Franklin County Recorder Toni Wilkinson is retiring this month after working in the office for 40 years.
Wilkinson recently spoke with RadioOnTheGo News about her time working as the county recorder and what her office does on a daily basis. She first worked as the deputy recorder until being named recorder in 2001.
“We record all legal documents, review them and make sure that they meet Iowa filing requirements by code, and if not, send them back for corrections. Take in the fees, take in the auditor’s transfer fee, figure that and take that in. We sell all hunting and fishing licenses through the DNR, deer tags, snowmobile, ATV, boat registrations. And then we take in marriage applications and provide the paperwork for couple’s that are getting married, and also provide certified copies of all birth, death, and marriage records from the county and now also from the state.”
Wilkinson says she has seen a lot of changes since she first started working in the office in 1984.
“When I first started, we hand wrote everything in the books. We hand wrote hunting and fishing licenses. Everything was done by hand. There was not a computer in the office when I started. And then when I took over in 2001 as recorder, one of the first things that I did was bring us up to date with computers. It was very stressful. I was switching all of our software providers also, and they had to be up and running the next day. So I was here all day that day learning how to set up a computer from scratch. But the biggest change has been going from handwriting in books to now electronic document filing.”
A retirement party for Wilkinson will be held Tuesday, December 17th from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the courthouse rotunda.
