THOMASVILLE — Taking care of tax matters or viewing land maps just got easier for Grady County residents.

The Grady County Board of Commissioners agreed Wednesday at its first meeting of 2008 to purchase QPUBLIC services (a company specializing in helping county governments put their data online) for a $7,500 annual fee to place parcel maps and other pertinent information from the tax assessor’s office on the Internet.

“I think it is good government,” Commissioner Charles Renaud said Thursday. “It opens up the tax assessor’s office to be more accessible to the public and citizens will no longer have to go to the courthouse to get information.”

The county approved a free trial run in November that ended Tuesday.

QPUBLIC offers citizens the chance to peruse maps and records without having to leave their offices or homes.

“It’s really for the public to be able to access our records and we are going to have the maps with the photography on there,” Susan Bennett, tax assessor, explained Thursday. “We’ve had quite a few people — from what I’m gathering — that are using it. It’s good for people who are out of town — like mortgage companies or appraisers — because it helps them to access records if they don’t have a way to get into the office and they don’t have to wait to have records mailed to them. This system just makes records more available to the public. I think, in the long run, it will also save the office a lot of time.”

Another county department is also going to utilize QPUBLIC services.

Tax Commissioner Phyllis Gainous is currently awaiting the set up of services in her office. Monies were allotted in FY2007, but Gainous looked at two other companies before finding QPUBLIC in the latter part of 2007. So, there is $3,540 in her FY2008 budget to cover the $3,500 annual fee for QPUBLIC services.

“We’re in the process of getting our services put together and I think this is going to be convenient for our customers,” Gainous said. “People can inquire about their tax bills, pay their taxes, view the tax digest, mortgage companies can inquire about cases — it can be convenient to everyone. People who pay their taxes after the due date (Dec. 20) can also go online and pay before the 10 percent penalty date of Feb. 20.”

Renaud feels QPUBLIC will need to be marketed to the area.

“I see this as a good tool, but a lot of people aren’t aware of it yet,” he said. “I think we need to make it known that we have bought QPUBLIC services and will have it.”

For more information on QPUBLIC services, visit www.qpublic.net, or to visit Grady County’s site, go to http://qpublic.net/ga/grady/.