Commissioners agree Web fee is fair

By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
    Another merit of Aroostook County was identified as the Aroostook County Administrator revealed unexpected savings at the Registry of Deeds offices of Fort Kent and Houlton. The Aroostook County fee structure for accessing documents on the web — fifty-cents per-page — is among the lowest, if not the lowest price of all the registries in the state.
    Aroostook County Administrator Douglas Beaulieu uncovered this information though the due-diligence required to handle a complaint served upon Aroostook and 11 other counties in the state by a private company called MacImage, of Maine, for the costs of obtaining Registry of Deeds documents through the Internet. Using the criteria set by Justice Thomas Warren, Beaulieu found that the actual cost of purchasing a document on the Web is $2.09-a-page in Fort Kent and $1.57 in Houlton.
    The County Commissioners have no interest in raising the price-per-page for the Registry of Deeds documents obtained online; the process of accessing the documents from the Aroostook County Registries of Deeds, aside from the $.50-per-page fee, includes a $100 subscription fee per registry. The commissioners agreed during their March 3 meeting in Caribou that $.50-per-page is fair and reasonable.
    Those curious as to how clicking a virtual button on their computer screen could warrant $2.09-per-click need to consider the ancillary costs of providing that document.
    The actual cost of entering those documents into virtual existence is much higher than the realized $.50 because it takes both computer systems and personnel to put that information on the Web.
    Following the Judge’s criteria explicitly, Beaulieu said “I would not have thought the cost would have been that high.”
    The March 3 County Commissioners meeting seemed to be centered around monetary amounts, from bid awards to grant applications. The commissioners approved a letter of intent to be sent for a United States Department of Agriculture Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for housing rehabilitation in Sinclair.
    Having already received a $10,000 planning grant, the county will now apply for a $250,000 implementation grant to improve the energy efficiency of low to moderate-income homes in Sinclair through weatherization upgrades such as new doors and windows.
    Specifics regarding the 2010 County Taxes were set during the meeting. The due date for taxes will be on Wednesday, Sept. 1 and the interest rate on delinquent taxes will be seven percent.
    One item that may put a damper on FY11 taxes is the roof of the Houlton Superior Courthouse, which has sprung a leak. An architectural consultant confirmed that the leak does not have immediate impact on the structural integrity of the building. While maintenance funds exist for such occasions, Beaulieu estimated that the county might have to set aside a bit more money than usual in the FY11 budget to compensate for repairs.
    The County awarded a bid for a used police cruiser to the highest bidder. In regard to the purchase of two new vehicles for the Sherriff’s department, lowest  bids were awarded to $23,620 from Griffeth Ford of Caribou for a 2010 Ford Crown Victoria and a bid of $27,618 2010 Ford Expedition SUV to Yorks of Houlton. Both Griffeth Ford and Yorks were the lowest bidders for the respective vehicles, which will be used in the Sheriff’s department.
    The next meeting of the Aroostook County Commissioners will be tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the Caribou Courthouse.