[RP TownTalk] archives should be digitized to avoid building costs

[Laureys, Ken R.]

Rob -- I strongly suspect that a good amount of the paper in the archives/storage room is out-dated and of little, if any, historical value.  Before we go spending money on construction of more storage space, shouldn't we have an inventory and purging of the materials already in storage?  I'm also pretty sure that a good amount of these materials could be stored electronically, and/or scanned into image files for archiving.  And finally, how are our town's new materials being archived?  Shouldn't much of this be electronically archived?  I'm just concerned that we are building an old-fashioned (and more expensive) paperwork warehouse instead of a modern digital data warehouse.  That space could be much more effectively used for the other purposes needed.
 

Ken Laureys 

4718 Riverdale Rd 

301-779-1034

-----Original Message-----
From: towntalk-bounces at riverdale-park.org [mailto:towntalk-bounces at riverdale-park.org]On Behalf Of Rob Oppenheim
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 6:46 PM
To: TownTalk at riverdale-park.org
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Riverdale Park Budget, a few more questions


On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 01:26:42 -0400, David Hiles wrote:
...
>3) What will town residents gain from spending $500,000 on an addition
>to the Riverdale Municipal Center?  This was noted as item E under New
>Funding Requests.
>
>Councilperson Donaldson said that the addition will go on the second
>floor above the video room and conference room.  The addition will
>provide more archival storage space and a meeting room dedicated to
>the council.  The meeting room on the first floor is fully booked.  
>Another meeting room for the council's use is needed.
 
Item E is for two buildings.
$300,000 is earmarked for Town Hall expansion, and 
$200,000 is earmarked as seed money to upgrade the Riverdale 
Park Community Center Building. The intent is to use this $200,000
as seed money and shoot for matching grants.
 
The Town Hall building addition is not a 2nd floor addition.
A review of the building showed that the foundation was not
adequate to support a 2nd story, and thus building a 2nd floor
would be too expensive as the foundations would have to 
be replaced. Instead, the town will look at additions to the 
back and/or the front of the building.
 

The exact use of the new space is not yet determined. We will go
thru a design and review process. So far, we have a basic budget
figured on an estimate of what it would cost to build over the
available square footage in the front and rear of the building.
 

More space is needed. The archive storage areas are full and more
storage area is badly needed for normal record keeping. We will
be looking at adding office space and possibly restoring the
temporary office space back into a kitchen area. There is talk of
finding a small amount of office space that council members could
share and maybe another meeting room. At this point, this is all
just possibilities. There is lots more work to do. The need is
clear and real. We have determined what is practical to do to the
building, and have allocated a budget to get it done. The next 
step is to get serious with design and use.
 

-Rob

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