On April 16, Chesney Creel Chandler, Winn Parish Clerk of Court, spoke to the Kiwanis club. She began by saying that mortgages, conveyances, and marriage licenses are now available on-line.  Some of them back to 1906.  They also have birth certificates but do not do passports. 

To access records on-line the fee is $20 daily, $100 monthly or $1,000 yearly. It took 4 years to complete conveyance records (seller/buyer). The mortgage records are available back to 1993. She has hired someone part-time to scan the records into the data base. There is a redaction company that takes care of removing social security numbers to make the records safer. It takes time to get new things right but they are working on it.  There are 2 back up methods, locally and an off-site storage. Our office still keeps the books because if the computer goes down they can still look up records and add records. 

The clerk’s office does the civil and criminal records. In e-reporting you do not have an original. 

Another topic talked about was jury selection. There are 8,000 registered voters in Winn, a list she gets from the Secretary of State’s office once a year. They update monthly with people who have moved or have died. One problem is that people move and register to vote in another parish or state but do not report it locally. There is no central database that keeps up with voter registration. 

Future plans include civil e-filing which is being required by law. With the part-time employee they are working on scanning all records into the on-line system.

A  question was asked about the financial situation of the office. Many people do not know that the office is self-funded through the fees they charge. They get no state or local monies. The police jury helps with supplies. There are 3 employees in addition to Mrs. Chandler. Those include a civil, criminal and conveyance person. There is a part-time employee to do the scanning. She uses grants to help with expenses for the new things they are doing. There is an increase in criminal paperwork and they get no money for that and they don’t get money for appeals. Overall they are holding their own financially.

Club members were very happy to see Les and Janine Michie at Kiwanis on Tuesday. The couple left at the end of 2023 to go back home to Moses Lake, Washington, but had come back to visit.