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PAGES OF HISTORY FADING AWAY IN LOCAL ARCHIVES Roxbury clerk, county seek state grant to help preserve thousands of historical records dating to the 1750s BY MATT MANOCHIO
Monday, July
03, 2006 State grant to improve info sharing It's election night, the polls are closed and election workers troop into Town Hall with cartridges from electronic voting machines. But the town clerk has no technology to read the results: only the county clerk does. That will all change within the next year, however, once Hudson County executes a "shared services" program designed to provide an electronic connection between the county and municipalities and among all municipalities. The New Jersey Department of State has awarded Hudson more than $1.3 million to carry out that - and more - through the Public Archives And Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. The state also gave $113,000 to Jersey City, $40,000 to Union City and $38,610 to North Bergen for related efforts. Hudson County Clerk Javier Inclán, who is overseeing efforts to improve record keeping countywide, said the county will benefit because local and county governments will communicate better, the public will have easier access to information via the Internet and paper records will be safely stored. Inclán recently visited the former Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne to check out an old Army building that once housed the Federal Records Center for New York/New Jersey as a possible archives storage site. It contains 120,000 square feet of shelves - probably well within the county's needs, Inclán said. Whether that space will be available remains to be seen. Using more than $1 million in PARIS cash it got last fiscal year to start the program, Hudson County hired archivist Bor-sheng Tsai, of Flushing, N.Y., at $55,000, and records manager Paul R. Paradise, of Hoboken, at $45,000, to coordinate the work. Part of Year Two's grant will continue to pay those salaries but, afterward, the county will have to pick up the cost, Inclán said. He added that the biggest chunk of last year's grant - $640,000 - was earmarked to set up a wireless network linking all county government agencies and buildings so that information could be passed back and forth in a disaster or other emergency situation. In Year Two, the county will receive $315,800 to pay the archivist, records manager, clerk and clerk-typist; $322,800 to conduct a countywide inventory and records management assessment, including a special needs assessment for Bayonne and West New York; $249,600 to implement an electronic imaging and archives storage and retrieval program for the sheriff's office; $172,700 to buy equipment and software designed to fully implement the digital network; and $265,600 to provide a digital network connecting the county and local governments. Inclán said the county will provide computer hardware and software to all municipal clerks to download election results. Additionally, Inclán said, municipal tax officials will also be able to access tax records and maps from the county and municipal police chiefs and directors could share criminal-related information. © The Jersey Journal; NJ.com |
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| $1M will help county effort to preserve records Monday,
May 29, 2006 SALEM -- Salem County has been awarded more than $1 million in grant money to maintain the county's archives and records. The New Jersey Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM) awarded $1,055,290 to Salem County's Office of Archives and Records. The Office of Archives and Records, in the Johnson Building on Market Street, maintains all of the county's public records. DARM announced more than $27.8 million in Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) was awarded to 21 counties and 41 cities in New Jersey. Salem ranked 12 out of the 21 counties and fourth in South Jersey in the amount of money that was awarded. The PARIS Grants Program, which began in 2005, is to improve the management and preservation of public records and allow more public access to those documents. The county's grant is dedicated to staffing and office support, municipal shared services, county preservation and conservation, infrastructure improvements and county clerk back filing. Shared services with the county's 15 municipalities will be the focus of this year's grant money. Each municipality will receive an inventory of their stored paper and electronic records, according to county Public Information Officer Robin Weinstein.Curt Harker, records manager, said the groundwork is in place for the next phase of the project. "We have been competitively awarded a second year of funding to provide ongoing staffing to oversee new municipal shared services, document preservation, electronic document management system expansion, creation of public and employee portals and microfilming deeds and imaging mortgages," Harker said. Harker said the goal is to create an ease for government employees and the public to locate documents. "Lost or illegible documents are of no use to anyone," he said. In 2005 the county received $1,044,000 and a plan was put in place to determined the needs of the Office of Archives and Records. Document imaging and electronic records management systems were implemented along with an electronic filing expansion. Archival records and preservation services were also started. "The fact that the state is increasing our grant award beyond what we received last year shows that we are on the right track with this project," Freeholder Director Lee Ware said. "Under the direction of Curt Harker, the county Office of Archives and Records is assisting all county departments in streamlining records management and bringing in cutting edge technology to advance this end." © 2006 Today's Sunbeam; NJ.com |
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| Grant helps preserve public records
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 Gloucester County will receive $1,183,800 as part of a statewide $27.8 million award for the preservation of public records. Most of the award, $770,600, will go toward microfilming maps, mortgages and engineering records. "Included under that title will be working with record imaging of the County Clerk's maps from 1850 to present, preserving microfilm, imaging county mortgages from 1967 to 1997, imaging engineering records from 1920's to the present and zoning records from 1957 until now," said Karl J. Niederer, director of Archives and Record Management for the Department of the State in Trenton. The money will also go towards records management and the preservation and conservation of public records. Washington Township and Woodbury will share in the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) Grant announced by the Secretary of State. Washington Township will receive $38,610 and Woodbury will receive $19,750. Freeholder Bill Krebs, liaison to the county's Information and Technology department, believes the money will help the county with modern record keeping. "We have many departments working together to preserve and record our documents, which is creating a much more efficient system then when paper records were just stored in boxes," Krebs said. Started in 2005, the grant is funded through fees collected by county registrars and clerks for the recording of certain documents, including mortgages and deeds. Last year, $25 million in public archives grants were awarded. Grant recipients and the amounts to be awarded were chosen by professionals in information technology using set guidelines. "There was a 100 point scale to determine how the money was allocated," Niederer said. "The group looked at the quality of the narrative, what the bench marks are going to be, the quality standards, sound budgets, price quotes and the quality of the personnel involved." Freeholder Director Stephen M. Sweeney believes the large award that Gloucester County received is a tribute to the large number of old documents it has maintained. "This is the second year that we have received one of the largest grant awards in the state for preserving our records, and we largely attribute that to the amount of documents we have from the 1700's and 1800's and the commitment the county has to preserve them," Sweeney said. © The Gloucester Times; NJ.com
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Funds will help upgrade public record-keeping Monday, May
