A deputy clerk in the Upshur County Clerk’s Office scanned 91,000 documents in 32 working days, County Clerk Peggy LaGrone told county commissioners on Monday. They comprised 327,635 pages, she said. All were bar-coded.

She said the service of Greg Dodson was invaluable. Twenty years of county documents are now barcoded, and can be indexed and accessed that way, she said.

She said Dodson wrote the program which he used for the digitizing, and they were offering it to other counties.

Ms. LaGrone described Dodson as a “workaholic,” and that he had donated 30 days of his compensation time back to the county.

“There is so much to be done, he won’t take time off,” she said.

Using a program Dodson created, they can now use a computer to pick a jury in 15 minutes. “It’s a whiz,” she said.

“I asked him ‘am I taking advantage of you?’” she said. “He said ‘No, but the county does not appreciate what I do.’”

She said that it cost $600 to have Dodson do the work, and would have cost $20,000 to $30,000 to have an outside vendor do it.

Ms. LaGrone made part of her remarks about Dodson during the public comments section of the meeting and other remarks to members of the press after adjournment.

During the meeting, commissioners accepted bids on three properties seized for delinquent taxes. All bids will have to also be accepted by the other taxing entities in which the properties are located.

A bid of $1,000 was accepted for .172 acres in Pct. 1 on the corner of Crane Road and Bob-O-Lin. The property and a structure on it were appraised at $11,900. It had been seized for $6,974 in unpaid property taxes.

A bid of $2,000 was accepted for .963 acres off Hwy. 155 N. Appraised at $9,100, it had been struck off for $6,776.

A $9,000 bid was accepted for 4.113 acres on Stock Road. It was appraised at $28,300, and was struck off for $6,515.

The court also approved a resolution in support of a “Happy Marriage Policy.”

Judge Dean Fowler said it is through the VOW program, is a designed “to help families, newly married couples, and previously married couples to make their marriages better.”

He said couples have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a counselor.

There is no cost to county for supporting this program, he said.

He said that he planned to, and would suggest to county Justices of the Peace, they ask couples to attend these classes before marriage.

“If they attend, fee for the marriage license will be waived,” he said.

The court also approved an interlocal agreement for County Fire Marshal Paul Steelman to provide services to the City of Big Sandy.

They also adopted resolution to approve transferring Lots 23 and 24, Block 5, and Lot 18, Block in the original township of Ore City to the city with the back taxes removed.

They tabled action on a request from Karmen Kelly, county technology supervisor, to move her office into an old storage room in the basement of the courthouse. They tabled pending get an engineer’s opinion on cutting a new door into the room.

Commissioners approved a request from Pct. 1 Justice of the Peace Wyona Manes to purchase a convex mirror, sensors for the front and back doors of the Rock Building where her office is located, and a new radio to help provide extra security for her office. They tabled purchased of a video camera.

The court approved acceptance of a Homeland Security Grant of $50,143, which will be used to provide equipment for the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office.

They approved an interlocal agreement with Camp County to house that county’s prisoners at a cost of $40 a day.

Approval was given to make repairs to the the ladies’ restroom and balcony area at the county Tax Office. Total cost of the work needed, including alleviation of a small amount of mold, is expected to be $4,000 to $4,500.