New century, old marriage licenses By K.C. Mehaffey, Okanogan bureau

OKANOGAN -- Fiscally responsible or too frugal?

That's been the question around the Okanogan County Auditor's Office, where they're crossing out the 19__ date on marriage licenses and typing in the year 2000 instead.

Okanogan resident Angie Morgan, who married Ed Chilmonik on Feb. 12 after paying $48 for the marriage license, doesn't like seeing the date crossed out on her license, which she views as an keepsake.

She said crossing out the date on such an important document is going too far, and she complained to the Auditor's Office but was unable to get a refund or a new license that had the year 2000 printed on it.

She also worries that she may someday be accused of falsifying a document because of the cross-out.

Okanogan County Auditor Peggy Robbins said she doesn't plan to order more marriage licenses until the 400 remaining documents with the old date are used up.

She said new license forms were purchased last October for $500, and they simply forgot that the year printed on each one would soon be outdated.

"I'm sorry, it was a mistake. But I'm not going to make the taxpayers of this county pay for it," she explained, saying she sees no reason to destroy the licenses and buy new ones.

Out of nearly two dozen couples who have been issued a marriage license in Okanogan County so far this year, she said, Morgan-Chilmonik is the only person to complain.

"I've talked to a lot of people and they said that after a couple of years, they just put it in a drawer and forget about it," she said, adding the license with a crossed-off date could become a conversation piece for Morgan-Chilmonik's children or grandchildren.

Robbins said she was curious about how people a century ago worked through the date change, so she looked in the files for some old licenses.

"We were pretty entertained to find out they had done it just like we are," she said.

But to Morgan-Chilmonik, it's not amusing.

She said others may not have complained, but she knows another woman who recently bought a marriage license and was also disappointed to see the date crossed off.

"I'm not so angry I'm going to protest, but I'm not going to give up, either," she added.

http://www.wenworld.com/news/tuesday/news.html#3

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 12, 2000