WESTFIELD – The Community Preservation Commission endorsed the plan for preserving city records dating back to Westfield’s founding in 1669, but balked at approving $120,000 to initiate the document restoration and preservation process Thursday night.
City Clerk Karen Fanion made the request for Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding to begin the project supported by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and the Historical Commission.
“These records date back to 1669, the founding of Westfield,” Fanion said. “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 some of these documents are so bad that they can’t be digitized until they’ve been restored,” Fanion said.
History Committee Chairwoman Kitt Milligan urged the CPC to act Thursday night to approve the funding and initiates restoration of the deteriorated documents.
“The city has the responsibility to preserve these documents,” Milligan said. “There is often a need to have the original document for verification.”
Fanion said the researchers can find digital records, but often need to confirm that the original document still exists.
“We have to certify that the document is on our possession, sign that it’s a true copy and testament,” Fanion said. “The mayor is very supportive of this project which will be very expensive and will take a very long time. Each (record) book takes up to 16 weeks before we get it back.”
The CPC members all voiced support for preservation of the historic documents but were also concerned that the city develop a maintenance plan to protect the restored documents.
The documents have been stored for decades in a vault built as an addition to the east side of City Hall. There are actually three vaults in the addition, one for the Collector’s Office on the first floor, the Clerk’s Office on the second floor and the Engineering Department on the third floor. That vault-stack addition has leaked over those decades, causing document damage in all three vaults.
Commissioner Vincent Olinski asked Fanion if the city has committed resources to making the vault a suitable environment for storing the restored documents.
“There has to be a guarantee that this (restoration) work will be preserved when it comes back to you,” Olinski said.
Commissioner William Porter suggested that the committee table the funding request until Fanion can get an estimate of work needed to make the value environment compatible with record storage, which would require systems to control the temperature and relative humidity, as well as an air circulation system with filters and stainless steel shelves that would not chemically react with the documents being stored on them.
Commissioner Cindy Gaylord disagreed with Porter.
“We have to start somewhere. We still need to get these documents restored,” Gaylord said.
“I recognize the immediate problem and the need to have it addressed as soon as possible,” Porter said. “But we might want to wait for the entire project.”
Commission Chairman Joe Muto agreed with Porter.
“The environment in which the records are stored does have an impact on our decision,” he said. “The current environmental controls where part of the reason that the records need to be restored.”
Fanion said that she has estimates for the stainless steel shelves at $30,000, but will have to investigate the environmental controls.
The commission voted to continue the project review to its October meeting to allow time for Fanion to investigate the cost of the environmental controls and revise her funding request to include that component as well as the restoration and preservation component.
