Commissioners hear complaint over courthouse records

by Brian Orr
WALSENBURG — The Huerfano County commissioners listened Tuesday to Huerfano resident Mary Jenson, who spoke to them about the difficulty of finding records on property mineral or water rights.  She and her husband have both been realtors in their careers, and know how to do record searches, but they have never seen anything as cumbersome and outdated as Huerfano County’s record system.  
“The people were friendly and courteous,” Jenson said, but she was required to do her own searching.  “My husband came here twice, and he wasn’t able to find anything, and then I came down to search, and I couldn’t find our mineral rights information, either.”  After she couldn’t find the information, she was told she could hire a researcher to do it for a fee, ranging from $250 to $2,500.
Jenson asked the commissioners to change the records policy to allow the county clerks help with a search, and also to modernize the way records are kept; possibly keeping the current large cumbersome books, but transferring the contents to computer.
County Clerk Nancy Cruz, who regularly attends commissioner meetings, told Jenson the county has obtained a grant to electronically index the records, and the effort is underway, but it will take years before the task is complete.
“The records here are indexed by grantor/grantee,” Cruz said, as opposed to section/township/range, as it is often done elsewhere.
Cruz also said there are several decades worth of information that has not been indexed at all. She summed up her conversation with Jenson by saying she should come down to the clerk’s office again, and Cruz or someone on her staff would be happy to help her.
Jenson said her interest in finding out about the potential mineral rights on her property stems from the recent spate of helicopter overflys throughout the county.   
Dawson Geophysical, who did the seismic survey flyovers, is now approaching landowners and asking them to sign leases allowing Dawson to go on their property and place seismic equipment as part of their search for minerals.  Jenson wants to know what exactly she has or doesn’t have before signing any leases.