County to put registries in line Two deeds offices to ‘compare notes’ to promote consistency

FORT KENT – As one of only two counties in Maine that oversee two registry of deeds offices, officials in Aroostook County are ensuring that work coming out of both locations is consistent.

Aroostook County is the only one in Maine besides Oxford County that has two registries, and while officials say they never have received complaints about the work done in Houlton and Fort Kent, they want to make sure the registries are “doing things uniformly,” Doug Beaulieu, county administrator, said Friday.

The Aroostook County commissioners reviewed the operations of the Northern Registry of Deeds during their Wednesday night meeting in Fort Kent. Beaulieu said officials will follow up with a review of operations at the Southern Registry of Deeds the next time commissioners meet in Houlton, scheduled for Jan. 2.

“We have two registries, and we want to make sure they’re lined up,” Beaulieu said. “From time to time, we hear that one office is doing something one way, and the other office is doing it another way. Unless there’s a good reason, we really should be doing it the same.”

Beaulieu said commissioners met with Fort Kent registrar Louise Caron and spent about 45 minutes walking through several procedures performed at the registry, including the recording of a deed and a discharge. Beaulieu said officials will do the same with Pat Brown in Houlton, and then they will “compare notes.”

Beaulieu said this is the first time a move toward consistency has been done within Aroostook County’s registry of deeds during his tenure, though he believes this could be an action that is taking place for the first time since the Fort Kent office was created several decades ago.

Also during the meeting, commissioners approved filling several vacant positions within the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department, including two full-time corrections officers, five part-time corrections officers, one part-time deputy sheriff and three part-time dispatchers.

The commissioners also approved the expenditure of $2,400 out of the contingency fund account to replace a failed hot water heater at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton.

The Aroostook County Commissioners’ next meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20, in the Caribou courthouse in the administrative hearing room.