Weather is chilly outside and inside at the Edgartown courthouse, where a broken boiler means mostly no heat.
Landry Harlan

Lacking Heat, Courthouse Closes Some Offices

<p>Some Edgartown courthouse offices will remain closed Thursday and Friday due to frigid temperatures caused by a broken heating system.

Some Edgartown courthouse offices will remain closed Thursday and Friday due to frigid temperatures caused by a broken heating system, county manager Martina Thornton said.

The Registry of Deeds is still open for normal business hours, as it has its own heating unit.

Ms. Thornton told the Gazette that an Island contractor was due to inspect the chimney Thursday. She said once the chimney is repaired, a heating company will come to fix the furnace.

Some courthouse offices also closed early Wednesday. Space heaters hummed and court employees bundled up under their winter coats on the first winter-like day of November.

“We’re freezing,” said register of probate Daphne DeVries, who closed the probate and family court at noon. “We can’t function under these circumstances.”

The building’s oil-burning furnace has been out for more than four weeks and was not able to be repaired until the courthouse was cleared of asbestos Monday.

Superior court clerk Joseph E. Sollitto confirmed that the district court personnel had been released.

“There’s cold downstairs, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

Register of Deeds Paulo DeOliveira said the deeds offices will remain open as long as court officers are on duty, thanks to a separate heating unit installed in the deeds offices three years ago.

“We’re the only office that has mini splits with heat pumps,” he said. “It’s a convenient thing at the moment.”

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/14/2018 - 19:55

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Resident MV

The registry of deeds contains public records of critical importance going back hundreds of years. The office has done a fantastic job digitizing many of them, but many have not yet been digitized and indexed. Sounds like a real dull problem perhaps, but they are important. Space heaters, old buildings, and financial history going back centuries? Bad mix. I am glad they got the mini splits but I would rather the documents were secure in a modern space with all the protection they deserve. Spending priorities on this Island are way out of reasonable perspective. I won't even bother with the freeze on justice and law. Too obvious and ridiculous.

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