PARIS — Oxford County Commissioners on Tuesday discussed the possibility of consolidating the county’s two registries of deeds.

The idea would be to close the western office of the Register of Deeds in Fryeburg and run the county’s registry through the eastern office at the Oxford County Courthouse in Paris.

“This is a touchy situation,” Commission Chairman Steven Merrill said. “It does seem to make sense on the surface, but the negatives have been brought to my attention by some of the law firms down there” in southern Oxford County, he said.

On Tuesday night, the county approved a $95,135 budget for the western office for 2011. The approved 2011 budget for the eastern office is $211,648. The western registry employs two people; the eastern one employs three.

David Hastings, a state senator and a lawyer in Fryeburg, said he was opposed to any plan to close the western registry.

He said closing the registry would inconvenience citizens, tax collectors, surveyors and lawyers in his area. “That adds an hour’s drive to virtually everyone in this end of the county.”

Hastings, who serves on the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said he has resisted moves to consolidate courthouses in rural Maine.

“I have always defended the rural court system so people have access to justice in rural Maine,” he said, adding that Bridgton and Rumford district courts have been considered for closing in the past. He said the same argument applies to registries of deeds.

Closing a registry of deeds would require new state legislation. Commissioners opted against pursuing legislation for the recently elected Legislature to consider. County Commissioner Caldwell Jackson said he didn’t support closing the western registry, but said commissioners could set a time line for studying the potential savings.

He said that even if the commission began considering it now, the time before the registry’s closing would be at least four years.

The western office services the towns of Brownfield, Denmark, Fryeburg, Hiram, Lovell, Porter, Stoneham and Stow. The eastern office services all other towns and townships in the county.

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