22, 2006 TRENTON -- Forty municipalities and the state's 21 counties will share $27.8 million in aid to help preserve and secure more than three centuries of public records and archives, state officials announced. The Secretary of State's office said last week the aid will go toward a statewide effort to improve the preservation and security of public records, ranging from current papers to documents about the founding of towns and counties. The money "enables New Jersey counties and municipalities to adopt 21st-century technologies to drive down the cost of government records' creation, maintenance and storage, while expanding public access," Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells said. ". . . The strategic investment of $27.8 million in building and improving the infrastructure of local records administration yields up to four times that sum in direct savings and cost-efficiencies statewide." The aid can be used, among other things, for microfilming or duplication of records, manpower and training, new equipment and storage of records. The aid is funded by fees collected by county clerks and registrars for the recording of documents, including deeds and mortgages. Forty percent of the fees are reserved for the records management grant program. This is the program's second year. Last year, it provided $25 million. Essex County will receive the largest share, $2.31 million; Union County will get $1.34 million; Somerset County, $1.31 million; Morris County, $1.16; Sussex County, $1.14 million; Burlington County, $1.08 million; Mercer County, $1.07 million; Hunterdon County, $1.05 million; Middlesex County, $973,100; and Warren County, $893,300. Among the state's largest cities and towns, Newark, Woodbridge and Trenton will each receive $150,000, and Hamilton $80,000. "By centralizing and coordinating the storage of public records, our counties and municipalities operate more efficiently," said Karl Niederer, the state's chief archivist. "The bottom line is that government that functions more efficiently . . . costs taxpayers less than government that is inefficient, ineffective and unresponsive." Money also is going to other municipalities, including $20,000 to Mount Holly. © The Times of Trenton; NJ.com
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$27.8M IN AID: Counties get help with record keeping Posted
by the Asbury Park Press on 05/21/06 TRENTON: New Jersey's 21 counties, along with 40 municipalities, are set to receive $27.8 million in state preservation and security aid for their public records and archives under funding announced by the secretary of state's office earlier this week. The aid can be used, among other things, for funding manpower and training, microfilming and the duplication of documents. The aid is funded by 40 percent of the fees collected for the recording of documents. © Asbury Park Press; www.app.com
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State hands out $27.8 million to preserve public archives Saturday,
May 20, 2006 Forty municipalities and the state's 21 counties will share $27.8 million in aid to help preserve and secure more than three centuries of public records and archives, state officials announced. The Secretary of State's office said this week the aid will go toward a statewide effort to improve the preservation and security of public records, ranging from current papers to documents about the founding of towns and counties. The money "enables New Jersey counties and municipalities to adopt 21st-century technologies to drive down the cost of government records' creation, maintenance and storage, while expanding public access," said Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells. "...The strategic investment of $27.8 million in building and improving the infrastructure of local records administration yields up to four times that sum in direct savings and cost-efficiencies statewide." The aid can be used, among other things, for microfilming or duplication of records, manpower and training, new equipment and storage of records. The aid is funded by fees collected by county clerks and registers for the recording of documents, including deeds and mortgages. Forty percent of the fees are reserved for records management grant program. This is the program's second year. Last year, it provided $25 million. Essex County will receive the largest share, $2.31 million; Union County will get $1.34 million; Somerset County, $1.31 million; Morris County, $1.16; Sussex County, $1.14 million; Burlington County, $1.08 million; Mercer County, $1.07 million; Hunterdon County, $1.05; Middlesex County, $973,100 and Warren County, $893,300. Among the state's largest cities and towns, Newark, Woodbridge and Trenton will each receive $150,000, and Hamilton (Mercer) $80,000. "By centralizing and coordinating the storage of public records, our counties and municipalities operate more efficiently," said Karl Niederer, the state's chief archivist. "The bottom line is that government that functions more efficiently... costs taxpayers less than government that is inefficient, ineffective and unresponsive." Money also is going to Bloomfield, $40,000; Irvington, $40,000; New Brunswick, $40,000; Union (Union), $40,000; Piscataway, $39,500; Parsippany, $38,900; Flemington, $38,610; Newton, $38,610; East Brunswick, $37,500; East Orange, $37,500; Old Bridge, $34,364; Perth Amboy, $36,000; Mount Holly, $20,000; Morristown, $19,500, and Belvidere, $18,000. © The Star Ledger; NJ.com]
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Thursday, June 30, 2005 BY
JASON LAUGHLIN Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties have received a combined $4 million in state grants to help preserve government records and make them more accessible, officials said. "This grant will help us drive down administrative costs to taxpayers by improving the quality, efficiency and security of filing, storing, accessing and preserving Camden County's records and documents," Camden County Freeholder-Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said in a statement issued Wednesday. All 21 counties in the state received money through the state's $25 million Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support grants. The grants, in part, were designed to help counties and some municipalities comply with the 2002 Open Public Records Act, which required government agencies to make records easily and quickly accessible, said Karl Niederer, director of the state Division of Archives and Records Management. Camden County received $1,360,443, Burlington County received $1,254,945 and Gloucester County received $1,446,481. Camden City also received a $49,770 grant for consulting services that will help it assess its needs for records and archives. The grants should be used to make the most commonly requested documents, such as deeds and mortgages, available online, Niederer said. "One of the primary objectives is the preservation of public records, preservation for as long as records are legally required to be kept, but it's also intended to make access to the records more convenient and more efficient," Niederer said. Reach Jason Laughlin at (856) 486-2476 or jlaughlin@courierpostonline.com © Courier-Post; www.courierpostonline.com
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| Passport
to PARIS puts city clerk on paper trail
Saturday, June 25, 2005 BY TOM
MEAGHER "The records were all over the place. There was no organization, everybody just took the records downstairs and put them in this room and just left them," said City Clerk Jane Williams-Warren, who began working for the city in the 1960s. Some departments would stick their files in any space they could find in closets, balconies and attics. Now, with the help of a grant from the state, Williams-Warren hopes to be able to put all of the city's paper trail into a digital format, and keep it in one central location. The state Division of Archives and Records Management, a part of the Department of State, recently gave Paterson a $50,000 grant through its Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support program. The money will help Williams-Warren, as the city's custodian of records, to assess the city's needs and create a strategic plan to manage its records. The division gave a similar grant of $48,340 to Clifton. Passaic County received $1.4 million for eight projects to scan and store public records. Williams-Warren, who also serves as the president of the Municipal Clerks Association of New Jersey, said the PARIS program will go a long way toward preserving records that would otherwise be susceptible to age and accidents. The program also signals a renewed emphasis on preserving government documents for the public and for historical purposes. Until about a decade ago, city governments and clerks did not go to great lengths to save these records for later generations, Williams-Warren said. "The library and the museum have always had the means or the technology to make sure that they could preserve certain documents," Williams-Warren said. "My goal as municipal clerk is to bring my office into the 21st century." In the early 1990s, Paterson's Clerk's Office began to "image" the documents for the City Council. That meant that all of the minutes and resolutions and other papers for the governing body were sent to a company several times a year to be scanned into a digital format. They were then indexed on a computer disc and loaded into a database. Today, the public can search through the council's documents back to the early 1970s on a computer workstation in the clerk's office. The state archives division expects that this program will become a yearly grant. Williams-Warren hopes that this is the first step toward digitizing the documents of all the city's departments, a move that would help not only government employees, but inquisitive residents as well. Then the city might have a little bit more space in its basements and attics. Reach Tom Meagher at 973.569.7152 or meagher@northjersey.com. © Herald News; www.northjersey.com |
