A Labor Day weekend computer-system crash has forced the staff of the Buncombe County Register of Deeds office to do things the old-fashioned way: by hand.
According to an update on the matter from County Attorney Joe Connolly at the Board of Commissioners’ Tuesday meeting, that’s meant filing as many as 3,000 pages per day manually and considerably longer hours for the staff, a fact that led Register of Deeds Otto DeBruhl to ask the board for a two-day respite to catch up.
The board granted DeBruhl’s request, meaning that the Register of Deeds office will be closed both Wednesday, Sept. 4, and Thursday, Sept. 5, unless the situation is resolved before then.
Reportedly, no records were lost in the tech meltdown, which Board of Commissioners Chairman Nathan Ramsey characterized as “beyond [the office’s] capability to prevent.”
The Register of Deeds Office safekeeps vital records for Buncombe County residents, including certificates of birth, death and marriage, military service records, as well as the real property index of the county, including deeds, easements, rights of way and leaseholds.
Xpress could not reach DeBruhl (shown at right) for comment on Tuesday evening, but needless to say he’s a very busy man.
— Kent Priestley, staff writer
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