Health Department offers portal to view well, septic records

From staff reports

The Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department has created a portal in partnership with Laserfiche to increase access for residents to view their well and septic records. The portal went live on the website with Leelanau County records in early 2021 and Benzie County records have been digitized and added this week.

“In 2019, the Health Department advocated to the counties for funding to provide increased access to the department’s septic system and water well records for our residents by providing them a way to access our digitally scanned records,” said Eric Johnston, environmental health director for the Health Department. “The benefits of the portal were to improve public access to information, add natural disaster protection, and allow staff, homeowners, realtors, septic pumpers, and contractors to get convenient access to important information anywhere that has internet access.”

The implementation of the Cloud-Based Laserfiche Document Manage System for Benzie and Leelanau Property Records included an estimated 26,000 files and images, including all historical permits. The Environmental Health staff were trained to update the system for future permits and information.

Due to the success of the portal with Leelanau County, Johnston received the 2022 Laserfiche Government Impact Award for all his hard work in digitizing environmental health processes and forms. Johnston has also been presenting to other health departments and agencies about the benefits of digitizing records.