Records from the Jones County Tax Assessors’ Office are now online, at least temporarily.

Chief Tax Assessor Linda Sibley said a representative from qpublic.net, a public access network called her about a month ago offering the service. She said it took the company about two hours to download the data and build the website, and it is now up and running for a free two-month trial.

“It’s wonderful. All property record cards are online, including all values and tax records, even tax estimates,” Sibley said.

She emphasized that the program is in a ‘newborn’ state and links may be added. Sibley said the program will be especially useful for realtors, fee appraisers, and law firms.

“It has the possibility of cutting 80 percent of the time employees spend on the telephone,” the assessor said. “Next year is reappraisal, and we are going to need it.”

The online program is currently being used in 58 counties with the website serving as clerks 24/7.

QPUBLIC, LLC is a Delaware corporation founded in 1999. The website is designed so that visitors may pull up data by owner name, address, parcel number, map or legal description.

Sibley said the price for the website is $5,000 a year to monitor 25,000 parcels.

“You couldn’t add an employee for that, and right now we need two more. This has endless possibilities, and it’s user friendly. Anyone can do it.”