Editor’s note: This story has been updated.

The Secretary of State’s office has awarded grants to two rural counties to purchase new equipment and put records online.

“With the help of the Electronic Recording Technology Board, Washington and San Juan counties will be able upgrade to the latest technologies to meet their constituents’ needs and digitize historical records,” Secretary Jena Griswold said.

The ERTB began in 2016 after a group of real estate, legal, and title and lending professionals evaluated the preservation of land records in Colorado. Griswold’s office reports that the board has since awarded $4 million to county clerks to improve their record keeping.

A grant application has a total of 150 available points, taking into account a county’s need, its ability to preserve and digitize public records, and its financial record keeping.

Ladonna Jaramillo, the clerk and recorder of San Juan County, said that a consulting company told her to replace her office’s equipment due to a number of technical issues.

“Our equipment was old and the operating system was out of date. Our working station had Windows 7 and will no longer have support,” she said.

With a population of 700, San Juan is Colorado’s smallest county. Their grant is worth $21,165. Washington County will receive $53,308 to digitize its historical land records.

Washington County Clerk Annie Kuntz said that records only became computerized in late 1996, meaning that since the county’s establishment in 1887, most information is on microfiche and in books.

This is her second grant, the previous one being for new servers and computers to aid with recording.

“For our recording system, my maintenance contract on that is over $9,000. I don’t even bring in enough money through the $1 surcharge to even pay my maintenance agreement,” said Kuntz. “We’re almost to Nebraska. For researchers to come and drive from Denver to search through our books,” would be a burden alleviated through the digitization of documents.

Among the awards given to counties over the past two years, Prowers County in Southeast Colorado received the largest single grant of $346,605 to digitize and index its records, and for cybersecurity and disaster recovery services.

Fremont County received nearly $222,000 to purchase new office equipment and update its credit card processing.

Pueblo County’s $200,000 will go toward digitizing over 1,500 books.