City Clerk Judy Wild has a view of Apponaug from her first floor office in City Hall. She gets to see a steady stream of traffic, the Warwick Central Baptist Church, and the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce building.

It’s a view scores of people in search of land records see every working day, although their time is mostly spent going through land record books. That promises to change, which over time will mean those conducting title searches for attorneys and realtors won’t have to visit City Hall as frequently.

“You’re sitting at home doing it, it’s awesome,” Wild said of the computer land record search system that went live two weeks ago.

With a few clicks on her keyboard, Wild was on the city website. From there, she navigated to City Clerk, and then real property and record searches. She typed in a name and up popped a page listing land record documents reflecting various transactions going back to 1978. With a few more clicks, the printer behind her hummed to life and spat out a copy of a transaction that took place on Sept. 24, 1981, for the property across Post Road, which is now the chamber building.

The document records the sale of the property by R.K. Line, Inc. and Rudolph DeCrescanzo that was to become Warwick Beacon offices.

The entire search and printing of the deed has taken a minute, if that.

On average, the City Clerk’s offices records 20,000 documents annually. Attorneys and land record specialists still need to visit City Hall to file documents, although that online function may be in the city’s future. What’s more, the online search is free for viewing documents. A charge comes for copies.

Users can opt to purchase an annual subscription fee of $50 per user, which will allow them to print hardcopy records for $1.50 per page, the same amount the Clerk’s Office currently charges. For non-subscribers, the charge is $2.50 per page.

ACS Government Records, a division of Xerox, manages the land evidence system and shares in the revenues. Wild expects the system to generate about $15,000 annually for the city.

Implementing the system was a 12-year process that required ACS to scan and index hundred of thousands of documents in city archives. The online service took about a year to implement in concert with the city’s MIS department, Wild said.

Last night, the City Council was scheduled to consider a $150,000 contract with ACS to include records going back to 1973 – 40 years, which is considered the standard search on land records. Funding will come from a dedicated account that has been built up from a $4 set-aside for each document filed. A dollar of the surcharge is allocated for technology upgrades and $3 for preservation, Wild explained.

“We are very pleased to be bringing such an integral service to our community,” Mayor Scott Avedisian said in a statement. “With the new portal for land evidence records now available online the public will be able to independently execute searches either at City Hall or from the convenience of the their own personal computer. This is another great service provided by the City Clerk’s Office, and one that I hope residents and businesses take advantage of.”