NORWAY – Tom Winsor of Norway was appointed by the governor to replace Ted Tracy as register of probate in December 2002.

In running for his first four-year term, Winsor said he would like to continue to improve and modernize the court.

“The Probate Court works with families in time of stress and loss,” he said. “My goal is to insure everyone who comes before our court is treated with compassion and dignity while their needs are met in a timely way.”

Winsor, 60, chaired a committee of registers and probate judges statewide that was charged with finding ways to use the Internet to allow the public to fill out and download some of the 135 forms used by the court.

The Probate Court handles the legal processing of wills, estates and trusts, terminating parental rights, recording adoptions, appointing guardians and conservators for incapable individuals, manages mental health cases and the commitment of chemically dependent individuals to a facility.

Winsor has requested $10,000 in this year’s budget to pay Oxford County’s share of a statewide software program that will make all of the Probate Court documents accessible in one database. It will also integrate the court’s docket system with its accounting system, so that the same information will no longer need to be entered manually on several different forms.

“We’re not policy people,” he said. “We’re a service agency.” He said it would be a public service to allow people to access information and forms online.

“We spend an inordinate amount of time doing things manually,” Winsor said. “We’re paying people good money to do things they don’t need to do.”

With the technology, he said the court wouldn’t need to increase from its current staff of one full-time and one part-time clerk. “When someone comes in that door, we want them to know their questions will be answered.”

Winsor said he’s having a good time in the job, after serving eight years as a state representative. “I’m a real people person. I take a lot of pride in dealing with constituent issues, and this job requires that,” he said.

He has taken an active interest in improving the county’s Web site, and arranged for discount purchasing of software products by the use of state contracts.

He has arranged for the microfilming of all probate records between 1805 and 1905 by the Genealogical Society of Utah, and for the court to accept passport applications.