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Middlesex County will now be able to preserve and protect the paper and electronic records of several county departments due to a $940,899 state grant. The largest portion of the New Jersey State Records Committee Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Grant, $244,020, will be used to scan hundreds of thousands of maps and other documents from the Engineering and Planning departments, according to Margaret E. Pemberton, clerk to the Board of Chosen Freeholders, who oversees the county’s Division of Archives and Records Management. She said that those departments have the greatest need for funding due to the volume of their records, and that they will “outsource the actual imaging” as well as hire a grant-funded staff. A disaster recovery plan will also be implemented, beginning this year with the installation of the equipment necessary to archive e-mails. Pemberton said that archiving e-mails is becoming more important as the use of e-mail increases. The new hardware will be sent to a safe location in the event of a disaster. Pemberton also said that meeting minutes and ordinances, of which no current backups exist in many towns, will be saved on microfilm from now on. Records from the Surrogate’s Office will be transferred to microfilm, some of which have been stored in large bound books since the 1700s. The documents from before 1974 exist only on paper and are mostly handwritten, according to Pemberton, who said this was “something a little bit unique.” “The grant allows us to upgrade — across the board — our equipment and procedures to safeguard our records and improve access to them,” said David B. Crabiel, chair of the County’s Administration and Finance Committee, which oversees the records division. He also said he was grateful for the opportunity to improve archiving without using local tax dollars. About $100,000 of the grant will be used to create a database of County Clerk’s Office records. It will be shared by the County Tax Board and municipal tax assessors and collectors to help reduce duplication of effort and paper usage, both of which will save the municipalities money. This is the first year of the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Grant Program. It is funded by document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks starting in 2003. About 40 percent of the fees collected, $28 million in total, was awarded throughout New Jersey. Only Woodbridge and Edison were eligible to receive funds in Middlesex County this year due to population requirements. Pemberton said that in the future, that restriction will change, making the grant available to smaller municipalities. “It is a worthwhile program that will help us preserve our past, enhance public access to historic and vital documents and use our limited space more efficiently,” Crabiel said. The municipalities must complete archiving by July 2006. © North Brunswick Sentinel (Greater Media Newspapers); [http://nbs.gmnews.com/]
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| $1.1 Million Grant to Upgrade County Hall of Records Thursday, June 2, 2005 pg.B1 The county will receive a $1.1 million Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant from the state records committee. According to Robert Thurgarland, director of the county Department of Central Printing and Mail, $750,000 of the grant is earmarked to refurbish the Hall of Records on Main Street in Flemington. The remainder of the grant will be applied as follows:
Mr. Thurgarland said 50% of the grant will be available July 1. The remainder will be made available as the projects progress. The awarded amounts were based on the grant application submitted by the county to the state records committee in March. © Hunterdon
County Democrat
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| $49,900
STATE GRANT Township targets improvements to "antiquated" record-keeping system Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/30/05 BY JEAN MIKLE TOMS RIVER BUREAU TOMS RIVER — Dover Township plans to use a $49,900 grant fro m the New Jersey State Records Committee to hire a consultant who will help the township move its record-keeping efforts into the 21st century. The Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grants were distributed earlier this month to the state's 21 counties and the 12 largest municipalities. The municipal grants, which could total up to $50,000 each, are intended for towns to hire consultants to help them determine how to improve record-keeping services. Towns with populations of 75,000 or more were eligible to apply for the grants, Township Clerk J. Mark Mutter said. In Ocean County, only Brick and Dover were eligible. Brick received $50,000. The municipal grants were for needs assessments, while the larger county grants were for bigger projects, Mutter said. "Each of these counties had very specific proposals that the committee approved," he said. Mayor Paul C. Brush said much of Dover's record-keeping is antiquated, with boxes of paper files stored in the basement and attic at town hall, as well as other locations. He said a consultant will help the township determine how best to convert paper records to electronic form. "This grant is urgently needed," Brush said. "We are the seventh-largest municipality in the state, and our record-keeping is antiquated." The consultant will determine what the township should do to convert its records into the electronic Global Information System. All township property records, as well as Planning Board, Board of Adjustment and other important documents will be entered into the system, Brush said. This will make records more accessible to residents making inquiries under the state's Open Public Records Act. Brush said township employees must often search several different locations to find records requested under the act, a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Mutter said Dover's records are located "far and beyond our town hall," including the police and public works departments. He said he looks forward to having the records converted to electronic form and to finding ways to make other, historic documents available to the public. The oldest record in town hall is Dover's "town book," from 1785, three years after British troops burned down most of the Village of Toms River during a Revolutionary War battle. Records from before that time were presumably burned and lost. Mutter, an avid historian, said he was recently reviewing the 1905 town book, which included a notation that the Township Committee had spent $140 to install 25 electric street lights in the downtown area. He said he would like to make sure that such historical documents are made accessible to the public. "Half of this project is records management, and the other half is archival preservation," Mutter said. Jean Mikle: (732) 557-5729 or jmikle@app.com © Asbury Park Press; www.app.com
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| County archives to be preserved electronically May 28, 2005 BY BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713 The county Sheriff's Department has 993,000 pages of documents of inmate incarcerations, medical files and piles of paperwork from the county jail. Those documents, along with thousands of others throughout the county, will soon be electronic and backed up on microfilm, said Cape May County Deputy Clerk Rita Fulginiti. The results, Fulginiti said, will significantly save storage space. Cape May County received a $1.5 million state grant to make more records electronic and more accessible. The grant comes from a total of $25 million in Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support, or PARIS, grants in the state in the program's first year. "I think it's going to be a great opportunity for the public to just have easier access to a wider variety of public records than they can now through electronic means," said Karl Niederer, the director of the state's Division of Archives and Records Management. The program hopes to make gaining access to records easier between county and local governments, he said. Part of the county's grant also includes starting a records hall in Dennis Township, far away from the seat of the county government. In case of fire, flood or disaster, copies of records are separated from the originals, Fulginiti said. It's a large project in the state that has archivists excited. Niederer said preserving old parcels of New Jersey history will be the future of the PARIS program. "From an archivist's perspective, one of the most thrilling things is the historical records 200 or more years old, which are in very delicate or deteriorating condition, will be preserved and made accessible," he said. "This is going to make it possible for the county officers to preserve those records for posterity." In the county clerk's records room, stored in a large room with a combination lock vault, records date to the 1600s. In one book, which contains mortgages, is a record of earmarks on cattle that belonged to John Taylor. It is dated Sept. 5, 1693 and includes illustrations of cattle heads. Fulginiti said older records like that, including deeds and surveys, will be looked at for preservation next year. The PARIS grant is funded from fees collected for the filing of land records and documents by county clerks and registers of deeds, according to the New Jersey State Department's description. Last year, the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Account collected $67.5 million. To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press: BIanieri@pressofac.com © The Press of Atlantic City; www.pressofatlanticcity.com
