Ohio County Moves 36 Tons of Record Books

photo by: Joselyn King
Some books detailing local birth and death records remain at the Ohio County Clerk’s Office.
WHEELING — More than 36 tons of county records books — some dating back to 1776 — have been relocated from the Ohio County Clerk’s Office as construction continues at the City-County Building in downtown Wheeling.
Downsizing the office on the second floor to make way for a larger prosecutor’s office is in the plans while the whole building gets a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.
The books are now in temporary storage at the former AT&T Building at The Highlands.
“The plans are for the county commission to build storage units at The Highlands for county records, and these books will be part of that so they will have to be moved to a new location,” County Clerk Mike Kelly said.
“That’s got to be a heck of a lot cheaper than building on to the building that you know eventually will run out of space again.”
The books that were moved out of the Clerk’s Office have been digitized, and those needing to do so already have been accessing them online for a few years. It’s worked out well so far, according to Kelly.
Nevertheless, the hardcopies of the books are going to have to be kept “for another 20 to 30 years,” he explained.
“That’s just to get people over the mental fact the books aren’t here, and what do we do if we don’t have the books? What if something is wrong with the digital records?” Kelly said. “After so many decades, if you haven’t found a problem … I’ll be dead then and that will be somebody else’s problem.”
The books provide “a comfort level” to many – such as attorneys – who do title searches on a regular basis, he continued. They contain details of real estate transactions, deeds, loan papers, wills, appraisals, court settlements and judgements.
Books noting birth and death records, as well as military discharges, remain in the County Clerk’s Office.
The moving of the weighty tomes came with a lot of heavy lifting by inmates at the nearby Ohio County Correctional Center. Kelly estimates there were 10 to 12 inmate volunteers on site each day.
“They came from across the alley. They didn’t have far to go,” he said. “The agreement with them was you do the work and you get lunch.”
They worked on the project for about two weeks.
There was pizza served, as well as hamburgers on a number of days, Kelly continued. He explained the inmates requested hamburgers as they don’t get beef at the jail.
Kelly added he personally thanked the inmates for their work.
“Oh, no, we appreciate it,” Kelly said one of them told him. “Otherwise, we would be sitting in our cells doing nothing. It is really nice to get out of the cell.
“If a contractor could get those guys as a team, they would do well. They were polite to everybody. They just went to work.”
The inmates completed the job the day after Christmas.
“I didn’t think it would be done by the end of the year, but it was,” Kelly said.
Decisions about the second floor layout of offices at the City-County Building will have to come soon, he continued. As the County Clerk’s Office will be downsized, the County Prosecutor’s Office will get additional space. County Assessor Tiffany Hoffman also has requested an area to be used by her office.
Construction on the third floor is nearly complete, and work on the second floor is about to start.
“When they finish the third floor, the city (offices) will go back to the third floor,” Kelly said. “We and the county commission will go to the (former Wheeling Police Station space on the first floor), and the tax office and the assessor are going to the 4th floor and the former law library to co-exist.”