Comments | Eastern NC Now

We are screwed.

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 11:43 pm By: Gary Ceres

This appears to be a conflict in the state statute. I just read the entire State Statute and it kind of contradicts itself in several areas and this is because the law was written a long time ago before all electronic and Internet devices had been created and is very vague in whether a hard copy is actually required. The language itself says filing system. I am a strong advocate of keeping hard copies since there are many reasons for doing so such as hacking, possible emps or electric failures, software issues, and the fact that we are a state where the first one to file has standing in court and it is more easily manipulated through electronic means then paper means. That stated if you read the actual statute it is up to the county to give direction to the register of deeds as to how to file the system properly according to their desires and to provide the funding and space to do so. The most logical conclusion is that the state needs to update the statute to be more specific as to whether we are referring to hard copies or simply a required filing system. If anyone would like to read the full statute here it is I'm not going to post the whole thing but you can look it up online and read it it's quite extensive with many different sections. Some sections seem to infer paper documentation While others make vague references to filing systems which courts have ruled can be electronic. Our laws should not be so vague. I think perhaps a meeting of the minds between the register of deeds and the County Commissioners could have some clarity and avoid any personalities being in conflict since the statute itself does seem to be rather vague and the problem seems to be with the state statute rather than with a particular office or local officials. The county should however make it a priority to have hard copies made and provide the space to store them since there are many reasons for doing so five of which I discussed with commissioner Deathrage today that make a lot of sense.

Relevant statute: §§ 161-12 through 161-13: Repealed by Session Laws 1973, c. 1027.

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 9:07 pm By: Gary Ceres

There was recently a statement by over 1,600 scientists, including 2 Nobel Prize winners that there was no "climate energency" It is all a false alarm that puts money and power in the hands of certain people and certain countries, and they have a vested interest in keeping the scare tactics rolling. They are CHicken Little on steroids.

Who is pushing this climate scare big time? Three entites, 1) the globalists, 2) Red China, 3) Russia. All are funding the groups that propaganize the scare in this country, although lately Russia may have been more involved with other things and laid low on the funding. Wonder which one is paying Troll Bob?

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 5:15 pm By: Rino Hunter

Yeah, Texas gets it. AFter a major blackout when wind and solar failed to produce during a blizzard, and multiple times they have had to scramble to buy power on the open market in summer and winter when wind and solar was not producing, Texas took action. They spent $10 billion to build more gas plants to provide reliable and cheap electricity and imposed punitive fees and penalties to discourage more unreliable wind and solar.

Only globalist demagogues think the world is "cooking". Temperatures were higher during the 300 years of the Medieval Warm Period, which produced positive, not negative impacts. It was MUCH warmer during the 3,000 years of the Holocene Maximum, which was the golden age of ancient Greece, again without any ill effects.

As the former President and Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Dr. Vaclav Klaus has said, climate alarmism is "a budding totalitarian ideology that is the greatest threat to freedom, democracy, and prosperity in the world today>"

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 4:29 pm By: Concerned Taxpayer

#3 Pick one fact from above and write it here: THIS IS THE DUMBEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. HOW DO YOU EXPECT KIDS TO LEARN MATH LIKE THIS? Fact..

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 2:17 pm By: Tandy Oliver Dunn

Steve: I just had a long conversation with Washington City Council Candidate Gary Ceres about this issue of the county's responsibility to properly maintain a recorded history, in total perfection, of all documents of conveyance, and, of a lesser importance, all other recorded documents.

Between us, we came up with 5 good reasons why a hard copy document, with a hard copy index, in a fireproof space is essential to the continuance of maintaining stability when dire circumstances will present themselves.

Without hearing from the responsible bureaucrats, it is now my position that this situation is a complete aberration to the common sense of record keeping. Once I get that opinion from these best and brightest bureaucrats, I still cannot see my governing opinion to purposefully process the better path struck changing in a meaningful way.

Like you Steve, I have considerable experience with this issue of doing what is ultimately right, if not perfectly right when it comes to the real of record keeping. Its proper importance is absolute.

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 12:53 pm By: Stan Deatherage

Maintaining proper deed records, and that means hard copy records having primacy, is important to the citizens of Beaufort County. The best path to accomplish that is to try to get people working together and not descend into warring factions. Proper policy is what is important here, not personalities.

Stan, you are quite correct about the hard copy index, as well. When I was doing real property work as an attorney, I was always very leery of a computer index, and there is a very good reason for that. With a hard copy index book, it is easy to pick up a variation in a name that can reveal documents that may impact the title you are searching. A computer index is only going to spit back the name exactly as it is put in the computer. I first encountered a computerized index of more recent filings in Pitt County over 20 years ago, and was so uncomfortable in relying on it, I never did any further real property work in that county.

The space problem is real, something I could see coming years ago. There are ways to temporarily put bandaids on it, but none of them are going to work long term or even medium term and not even very acceptable short term. We need hard copy deed books and index books, and we need more space in the Register of Deeds office to accomodate them.

As a practical matter, when there are multiple people working on titles at one time, using the books allows everyone to work instead of waiting in line to use the computer terminals. For permanence, hard copy records are more secure. In the days of computer hacking, expecially on the cusp of AI making that potentially much easier and more far reaching, relying exclusively on computerized records is asking for trouble. Further, we could easily have major computer outages if the Earth experiences another massive solar eruption of the scale of the Carrington Event of 1859. We have come all too close to that several times since.

Our elected officials have a duty to Beaufort County citizens to maintain our courthouse records in a usable and permanent form, hardcopy plus digital or microfilm backup. We need all of our elected officials to work toward that goal.

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 12:19 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Prendiegirl: Space is not the issue; not recording hard copy documents, with hardcopy indexing is the monumental problem.

If this is a directive by state government bureaucrats, that can be corrected with the help of other smart people. It this is a Beaufort County mistake, then it will definitely be corrected.

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 10:08 am By: Stan Deatherage

As half of Canada was on fire. this summer.

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 9:49 am By: Big Bob

The space dis available in the Register of deeds office for up to ten more years of hard copies..

The Beaufort County commissioners set the budget for the filing of hard copies. There is no issue about who has the authority and who has the money to pay for it.

This is a renegade and woke register of deeds who knows more than anyone. Not recording deeds flys in the face of our history and the preservation of property rights. Because it has an R behind the name does not mean it understands the constitution and our heritage.

Commented: Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 @ 5:35 am By: Hood Richardson

Arrest their asses

Commented: Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023 @ 11:03 pm By: Chris