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| County
archives receive upgrade Monday, May 23, 2005 BY TRISH GRABER Staff Writer SALEM -- Salem County officials announced the receipt of a $1 million grant to fund an electronic archive system to preserve county records and provide the public with easier access to government documents within the next few years. The Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant, funded by the NJ Division of Archives and Records Management, is part of $25 million awarded statewide to all 21 counties and 12 individual municipalities. The purpose of the program is to implement a system that would make documents available electronically and preserve government documents over a period of approximately three years. The $1 million grant will be used in the first year to assess the archival needs of the county, hire a four-person Office of Archives and Records Management staff and scan archived records into an electronic format. Eventually, residents could access an extensive amount of county documents online or at a terminal at the records office. Freeholder Director Chuck Sullivan said the grant will enable the county to preserve important government documents while providing the public with quick accessibility. "We are excited to have received this in Salem County during the first round of the grant," he said. First year funds will be used to assess preservation, conservation and records management needs, conduct a facilities study, inventory records, provide staff education and training, and implement a pilot imaging system. Funds are also allocated for an Office of Archives and Records Management staff which include a records manager, archivist, records analyst and clerk typist. According to Debby Turner-Fox, Clerk of the Board/Administrator, grants will be available after the first year to fund additional projects which include outreach programs to municipalities for record management. The grants will be awarded based on need. Fox said the initial grant will help build a foundation for a more productive records management system in the county. "We're really excited about it," she said. "It really came at an opportune time." © Today's Sunbeam NJ.com
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| Grant
funds record-keeping upgrade WOODBRIDGE — The township has received $46,543 for a public-records needs assessment and strategic planning process grant. The funding comes from the state's Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. According to Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas, more than $25 million has been awarded to the state's 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities for improvements in public archives and records management. Middlesex County received $940,899.34 for projects in various county offices. "We greatly appreciate this commitment toward helping us continue to upgrade our records management," said Mayor Frank G. Pelzman. "We have already automated our Building Department records and achieved significant savings in time and expense that are passed on to the taxpayer. The PARIS grant will help us expand that efficiency to other departments, especially those that directly service residents." According to Karl J. Niederer, State Records Committee Secretary, "PARIS grants will address the need for building and improving the infrastructure of county and municipal records systems statewide." New Jersey's local governments will use grant funds to boost the efficiency of filing, storing and accessing public records; to preserve valuable archives, and to drive down the administrative cost to taxpayers. © Home News Tribune; www.thnt.com
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| Grants
to improve record archives Trenton, Hamilton and area counties, were among those receiving grants from the state to improve their government records archives. Under the grants announced recently from the Department of State, Mercer County will receive about $825,000, Burlington County will receive about $1.25 million, Hunterdon County will receive about $1.1 million, Middlesex County will receive about $940,000, Monmouth County will receive about $1.5 million and Somerset County will get about $480,000. Trenton's allocation is about $50,000 and Hamilton's about $46,500. The grants are to improve filing, storing and accessing public records and preserving archives. © The Times of Trenton; NJ.com
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| Record
keeping $1.018M
BY MATT DUNN BRIDGETON -- Cumberland County has been awarded $1,018,568 in grants through the state Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. According to a breakdown of funding on the New Jersey Archives Web site, a substantial amount of money will be used to make an assessment of the county's record system. "They're going to make recommendations on how we maintain these records," said Matthew Pisarski, senior planner at the Cumberland County Department of Planning and Development. The assessment will be made of all county departments from the department of planning and development to departments at the county courthouse. Funding will be used to hire four staff members to open a county archives and records management office to oversee the management of the county records archive. Funding will also be used for microfilming past land records at the county tax office and networking to an e-filing portal hosted by Monmouth County at the county clerk's office. Cumberland County Chief Financial Officer Marcella D. Shepard spearheaded the PARIS project on the local level. About $25 million in PARIS grants were awarded Thursday to all 21 New Jersey counties and the state's top-14 largest municipalities. © Bridgeton News NJ.com
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| $1.3
million state grant to put records just a mouse-click away
BY JARRETT RENSHAW After decades of living with cluttered shelves and overstuffed filing cabinets, Hudson County plans to go digital. Thanks to a $1.3 million state grant, taxpayers will soon be able to access county records, such as land sales, deeds, liens and election results, via the Internet. And county agencies will soon be better able to handle public information requests within the seven days required by statute, said County Clerk Javier Inclán. "It's really a home run for everyone," says Inclán. "Taxpayers will be able to do a lot of business online and employees will be able to do their work more quickly and more efficiently." The county will begin digitizing records stored at the administration building and another facility in Secaucus as early as July 1, and the work should be completed by June 30, 2006, Inclán said. The grant also will provide for a newly created Office of the Records and Archives, which will be under the county clerk's supervision and will handle the upkeep of public records and dispose of them, once they are expired. Inclán says the grant will provide funding for the office during its inception but the county must fund it thereafter. Hudson County received the funding under the first round of the $28 million PARIS statewide grant program. PARIS is aimed at transforming the state's 21 counties into regional depots of information in an effort to relieve municipalities of some recordkeeping responsibilities. The state program is funded by filing and recording fees collected by county clerks and registrars. The grants are to improve filing, storing and accessing public records and preserving archives. © The Jersey Journal NJ.com
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| County
gets aid to preserve pages of history Friday, May
20, 2005 New Jersey's 12 largest cities and 21 counties will share $25 million in state aid to help preserve and secure more than three centuries of public archives and records, state officials said yesterday. State officials said the aid will fund the first statewide effort to bolster the preservation and security of public records ranging from the present back to the founding of counties and towns. "The records counties and towns preserve and make available every day directly affect the lives of millions as well as the understanding we have of the rich history of our state," said Secretary of State Regena Thomas. The aid comes from revenue collected through document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks, according to Karl J. Niederer, state archives director. It is to be used for improving the preservation, storage, filing and public accessibility of records, he said. The program is the largest of its kind in the nation, he noted. Essex County will receive the largest share, $1.46 million. Hunterdon County will get $1.11 million; Middlesex, $940,899; Morris, $1.37 million; Somerset, $479,800; Sussex, $725,665; Union, $1.01 million, and Warren, $859,096. Among the state's largest municipalities, Edison will get $46,658; Elizabeth, $50,000; Newark, $50,000, and Woodbridge, $46,543. Niederer said the funding effort calls for counties to serve as the regional hubs for storage and preservation of municipal records. "Most towns have never given focus and thought on how to handle archive records," he said. Here are examples of how the money will be used:
© 2005 The Star Ledger © 2005 NJ.com All Rights Reserved. 
