Many elected posts in the county courthouse are up for election next Tuesday.

But just one is contested — Register & Recorder.

Register & Recorder — and Clerk of Orphans Court — has several primary functions including caring for the county’s property records, handling estate documents and marriage documents, among other responsibilities. It’s an office whose responsibilities are largely set by statute.

Republican Lisa Burkhouse and Democrat Kristy Phillips are seeking election to the post.

And both addressed the experience they bring to the table.

“I want to bring a higher quality of customer service to the Register and Recorder’s office (and) to be there for the people,” Phillips said. “I have taken several real estate courses through the years but my life always took a different path.

“I have worked with AAA for the past 11 years mainly doing work for our customers with recording important and confidential information with the state of Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles,” she added, “and would bring that same commitment to the Register and Recorder’s office.”

Berkhouse highlighted experience as Deputy Recorder of Deeds, work as Assessment office manager and six years as a realtor.

“I will take the education and experience gained in these positions and work hard for the people of Warren County,” she said. “I have spent the majority of my professional work history in customer service, business administration, sales, and office management. I feel that my 30 years’ experience in these areas will provide the Recorder’s Office with a level of service that will benefit the community as well as the people who work in the office.”

She added that she’d emphasize “reaching out to community professionals to learn how we might better serve them, and continuing education by seeking out learning opportunities for the deputies and myself as often as possible. In my sales background I have learned that exceptional service leads to satisfied customers and a positive work environment.”

Looking to the future of how the office should operate, Burkhouse said she’d like to see expanded digital access to documents.

“We take hundreds of calls per year from taxpayers who need help getting copies of documents,” she said of her work in the Assessment office. “We take great care seeing that they get the items they need as quickly as possible. The trending theme in office practice is to reduce foot traffic whenever possible, particularly over the past year with COVID restrictions. There are a lot of things that can be handled electronically, and this will be explored in the coming years. I plan to work closely with local attorneys, abstractors, surveyors, and Realtors to ask how the office can better serve them.”

“There are always areas that can be improved upon that would mean growth for the county and bringing the office into a new era,” Phillips said.

Register and Recorder isn’t the flashiest office in the courthouse — that role is more often associated with judges, commissioners or the district attorney. With responsibilities set by statute, each candidate made the case for why the person in the office matters.

“The Register and Recorder’s office does have a specific set of functions — to record, protect and preserve legal documents pertaining to real estate, marriage records and loved ones after they have passed,” Phillips said. “I would take the utmost care in dealing with the residents of Warren County in any need that arises when they would need to come into the office.”

Berkhouse called caring for those records “a tremendous responsibility.

“The voters should care who holds the office because every taxpayer at some point is going to need help from the Recorder’s Office and the people who work there whether it be in requesting a copy of a historic document or being sworn in as an executor to an estate,” she explained. “The community should elect the person they trust to not only oversee the records with a high level of accuracy but also a person with a helpful attitude who will assist the public in getting the information they need.

“The Recorder of Deeds and Clerk of Orphans’ Court should have a helpful disposition with a strong commitment to service, and understand very clearly that they are elected to serve the public.”