City of Norwich planning overhaul to improve city record management
Currently the City of Norwich stores their city and historical records at the vacant waste water management facility. Dufour presented to the council the option of having the records moved to the Eaton Center as a temporary solution while they work the get the records digitalized. (Photo by Tyler Murphy)
NORWICH – At Tuesday night’s City of Norwich Joint Committee meeting the common council and finance department discussed options for how to improve the storage of city and historical records.
Near the end of December of last year, a concerned community member addressed the common council about the dilapidated state of the city and historical records. Since then, City Clerk and Director of Finance Dee DuFour has been working to find a solution to correct the storage situation.
According to DuFour, they had the vacant waste water managmement facility where the records are stored inspected. It was determined that the storage situation was harmful to the paper records due to the amount of mold and mildew, and it was also a health and safety hazard to employees accessing them.
Dufour said bringing the records out of the basement of the building to a higher level would not be possible without investing over $100,000 to reinforce the building due to the weight of the records.
After some research, Dufour presented to the council the option of having the records moved to the Eaton Center, where she says many other organizations are currently storing their records.
"A temporary solution would be to rent space at the Eaton Center. We would need 2,500 square feet of space. To rent that space at the Eaton Center it would cost $1,500 a month," said Dufour. "We are currently paying $4,300 in utilities and costs in the current building that we have them stored in."
The Eaton Center would not hold any liability for the records. However, they do have locked, secured rooms and the building is equipped with a sprinkler system.
She then mentioned that there are grants available through New York State Archives to cover some of the cost associated with the record management improvement plan. The grant would cover up to $75,000 to replace all storage boxes and shelving, as well as having the records inventoried and organized.
"All of the records that are saturated or moldy need to be removed from there current containers, cleaned, and put into new containers. We would also look for a vendor to come in and do a full inventory on all of the records under the grant," said DuFour.
Alderman Matthew Caldwell was in support of the plan, saying "I agree. The situation the records are in is a disaster. This is our history and we should want to clean this up."
DuFour states this is just the first step in the plan to improve record storage. They're also planning to start digitalizing the records the following year using the same grant.
Grants Coordinator Lorraine Keckeisen stated that in order for the records to be digitalized, they would need to hire a professional vendor to scan in all the documents. Then the city employees would need to verify, line by line, that all paper documents match the digital version before the paper copy can be disposed.
"This is going to take us a few years to do, but we can start getting rid of documents as we go," said Defour.
She then proposed a longer term solution to the storage of historical records that can not be digitalized.
"A USDA grant will pay for new construction so we could see if we could get a USDA grant and do a new construction somewhere. It doesn't have to be huge it just has to house the records. We could possibly do this in front of the old waste water treatment plant," said Dufour.
Mayor Shawn Sastri also indicated that he was supportive of the plan, but wanted to see the records first hand to see what condition they are in.
She reminded the council that action needs to be taken sooner than later. "We need to do something because they're deteriorating more and more. We're required to have these permanent records and we're required to be able to produce them."
Near the end of December of last year, a concerned community member addressed the common council about the dilapidated state of the city and historical records. Since then, City Clerk and Director of Finance Dee DuFour has been working to find a solution to correct the storage situation.
According to DuFour, they had the vacant waste water managmement facility where the records are stored inspected. It was determined that the storage situation was harmful to the paper records due to the amount of mold and mildew, and it was also a health and safety hazard to employees accessing them.
Dufour said bringing the records out of the basement of the building to a higher level would not be possible without investing over $100,000 to reinforce the building due to the weight of the records.
After some research, Dufour presented to the council the option of having the records moved to the Eaton Center, where she says many other organizations are currently storing their records.
"A temporary solution would be to rent space at the Eaton Center. We would need 2,500 square feet of space. To rent that space at the Eaton Center it would cost $1,500 a month," said Dufour. "We are currently paying $4,300 in utilities and costs in the current building that we have them stored in."
The Eaton Center would not hold any liability for the records. However, they do have locked, secured rooms and the building is equipped with a sprinkler system.
She then mentioned that there are grants available through New York State Archives to cover some of the cost associated with the record management improvement plan. The grant would cover up to $75,000 to replace all storage boxes and shelving, as well as having the records inventoried and organized.
"All of the records that are saturated or moldy need to be removed from there current containers, cleaned, and put into new containers. We would also look for a vendor to come in and do a full inventory on all of the records under the grant," said DuFour.
Alderman Matthew Caldwell was in support of the plan, saying "I agree. The situation the records are in is a disaster. This is our history and we should want to clean this up."
DuFour states this is just the first step in the plan to improve record storage. They're also planning to start digitalizing the records the following year using the same grant.
Grants Coordinator Lorraine Keckeisen stated that in order for the records to be digitalized, they would need to hire a professional vendor to scan in all the documents. Then the city employees would need to verify, line by line, that all paper documents match the digital version before the paper copy can be disposed.
"This is going to take us a few years to do, but we can start getting rid of documents as we go," said Defour.
She then proposed a longer term solution to the storage of historical records that can not be digitalized.
"A USDA grant will pay for new construction so we could see if we could get a USDA grant and do a new construction somewhere. It doesn't have to be huge it just has to house the records. We could possibly do this in front of the old waste water treatment plant," said Dufour.
Mayor Shawn Sastri also indicated that he was supportive of the plan, but wanted to see the records first hand to see what condition they are in.
She reminded the council that action needs to be taken sooner than later. "We need to do something because they're deteriorating more and more. We're required to have these permanent records and we're required to be able to produce them."
dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.
Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far
jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.
So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that
Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks