WESTFIELD – The Community Preservation Commission will resume its review of a funding request for preservation of the City Clerk archive of historical documents, some dating back to the founding of the city in 1669.
City Clerk Karen Fanion appeared before the CPC in August with a request that the board approve $120,000 to begin preservation, and digitization, of the historic documents kept in the vault in her office.
“These records date back to 1669, the founding of Westfield,” Fanion said at the August meeting. “They include birth, marriage, death and land transaction records. These are permanent records. We can never get rid of them.”
“We need to have these records so they can be used in the future,” Fanion said. “Some of the books which need to be restored have mold and mildew. These (documents) are very interesting, very valuable to the city.
“There is a lot of water damage, some have insects in them, they need to be cleaned up and preserved,” Fanion said. “A record of the Old Burying Grounds was stuck between two books. It’s so fragile that we don’t want to touch it until it’s restored.”
Fanion said that part of the project is digitizing the documents for a back-up electronic record, but added that “researchers can find digital records, but often need to confirm that the original document still exists.
“Some of these documents are so bad that they can’t be digitized until they’ve been restored,” Fanion said.
The committee members declined to approve that funding at the August meeting because of concern that the documents, when returned to the vault, would begin to deteriorate, requesting that Fanion work with City Purchaser Tammy Tefft to get estimates for installing environmental controls inside the vault.
Thursday night Fanion returned with a revised funding request which included installation of an environmental control system needed to preserve and protect the archives. The revised request jumped to $271,804 for the environmental controls in addition to the document restoration and digitizing work and installation of shelving designed not to damage the old documents.
Commissioner Vincent Olinski asked Fanion if the city had looked for other sources of funding, such as a state grant for historical record preservation.
Commissioner William Porter asked if the new shelving will increase the storage capacity in the clerk’s vault.
Fanion said the new shelving will increase storage capacity, and that her office is removing “everyday records” to create additional space for the archive documents. Fanion said there are four vaults in the addition to City Hall and that when the Senior Center is completed, the Veterans Agent is moving to the center.
“We will then have access to the vault in the basement, as well,” Fanion said.
Fanion asked that the board make a decision because it will take several months to get the environmental control vendors under contract and for the work to begin. The Community Preservation Committee meets quarterly, which would delay the start of the document restoration and installation of environmental control until 2015 because the procurement process cannot start until a funding source is in place.
“We want the environmental controls in place before we put the documents back in the vault,” Fanion said. Restoration of the documents will be done in Vermont and will require at least four months.
CPC Chairman Joe Muto said he was not comfortable with making a decision Thursday night and asked for time to study the proposal Fanion had submitted. Muto suggested that the committee conduct a special meeting to specifically decide on the document preservation funding. The board voted to meet on Nov. 13 to discussion the appropriation request.
