Franklin County records will be accessible to the public through computers.

FARMINGTON – Commissioners approved spending $17,578 Tuesday to upgrade the Registry of Deeds computer system to allow Internet access to public records. The upgrade is expected to be completed by summer.

The upgrade also includes wireless capability for other computers in different departments at the Franklin County Courthouse to access the Internet.

The Registry money is included in Register of Deeds Susan Black’s budget. Money for the other departments’ share would come from budgeted funds not used for other purposes.

Black told commissioners that wanted Internet service for her office to allow people to view deeds in a read-only mode that would prevent tampering with documents.

People wouldn’t be able to make copies of the documents unless they had an account, she said, so the county would still receive the revenue generated by the fees.

Penobscot and Androscoggin counties have Internet access for their registries of deeds. Other counties are looking into providing Internet access to public records.

Black has a five-year contract with Norton Lamb & Co. of Yarmouth for the computer system in the registry and has the chance to renew it for five years. Her system only needs some additional components to the document management system, a security firewall set up and e-mail software licenses.

She expects to get a good deal in the negotiation of a new contract with the company and to save “quite a bit” of money, which would cover the budgeted upgrade.

About $8,625 of the $17,578 would include network equipment for other departments in the courthouse including the Register of Probate, County Commission Office, Emergency Management Agency and District Attorney’s Office.

That amount covers switching systems, maintenance, four wireless access points, wireless cards, antennas and more.

Other departments would access the Internet through Black’s system.

The rest of the money covers the expense of the Registry of Deeds upgrade to the Internet including software and a 40-hour prepaid service agreement to cover installation, configuration and set up of firewall and network equipment.

Currently, the county clerk and treasurer have to take turns using an Internet line that is shared with the Register of Probate’s Office.

Ron Shink, vice president of technology solutions for Norton Lamb & Co., said he based the estimate on government pricing for the parts.

Since the amount to cover the other departments in the courthouse is less than $10,000, commissioners were not required to put it out to bid.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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