Richfield, Oneonta Awarded Grants

By WRILEY NELSON
OTSEGO COUNTY

New York State Archives recently announced the winners of the 2023-2024 Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund grant program. The Archives awarded 87 grants totaling $5.2 million for municipal projects related to inactive records, files management, management of historical records or digitization. The LGRMIF was created in 1989 and is funded by fees collected by county clerks and the New York City Register during the recording of certain documents and the indexing of some court cases.

According to the grant awards list, the Town of Richfield received $13,891.00 and the City of Oneonta received $60,460.00, both in the inactive records grant category. This category encompasses projects to improve the management of records during the inactive phase of their life cycle. Inactive records are used infrequently, if at all, but have yet to reach the end of their required retention period. It also supports surveys of existing records backlogs to identify obsolete files, improve organization and plan for the near- and long-term future of municipal records retention.

Richfield Town Supervisor Dan Sullivan said that the town has not reorganized its records system since 1996. Previous supervisors did not apply for grant funding, but he made it a priority to get the resources to clean up the retention program.

“We have storage space of a certain size,” he said, “but we also have records going back almost to the 1700s scattered all over the office with nowhere to put them.”

Sullivan said the town reached out to a grant writer specializing in records maintenance grants to apply for the funding. The grant writer will also execute the grant once funds are disbursed. The town will develop a more detailed timeline once the money has been received.

“We’re hoping to develop the space to organize archives and records. This project will improve the efficiency of the entire town hall by freeing up space.”

The Oneonta Common Council approved receipt of the funds at its regular meeting on Tuesday, April 15. The full amount of funds will be used to commission consulting firm K Sickler Murphy to collect and organize paper records. The city is seeking other funding sources for a future project to digitize the records.

The Village of Margaretville and Walton Central School District each received an inactive records grant, as did the City of Utica. The long process of records digitization in rural areas will likely continue for many years and inactive records will continue to drain the time and resources of small municipalities.