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| Shore
gets $3M grant for recordkeeping Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/20/05 |
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PARIS GRANTS The New Jersey State Records Committee voted Thursday to award 25,063,652.90 in Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support grants to all 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities through a state program approved by the Legislature in 2003. Counties could get up to $1.5 million. Municipalities with more than 75,000 residents could receive $50,000. Grants for the Shore were:
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| Close to $3 million is coming to the Shore region to help Monmouth and Ocean counties keep their records straight. Calling recordkeeping "an essential yet unsung service" provided by county and municipal governments, New Jersey Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas announced grants Thursday from the state's Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support, or PARIS, program. Grants totaling $25,063,653 were made to the state's 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities in the state's first set of PARIS awards. Monmouth County received $1,498,565, with close to $800,000 earmarked for enhancing the county's electronic recording portal, and more than $300,000 to expand its electronic record search system. |
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Ocean County's award was $1,399,800. More than $600,000 of that money is dedicated to converting older information to electronic form, and additional $370,000 to enhance the e-filing portal at the county clerk's office. "We have a cooperative agreement with Monmouth County to expand electronic filing through the portal, and some of the grant money will go towards this," said Ocean County Clerk Carl Block. Block explained that the clerk has been filing documents electronically since 2000. Now, however, using the grant money, the clerk's office will begin working backward from 2000, scanning older documents into electronic format, thus making them available to the public. Other parts of the grant will be used to study means to preserve historic county documents and assess the facilities where records are now kept. Among the state's largest towns are Dover Township, which received $49,900, and Brick, which got $50,000. In both cases, as with the other 10 municipalities, the grant is dedicated to an assessment of the town's needs in updating its recordkeeping methods and to developing a strategic plan to bring the recordkeeping function into the 21st century. Karl Niederer, director of the state Division of Archives and Records Management, which is under the Department of State and administers the PARIS program, explained that counties were permitted to apply for up to $1.5 million to improve their recordkeeping practices. Thomas, in a written statement called the PARIS program an advance in governmental recordkeeping :as important today as the construction of the first fireproof vaults to protect New Jersey's colonial archives 250 years ago.''
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BY
LARRY HIGGS Hunterdon County won a $1.1 million state grant Thursday to restore its Hall of Records and to computerize county records. The annual state grant, known as the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support system and grants, or PARIS, was awarded to 21 counties and 21 municipalities to help them better archive, restore and computerize government records, said Karl Niederer, director of the state Division of Archiving and Records Management. Hunterdon was the only county that sought money for a building project. "PARIS will make public records more accessible, enhance security and integrity of recordkeeping throughout the state. It will transform recordkeeping," Niederer said. "It doesn't mean every record a county has will be on a Web site, but it's moving that way." Other Central Jersey counties received PARIS grants, including $479,800 for Somerset County; $1,010,639 for Union County; $940,900 for Middlesex County; and $1,378,467 for Morris County. Of Hunterdon's total grant, $750,000 would be used to renovate the Hall of Records on Main Street. That building needs its roof and cornices repaired, bricks cleaned and windows replaced, said Frank Bell, county project manager. But Hunterdon officials still have to justify to the state that the building's main function is for keeping the county's records. "It's contingent on them demonstrating to the state that they'll use the funding for facilities and upgrades that are related to recordkeeping," Niederer said. "Just because it's called the Hall of Records doesn't mean it's dedicated to keeping records." The two-story building, built in the 1920s, is still used for records storage, Bell said in an earlier interview. PARIS grants will also pay to computerize more records and, in some cases, place them online. Hunterdon's grant includes $200,000 for an imaging system for the county clerk to computerize paper land records, such as property deeds, and $114,000 to hire an expert to assess the county's electronic infrastructure, document a plan to store records and make them available and find the best way to computerize them. In Middlesex, the grant includes money to put records from the surrogate's office, planning and engineering departments on microfilm. Somerset County's grant includes microfilming surrogate's and county clerks records while Morris County's grant includes microfilming of historical records. This is the first time the state has made money available to counties and towns to improve how they keep records, Niederer said. "We've dispensed advice on how to protect archival records, but there's never been any state money to help it get it under way," he said. Larry Higgs can be reached at (908) 707-3134 or lhiggs@c-n.com. © Courier News www.c-n.com
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| Morris
gets $1.4M to preserve historic records
BY MICHAEL DAIGLE, Daily Record Morris County will get $1.4 million to begin a program to preserve public records, including historic records now stored in local warehouse. The grant was part of $25 million approved Thursday by the New Jersey Records Committee that will be sent to all 21 counties and 12 large municipalities for record-storage programs. Called PARIS - short for Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support - the program is the largest competitive grant program of its kind in the United States. It's funded by document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks. It was approved by the state Legislature in 2003. The records committee awarded $1.38 million to Morris County. Sussex County received $725,665 and Warren County got $859,096. "We are all very happy," said Morris County Treasurer Glenn Roe. "This will greatly benefit the county." He said the committee cut two requested staff people from the grant, deciding that the work that will include the installation of a new computer archiving system could be done with that number of people, not the four the county has sought. Roe said some of the work has already started. The county will be studying the best practices of document storage for use in the county. The plan is to inventory the records that need proper storage, either electronically, on microfilm or in protective plastic; determine what storage facilities might be needed; and train county employees to handle new storage procedures, Roe said at the time of the application. Eventually, Roe said, the storage plan could mean greater public access to the documents - particularly fragile historic documents - and more items available for viewing over the Internet. Among the records that would be microfilmed are those from the Court of Common Pleas, loan records, minutes of the Almshouse and church registrations, and historic records, including slave birth records and broadsides. Under state law, some documents must be stored for 10 years, and a permanent record must be maintained for others. The county now stores the documents in various offices, a warehouse on Mendham Road and in commercial storage facilities. One possibility is using one of the vacant buildings at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany. The grant provides: $71,020 for needs assessment; $21,080 for training; $613,300 for imaging; $89,000 for a facilities study; $284,651 for microfilming; $162,741 for a records manager and a records analyst; $21,595 for the conservation and preservation of historic records; and $115,080 to microfilm historic records
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| New
Jersey Launches Public Archives Digitization Program Mar 01, 2005 By News Staff New Jersey's Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant program will launch this year and will fund significant advancements in county and municipal government archi ves and records programs statewide. Then-Governor McGreevey's proposed budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal year provided up to $28 million for grants, making PARIS one of the largest programs of its kind in the nation. Funded by $5 document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks, PARIS grants are a key component of the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Program established by the state Legislature in July 2003 under P.L. 2003, c. 117. The program is directed by the Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM) in the Department of State. Secretary
of State Regena L. Thomas, whose department oversees DARM's administration
of state and local public records, compared the impact of P.L. 2003,
c. 117 to that of New Jersey's first records law, "An Act for
the Preservation of the Publick Records of the Colony of New Jersey,"
passed in 1760. She said the new law constitutes "an advancement
as important today as the construction of the first fireproof vaults
to protect New Jersey's colonial archives was nearly 250 years ago."
