The Washington County Board met last night and County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Heseman gave her annual report.  She said it was an eventful year, but also a good year and commended her staff for their hard work.  They hired and trained 2 new people in the past year and moved.  She has worked with the Illinois State Archive Department on some documents that needed to be archived onto discs to preserve the information from the old paper.  In addition, some microfilm was starting to deteriorate, so this was also sent to the Archive Department and will be put onto discs at no extra charge.  There were some new things implemented in 2015, such as direct deposit to County employees and most have taken advantage of that, as it is optional.  There will also be a new program used for elections, which will save money.  Heseman also ran through what duties her office performs.  There are duties as the Clerk, Recorder and Election Authority, as well as being a Registrar.  This includes everything for the County Board meetings, before, during and after.  It also entails taking care of the contracts, doing accounts payable and keeping updated on all the County vitals, such as births and deaths.  During election years, this includes setting everything up, including the canvassing, getting election judges and working with the precinct committeemen.  Payroll is also done in the office, which includes all the tax requirements.  This office also works on property taxes with all of the taxing districts on their budgets, levies, extensions, abatements or annexations.  She says the public is welcome in the office and they will always do their best to help them.