Town Clerk’s Office Poised To Offer New Digital Data Services

By John Voket

Beginning in early 2012, the Newtown Town Clerk’s Office will be joining dozens of other Connecticut communities from Ashford to Wolcott, providing a variety of land record documents to view or print out remotely. As one of the latest additions to the Connecticut Town Clerks Portal, the system will not only provide added convenience to the users, but will generate revenue back to the town each time a document from the local qualified land records are printed remotely by a subscriber.

Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia said it will also permit her staff to refocus some of the time working with land use record consumers at the municipal center offices to scanning land use records into the town’s digital system, which will also bolster the inventory if information available online.

Ms Aurelia said many title searches go back 30 years or more, and to date, her office has accomplished scanning in land records going back roughly 25 years. But she noted that about 80 percent of Newtown’s land records have been generated in the past 20 to 30 years.

According to Connecticut Town Clerks Portal website, the service works in partnership with participating town clerk offices that use Cott Systems software for land and indexed records searching. Since the clerk’s offices are powered by Cott Systems, the portal’s integration can deliver users information, often within minutes of its recording.

All information found in the portal is linked directly to each town clerk’s recording system powered by Cott Systems Inc, including the hosting and management of the service portal.

Subscribers get unlimited access to all participating towns under one plan for as little as $4.99 for one day, or up to $299 for an annual plan. Guest access to perform index searching is free.

“Up to now, anyone needing to review or copy these documents either had to come into our office or request the documents by mail,” Ms Aurelia said. “A lot of people will be using this when there’s two feet of snow on the ground.”

The town clerk also said her office is upgrading its indexing software with something called a “property check” feature that will take a property owner’s e-mail address and notify them if anyone files a lien on their property.

Ms Aurelia said the software enhancements are positioning Newtown’s town clerk’s office for when officials will be required to accept certified land records electronically.