The initial year of PARIS grants will have an intentionally tight focus to ensure that a sound foundation is laid for strategic broadening of the grant program in future years. First-year funding will support:
The grant program will be competitive, with awards based on applicants' demonstration of need and the quality of their proposals. According to an article in last week's The Record of Bergen County, N.J., Morris County is among those preparing to move paper documents to digitization. All government entities, save the courts, can apply for funding. © Government Technology www.govtech.net
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| COUNTY & MUNICIPAL PRESS RELEASES 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| $1.2 MILLION PARIS GRANT AWARDED TO PASSAIC COUNTY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 7, 2006 Contact: Dolores
Choteborsky PATERSON - The County of Passaic has been awarded $1.2 million in funds for countywide records management in the second year round of State of New Jersey PARIS grants. The county has participated in the Public Archives Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) and the Records Disaster Recovery Triage (Records Direct) to meet strategic and emergency records management, preservation and storage needs of Passaic County and municipal governments. With year two funding of the PARIS Grant, the county will continue to expand imaging projects in the constitution offices of County Clerk, Sheriff, and Surrogate thus providing the basis for long-term interactivity with municipal, state, and federal agencies. The County of Passaic began the PARIS Grant process as a neophyte in the area of countywide records management. With no centralized records management committee or staff, no written management policies and procedures or record tracking system, and records retention awareness limited to only those directly involved with records, the Administration and Freeholder Board embraced the opportunity PARIS afforded to conduct a County Needs Assessment/Strategic Plan and took the first steps towards establishing a Countywide Records Management System. During the first year of PARIS, funds were concentrated in the Passaic County Constitutional Offices (County Clerk, Sheriff, and Surrogate) for electronic imaging and preservation of records within each department. These projects made records more accessible to the public, increased staff efficiency and permanently preserved the records by retiring them from day-to-day use. The more efficient records management system has resulted in greater efficiency in providing mandated services to the taxpayers of the county while enhancing compliance with the Open Public Records Act. Passaic County will conduct a feasibility study to determine a site for a centralized, countywide record storage center. All county departments as well as the Prosecutor, Constitutional Offices and Passaic County Vicinage of the Superior Court will use this center.
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| COUNTY & MUNICIPAL PRESS RELEASES 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Atlantic County Awarded $1.14 Million to Preserve Archives Tuesday, May 24, 2005 County Executive Dennis Levinson has announced that Atlantic County has been awarded more than $1.14 million from the State Records Committee, Division of Archives and Records Management, as part of a $25 million state grant program to help preserve and secure public archives and records. "While Atlantic County has always been responsible for maintaining and safeguarding its vast collection of records," said Levinson, "a lack of funding has hampered our ability to move forward as quickly as we would have liked to consolidate these records, incorporate new technology and provide the public with easier access. This award will be instrumental in meeting those challenges." The Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program is the largest of its kind in the nation, providing funding to the state's 21 counties and 12 largest cities to improve the preservation, storage, filing and public accessibility to records, from revenue collected by county clerks for document filing and recording fees. According to Levinson, Atlantic County's inaugural year award of $1,141,799 will be used for preservation and conservation of historic books and maps, the expansion of the existing imaging system, e-filing of land documents, and a needs assessment of the county's historic records. "By electronically imaging our records, we can reduce the number of paper documents that require storage, provide an improved means of preservation, and enhance the efficiency of records retrieval," explained Levinson. The county is presently in the process of transferring its records to a new records center located in a 10,000 square-foot building near the Criminal Court Complex in Mays Landing. The building has the capacity to store approximately 12,000 boxes of records. "I applaud the state for this important initiative that supports Atlantic County's progressive records management program," concluded Levinson. For more information, please call Howard J. Kyle, Chief of Staff, at 609.343.2223.
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| CAMDEN
COUNTY AWARDED PARIS GRANT FOR RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM For Immediate
Release: June 29, 2005 CAMDEN - Camden County has received a $1.36 million state grant to begin a program to preserve county records, streamline operations and provide the public with easier access to government documents, Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. announced. Funded by the NJ Division of Archives and Records Management, the grant, called PARIS - short for Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support - is part of a $25 million grant program awarded statewide to all 21 counties and 12 individual municipalities with populations greater than 75,000. "This grant will help us drive down administrative costs to taxpayers by improving the quality, efficiency and security of filing, storing, accessing and preserving Camden County's records and documents," Cappelli said. PARIS grant monies come from document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks statewide. Launched this year, the annual grant program was approved by the state Legislature in 2003. It is designed to help county and municipal governments improve records management, preservation and archival storage. According to Camden County Clerk James Beach, an estimated 60,000 cubic feet of county records require analysis. Under the first-year grant funds, Clerk's Office land documents and Sheriff's Department and Corrections data will be studied to determine how best to preserve or store the records - either electronically, on microfilm or in protective plastic - and what storage facilities might be needed, he said. Staff education and training on new storage procedures also are funded through the first-year grant, Beach said. "Rowing creates opportunities for young men and women and opens doors that may otherwise be inaccessible to them. Crew develops camaraderie and teamwork, and some colleges also offer rowing scholarships," Ms. Cummings continued. "Our main objective is to build a facility that will benefit our children and create the opportunities for our students to participate in a sport they have never had a chance to take part in." Freeholder Director Cappelli said electronic alternatives to the present handling of paperwork would greatly improve county operations. "By indexing our records and streamlining our processes through modern technologies, we create a more efficient workplace and a user-friendly environment in which the public can quickly and easily obtain documents, such as land records and OPRA (Open Public Records Act) requests," Cappelli said. In addition to increasing the level of services to residents, the new records management plan will preserve the county's historically valuable documents. "We have records dating back to 1844," said County Clerk Beach. "This grant will allow Camden County to preserve its important documents so that they will be readable for generations to come," he said.
