Rock Island county continues to expand web services

Rock Island County officials hope to duplicate the success they've seen from putting assessments online, when property tax information is added to the county Web site next month.

The county recorded 11,000 hits in March to the supervisor of assessments page on the Rock Island County Web site, www.rockislandcounty.org. Of those, 6,500 were initial hits looking up multiple properties, supervisor of assessments Larry Wilson said.

"It is pretty exciting what we have to offer today," county board chairman Jim Bohnsack said.

Knowledge of the Web site was only through word of mouth. Mr. Wilson's employees have been telling title companies, attorney's offices and real estate agents about the Web site when they call, so the early popularity is encouraging, he said.

The county plans to put property tax information from the treasurer's office online May 13, when tax bills are mailed. Information available will include who the tax bill is mailed to, annual amount due, and when payments are made.

Mr. Wilson said the number of calls to the assessor's office has dropped since the information went online. He sees the number of hits as phone calls his staff didn't have to field.

"Now I can re-focus my staff and be more effective for the township assessors," he said.

The information is popular with people and companies involved in real estate transactions, Mr. Wilson said.

The project, spearheaded by Mr. Wilson and Web programmer Sue Adams, took about six months. Privacy issues were considered when determining how visitors to the Web site would be able to search for parcel information.

The information only is searched by parcel number or address so names couldn't be entered, protecting people who don't want their addresses known, like judges and police officers, Ms. Adams said. Property tax information can be found the same way.

The Dope has been aware of this service for some time. Needless to say, it's of interest to find out what your properties are assessed at, as well as neighboring properties.