By Shawn Cote
Special to The Aroostook Republican
CARIBOU — A motion to make changes to the Registry of Deeds’ online fee structure policy carried unanimously at the Aroostook County Commissioners’ Nov. 7 meeting.
Under the amended policy, land records will now be accessible for online viewing without an accompanying fee.
“When we first unveiled electronic access to land records, we had free viewing of documents, said County Administrator Douglas F. Beaulieu. “We got a complaint (about the possibility of identity theft), so we changed the policy to disallow free viewing, unless you obtained a subscription. With a subscription, you had to provide your name, name of the company, address, etc., so it at least provided us with a database to investigate if identity theft occurs. It was not perfect, but better than nothing.”
According to Register of Deeds (North) Louise Caron, members of the public had begun complaining about the lack of free online access to land records, and pointing out that the Aroostook County Commissioners’ office was the only office charging a fee for online viewing of public records.
“If we don’t do free [access], we get so much flak,” Caron said. “We’re the only one. Everybody [else] is free.”
Beaulieu explained that concerns about liability issues with regard to potential identity theft were what led to the decision to eliminate free online viewing. More recently, however, those concerns have been addressed, prompting the commissioners to reevaluate the situation and to reconsider allowing free viewing access.
“We now redact certain personal information,” Beaulieu said. “However, even if it isn’t redacted, the law says these records are open to the public, so we really should allow unfettered access of the records. The county does not put the data in these land records; they are provided to us by lawyers and financial institutions so they can be recorded. We are just custodians of the records.”
Also approved at the meeting was the hiring of three part-time corrections officers, recommended by Sheriff James P. Madore.
“We always have somewhat of a shortage of part-time corrections officers, but more so now we need some qualified transporting officers as well, and we use some of the corrections people for that,” said Madore. “So, during our recent process, three people rose to the list: Andrew Tomah and Joseph Tompkins of Houlton and Roger Stairs of Littleton.”
Other motions passed at Wednesday’s meeting include approval of the Aroostook County Action Program Board of Directors and the nomination of County Commissioner Paul J. Underwood to represent Aroostook County in the Maine Land Use Planning Commission.
As part of the County Administrator’s Report, Beaulieu discussed improvements made to the Aroostook County government Web site which led to an A+ transparency grade from the Sunshine Review, which describes itself as a non-profit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency. Their evaluation of Maine county websites can be found on sunshinereview.org.
In addition to Beaulieu, Caron and Madore, those present at the November 7th Aroostook County Commissioners meeting were Chairperson Paul J. Adams, County Commissioners Norman L. Fournier and Paul J. Underwood, as well as Register of Deeds (South) Melissa Willette and EMA Director Vernon Ouellette.