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| CAPE MAY COUNTY RECEIVES GRANT TOTALING $1,481,859 Release Date: May 25, 2005 Cape May Court House – Cape May County Freeholder Director Daniel Beyel is pleased to announce that the County of Cape May has received a grant in the amount of $1,481,859 from the State Records Committee. The Board of Chosen Freeholders adopted a resolution on Tuesday, May 24, 2005 accepting the grant from the Committee. The Committee awarded the County of Cape May the money under the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) Grant Program. The PARIS Grant Program provides support to county and municipal governments to assist in improving archives, records management, and preservation and storage of records. The Program is funded through state fees collected on real estate transactions. To-date the state has awarded over $25,000,000 in grants to counties and municipalities with populations greater than 75,000 persons and plans to continue awarding the grants on an annual basis. The State Records Committee noted within the award that “Cape May County is exemplary in its use of PARIS grant funding to enhance a solid commitment to an institutionalized and active archives and records management program.” Cape May County received funding for the establishment of a Regional Records Recovery Center, Archives and Records Management Training, Standardization of Document Imaging, Archival Preservation, Records Storage Center Space Enhancement, and upgrades to the County Clerks E-filing Portal and Professional Training. All elements of the 2005 Grant are projected to be completed prior to June 30, 2006
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| COUNTY TO ACCEPT $1.4 MILLION PRESERVATION & ARCHIVE RETREIVAL GRANT Date: 01-Jun-05 (Woodbury, NJ)- Gloucester County Freeholder Director Stephen M. Sweeney announced today that Gloucester County will accept the $1,446,481 grant from the New Jersey Division of Archives and Records Management State Records Committee at the regularly scheduled Freeholder meeting tonight. The grant will be used to preserve and electronically record the county's records. This is the first year that the grant, whose monies were collected by revenue generated from recording fees from County Clerk's throughout New Jersey, was awarded by the State Records Committee. The county's award of the $1.4 million PARIS grant for Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support is one of the largest in the state. "Although today we live in an information and technology age, just as short as two decades ago we did not," said Sweeney. "It is as vital that we preserve the county's records of the 20th century as those of the 18th century. The PARIS grant will allow the county to archive and electronically record and preserve documents so that they will be usable and readable in perpetuity," stated Sweeney. Sweeney said, "The Surrogate's Office has at least twenty books from the 1700's that are literally disintegrating. These books mainly contain inventories of estates that executors would have catalogued for value. These books are still used today, mainly for genealogy, and through this grant they will be rebound, cleaned and conserved in a way that will allow them to be usable without causing further damage," the Freeholder Director said. "There are about twenty projects that the county will use this grant for to preserve our oldest documents, create disaster and recovery systems for electronic storage, enhancing our records storage space, and other preservation," said Freeholder Director Sweeney. Freeholder Director Sweeney noted that other projects that the grant will be utilized for include: disaster and recovery system at the County's Clayton Complex, records recovery, an electronic document management system, microfilming mortgage books, naturalization records and back file microfilming deeds in the County Clerk's Office, microfiche to microfilm conversion in the Surrogate's Office, image conversion and off-site microfilm storage for the county records, assessment and preservation of highway maps, inventory of records of the Gloucester County Historical Society and for a Records Manager and Records Analyst. In 2003 the legislature established the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Account and provided a funding source through certain document filing and recording fees collected by the county clerks. The State Records Committee created the PARIS Grants program in December of 2004 for the purpose of having the 21 counties apply annually for the competitive grants for achieving and recording. The grant begins July 1st and runs on the states' fiscal year. "I have to thank our PARIS Committee, who was comprised of the County's Data Management Office, the County Clerk's Office, the Surrogate's Office, the Prosecutor's Office, the Clerk of the Board's Office and Administration for working together to identify, prioritize, strategically plan and successfully apply for the $1.4 million grant for preserve ring our history and documents," the Freeholder Director concluded.
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STATE GRANT TO HELP COUNTY'S RECORD KEEPING PROCEDURES; COUNTY CLERK TO JOIN E-FILING TOMS RIVER - With the founding of Ocean County in 1850, came the creation of records - many, many records. Sometimes so many records, the question of what to do with all of them becomes a difficult one to answer. Ocean County will use almost $1.4 million from a state grant to help modernize the storage and distribution, including the use of Internet technologies, of volumes of public records dating back to its beginnings. "This money will help enhance our current work of maintaining the volumes of records produced by county government and its related agencies," said Freeholder James F. Lacey, who serves as liaison to the Office of the County Clerk. "We also will enhance the filing of deeds and other property records at the County Clerk's Office by implementing e-filing." The grant money comes from the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Account, which derives its funding from filing and recording fees collected by the county clerks. The state Records Committee adopted rule in December 2004 creating the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) Grants Program in the Division of Archives and Records Management for the purpose of administering competitive grants to the state's local governments. "The PARIS Grants Program is geared to help county and municipal governments establish archives and records management, preservation and storage programs," said Joseph Harding, Director of Ocean County's Department of Budget and Management. "In addition, the grant money can be used to enhance existing programs and reap efficiencies and economies of scale through intra- and intergovernmental partnering in shared facilities and services." According to the state, PARIS grants will help counties and municipalities build and improve their records programs. The grants are not intended to maintain programs at status quo. Of the $1.4 million expected to be received by Ocean County, $249,800 will be used for preservation and conservation allowing the county to conduct a detailed needs assessment and conserve historical records. About $624,000 of the grant will be used for backlog imaging and certification, allowing the county to microfilm select records, allowing for the original paper records to be destroyed. In addition, the grant will provide funds, about $370,000 to allow the County Clerk's Office to join the e-filing portal sponsored by neighboring Monmouth County. "The portal allows for the filing and viewing of land records, including deeds and mortgages," Harding said. In addition, grant money totaling almost $150,000 will be used by the county to conduct a facility study of several county buildings, with the goal of identifying one for record retention use. "This money will be used to ensure the proper handling and keeping of records into the future of this County," Lacey said. "It will help us with storage and distribution." The grant projects can start July 1, 2005 and all work on grant projects must be completed by Friday, June 30, 2006.
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Freeholders Accept PARIS Grant of Over $1.4 Million. Passaic County awarded the 5th Highest Amount in State. June 1, 2005 Paterson, NJ - Passaic County Freeholders acted on a resolution accepting a grant for $1,443,078 at their May 24th meeting. The Public Archives Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant application was submitted to the New Jersey Department of State in March and was awarded in May. The grant was competitive with awards based on the applicant's demonstration of the need and the quality ofproposals. "Passaic County is very proud of this grant award and we commend the county departments involved for their hard work. Our grants administrator, Fran Purciello worked day and night to prepare this challenging application and as a result we received the 5th highest amount in the state," said Freeholder Director Elease Evans. Below is the breakdown of projects and the award amount associated with those projects.
