Originally published March 11th, 2022 – updated April 3rd, 2023
There’s something taking over town halls across America. It’s big, bulky, and towers over everyone. It’s a…filing cabinet?
Yes, filing cabinets loaded with municipal documents and records are a problem for towns like Thompson: eating up valuable office space or requiring costly off-site storage. This is because up until recently, State and Federal laws required certain physical documents to be saved forever. Now, in most cases, permanent digital storage is an acceptable alternative.
That’s where Sullivan County and the Town of Thompson saw an opportunity: why not bring the benefits of digital archiving used by the County to the Town? So, they collaborated on a Shared Services grant. In December 2021, over $132,000 total was awarded to the Town and the County to begin digitizing documents. The grant program and all the work encompassed within the grant plan was completed in December 2022.
Before and after! The filing cabinets in the Town of Thompson Building, Planning, and Zoning Department were taking up valuable office space. Now, there is a usable meeting area which has been remodeled to feature energy-efficient LED lighting and cost-saving insulation, along with new carpet and a fresh coat of paint.
How the Grant Funds Were Used: Building a Framework for Digital Storage
With funds from the grant, the Sullivan County Information Technology Services Division is managing the digital storage: from housing of records and documents on a secure server, to ensuring everything is backed up properly. They purchased the software and equipment needed for digital archiving.
The funds awarded covered the costs for an outside company to pick up, scan, and index the Town documents – and then transmit them to the County’s digital storage platform. Thompson can now digitally access documents on the County’s system.
Ultimately, the goal is to provide all Sullivan County municipalities with access to one central Electronic Content Management System. In the meantime, Thompson is leading the way as the first municipality to ensure the process runs smoothly.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the advantages of going digital when it comes to records retention…
Winning the Storage Wars: Cabinet by Cabinet
Filing cabinets are causing problems in many departments, but the Thompson Building, Planning, and Zoning Department was in deep with over 20 massive cabinets. These were loaded with large format prints of construction site plans and thick permit applications.
Over several weeks, staff prepared thousands of files for the digital archiving process. They worked through nearly 70 drawers of documents, removing duplicate or non-essential files and clearly labeling everything.
The next step was to carefully transfer documents to boxes for pickup by the digital archiving company hired by Sullivan County. The actual digitizing process took about four months as each document was carefully scanned by hand.
In December 2021, boxes full of carefully prepared documents were placed in the Town Hall lobby to be picked up by an outside company which will then scan each document. If you noticed the boxes were back in 2023? It’s because the Town is “spot checking” boxes for accuracy against the digital archive. The boxes will then take a final trip out of the Town Hall when they are securely recycled.
The Cost of Physical Storage Space
There is a real bottom line value to transferring physical documents to digital storage. At some point, Thompson would need more space for staff to work if portions of the Town Hall were increasingly being devoted to document storage. That would require an addition or even a relocation!
Another option that has been explored is on-site physical storage of documents.
For example, did you notice the large shipping container in the Town Hall parking lot last year? This container was loaded with Town documents. The Town had to run electricity and rent a heat pump system to keep documents dry and at a safe temperature in the container.
While this shipping container storage was less expensive than an addition, it was unattractive and still more costly than digital archiving. And when new construction costs are over $300 per square foot, it’s easy to understand why the Town does not want to build a new, more permanent addition just for storage!
Why It’s Smart for Sullivan County to Manage Digital Archiving, and “Share” the Service with Thompson and Others
The numbers just make sense: moving most of Thompson’s documents to a safe, secure digital space is the most cost-effective option.
The Shared Services Plan makes it even more efficient because the Town staff isn’t performing the actual scanning and transfer into digital storage. An outside company does that job for a fraction of the time and money it would take Thompson to undertake its own digital archiving mission…and it is covered by a grant, too!
The entire purpose of the Shared Services Plan is to consolidate services at a county level, and make those services available to municipalities. Imagine if every town and village in Sullivan County had to purchase their own scanning equipment and software: this would not fit into most municipal budgets.
Instead, the Shared Services grant is covering the purchase of equipment and software that can then be used by its own offices as well as municipalities like Thompson.
Software will be officially licensed to the Town – and additional licenses can be purchased by other municipalities for a fraction of the cost it would be to purchase the software outright. Each year, the Town of Thompson will pay Sullivan County a minimal fee to manage the digital archiving!
In addition, Thompson purchased its own large format digital scanner. When residents come into the Planning Department to perform a title search or request other documents, the Town then scans the documents and adds them to the digital archive. There are typically 1-4 requests per day for these documents! This is an ongoing process that is getting Thompson closer to being nearly paperless, while still ensuring the secure storage of documents.
Protecting Thompson’s Documents: Backups, Backups and More Backups
Town documents are being saved on multiple hard drives as well as “in the cloud” meaning documents are stored on servers housed in different locations.
Documents are also strictly password protected. One could argue that digital archiving is even more secure than physical archives, as files are not at risk of being destroyed by fire, water, or decay.
Another advantage of digital archiving is that retrieving files is easier. Files are associated with keywords and project names that can be searched in a process similar to “Googling” a topic.
Currently, only Thompson staff and select County employees have access to the digital archives. However, future plans include providing public access to some documents as well.
In the meantime, the public has full access to many documents being currently discussed by the Town Planning Board, here: https://townofthompson.com/government/agendas-minutes/
What the Future Holds for Digital Storage
Stay tuned as other Town of Thompson departments transfer their documents to digital storage. This is just one more step that Thompson is taking into the future – and one more reason we are living up to our reputation for being forward focused!