Recorder candidates speak at Pachyderms meeting

Improved technology and public access were the main topics of the night when the candidates for Cape Girardeau County recorder of deeds spoke before the Southeast Missouri Pachyderms on Thursday night.

Scott R. Clark is the current recorder and Drew Blattner is assistant director of the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center. The Republicans will face off in the primary election Aug. 5.

Pachyderms vice president and program chairman Mark Welker introduced the candidates and expressed gratitude to them for taking interest in local government.

Clark addressed the crowd first. Four years ago, he said, he stood before the club and promised to improve the technology and customer service in the recorder's office.

"I'm happy to say I've done that," he said.

He was the first Republican elected to the position in about 36 years, he said.

Throughout his time in the office, the county got its first e-document -- a big step forward in security and efficiency, according to Clark -- and payment methods expanded to include debit cards in addition to cash and check. Documents from 1989 to present also are available for review from home computers, saving people a trip to the recorder's office in Jackson, he said.

Blattner said it was nice to see growth in the recorder's office and if elected to the position, he hoped to expand on it. Raised on a rural family farm, the Cape Girardeau native said he developed an interest in his family's history and the history of his surroundings at a young age.

He's spent years and has traveled thousands of miles in the name of such research, which is why he wants to focus on increasing public access for those with similar interests.

"With the proper preservation of documents and the proper access the public has to those records, you can find pretty much anything you want as long as the records survive," he said. "The main reason I want to run for recorder of deeds is because I want the public to have full, unlimited access to any record in the recorder's office. ... I think anything, I don't care what kind of record it is, if it's public record, it's public record, and people should have full access to it."

In the archive center, he said nearly every document it houses is available to the public and over the years he has enjoyed helping people comb through the information to uncover more information about their heritage.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

236 S. Broadview St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.