon County Expo Center. She said that the designer is offering a package for $9,000 which includes sites for those facilities.
“It seems cost effective to do it this way,” said Commissioner Bill Krompel after hearing what the county would get for the price. “We do need to promote the expo and gun range.”
The impetus for setting up the new site came from area Realtors who lobbied for a quicker and easier way to access the information they regularly need. However, individuals will also be able to surf cyberspace for Carbon County property tax information.
Carbon’s setup includes five free licenses that anyone can use. Realtors and agents were encouraged to buy their own license to avoid being locked out when all the free licenses are tied up.
“What’s to stop me from logging in and staying all day and never paying for a license?” a real estate agent in the audience asked.
She was assured by Barry Horsley of the county’s information technology department, that as tempting as that may sound he built in a fail-safe for that situation.
“As soon as there is two minutes without activity the computer will automatically release the license for others to use,” he said.
The Realtors and agents, who showed up last Wednesday, had some concerns about how residents would be able to print off of the site if the only way to pay was through the prepaid system.
“We are trying to add an additional benefit with this site,” Realtor Mike Metzger said. “But this (the prepaid system) is no benefit to the general public.”
County Attorney Christian Bryner begged to differ with Metzger.
“Most of the information will be free,” he said. “They (general public) can get information they just won’t be able to print it out.”
However, a determined board of commissioners didn’t give up on figuring someway for anyone to print out the pages they might need. Horsley was tasked with figuring out how to set up the system to use credit cards.
“There has got to be away to do this,” Commissioner Steve Burge said.
It was general consensus that credit cards would likely be usable, but that there would be a minimum amount required, perhaps $1 which would allow the user to print out four pages.
To find out more information or just to view the site visit http://www.carbon.utah.gov/recorder/.