The PARIS grant will allow various county departments to archive and maintain accurate records management. For example, the Offices of the County Surrogate and the County Clerk will use the funds for electronic imaging of active records and restoration and preservation of historical records. The Surrogate Court has public information record books dating back to the 1800's, many of which are in poor condition. The funds awarded will also be used to restore these historical records, which are often accessed by the public for genealogy purposes. The County Clerk's office will also expand their electronic recording of land records. Upon learning of the award, Surrogate William J. Bate stated, "The modernization of the Passaic County Surrogate Court through the implementation of an electronic imaging system will provide for a more efficient records management system which will result in greater efficiency in providing our mandated services to the taxpayers of Passaic County and in our interrelated and cooperating work relationship with the other twenty county Surrogate Courts and the State of New Jersey," The Passaic County Sheriffs Department will also benefit from the grant funds. Electronic Fingerprint Capture, Storage and retrieval and criminal identification and imaging and document management are the focus of this year's initiative. "This grant will enable the County to better centralize our identification system," said Sheriff Speziale. "Because County tax dollars will not be utilized for much of this program, our receipt of the grant amounts to local property tax relief for our citizens." Over $110,000 will be allocated for a needs assessment and strategic plan for records management and preservation for the entire county. All county departments will be included in this records survey and program planning. The overall use of this years PARIS grant will provide the foundation for the county to expand and broaden the use of technology and provide county residents easier access to the public documents and assist the county in more effective record management. "As we continue to use technology to assist us in efficiently operating Passaic County, we will look forward to the day when many more public documents can be accessed through the county website," concluded Freeholder Director Elease Evans.
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| COUNTY AWARDED OVER $1 MILLION IN PARIS GRANT FUNDING News from
SALEM COUNTY Salem County is awarded $1,055,290 for grant programs to meet the strategic records management, preservation, storage needs and shared services with local municipalities... For Complete Press Release Click Here...
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| Somerset County Historical Records Preserved News from
the Somerset County Surrogate’s Office SOMERVILLE – A project to restore and preserve more than 100 books in the Somerset County Surrogate’s Office has recently been completed. The historical records that were preserved include wills and estate files dating back as early as 1804. “In the 1800s, all records were handwritten by the surrogate. These documents were in very poor condition and at risk of being lost forever,” said Surrogate Frank Bruno. “The books may be the best examples of how the residents lived in an agrarian society of Somerset County,” he said. “The books are in sequential order and contain detailed descriptions of past estates.” “Residents rely on county governments to maintain public records to safeguard property and civil rights and to preserve family and county history, “ said Surrogate Bruno. “We are pleased that the preservation of these public records has been so successful.” Brown’s River Records Preservation Services in Essex, Vermont, performed the restoration work, which commenced in 2003. The Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders provided funding for the initial phase of the project, which addressed the oldest and most fragile records. Additional preservation work will be done with a grant from the NJ Division of Archives and Records Management through the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program, which includes $111,000 for the restoration of documents in the Surrogate’s Office. For more information, contact Surrogate Frank Bruno at 908.231.7003
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County Wins $1-M State Grant for State-of-the-Art Record-Keeping, Accessing Projects June 2, 2005
Union County has received more than $1 million in state grants for projects to launch public record-keeping into the 21st century with technical and strategic improvements. The Board of Chosen Freeholders formally accepted the grants at its meeting Thursday evening. The $1,010,639 in grants came from New Jersey’s pioneering Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) Program. The funds will be divided between the record-keeping functions of the Union County Clerk and the Clerk of the Board of Chosen Freeholders. Launched earlier this year, PARIS is New Jersey’s first statewide initiative to boost the efficiency, integrity and security of public records systems at the County and municipal levels. “The funds we have secured through this competitive grant program will help us preserve 150 years of historical government archives,” Freeholder Chairman Rick Proctor said. Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi’s office keeps County records and land-use documents dating back to the County’s founding in 1857, when it split from Essex County. “The records we preserve are not stale pieces of paper. They directly affect the lives of millions of people by preserving the integrity of ownership and providing an understanding of the rich history of our County and our local communities,” Rajoppi said. Rajoppi’s office has been a leader in using technology to make its services more accessible to the public. It is in the process of becoming one of the first offices in New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area to accept electronic real estate documents for official recording – a step that will save the county tens of thousands of dollars over the next year alone. “The PARIS grants will increase our ability to use advanced computer imaging processes, data retrieval systems and other new technologies to make filing, storing and accessing vital public records and valuable historic archives much more efficient and affordable,” Rajoppi said. The PARIS program also encourages County and municipal governments to explore opportunities to partner in cooperative archives and records-management ventures, including shared services and facilities. “We will continue to pursue measures to save taxpayer dollars while improving government services,” said Freeholder Angel G. Estrada.
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Woodbridge Receives Records Assessment
Grant from State Archive WOODBRIDGE – Woodbridge Township has received $46,543 for a public records needs assessment and strategic planning process grant, Mayor Frank G. Pelzman has announced. The funding comes from the state’s pioneering Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. According to Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas, more than $25 million has been awarded to the state’s 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities for strategic improvements in public archives and records management. “We greatly appreciate this commitment toward helping us continue to upgrade our records management,” says Mayor Pelzman. “We have already automated our Building Department records and achieved significant savings in time and expense that are passed on to the taxpayer. The PARIS grant will help us expand that efficiency to other departments, especially those that directly service residents.” According to Karl J. Niederer, State Records Committee Secretary, “ PARIS grants will address the need for building and improving the infrastructure of county and municipal records systems statewide.” New Jersey’s local governments will use grant funds to boost the efficiency of filing, storing and accessing public records, preserve valuable archives and drive down the administrative cost to taxpayers. Currently, says Niederer, PARIS grants are available to all counties and cities with populations of 75,000 or more. PARIS funding will eventually be available to all municipalities in New Jersey. Funded by document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks, PARIS is a key component of the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Program established by the state legislature in 2003. Grants are awarded by the State Records Committee, which comprises the State Treasurer, Attorney General, State Auditor, Director of Local Government Services (DCA) and the Director of the Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM). Both programs will be administered by DARM, a division of the Department of State. From the municipal perspective, the timing of the grant couldn’t better, says Michael Esolda, Chief Information Officer of Woodbridge Township and Woodbridge Township School District . “Imaging and archiving technology is changing rapidly and providing new opportunities for municipalities to consolidate their paper and electronic records. This planning phase will let us take a very close look at municipal-wide document management systems and effective records storage policies and procedures.” Secretary of State Thomas, whose department oversees the administration of state and local public records, compares the impact of PARIS to that of New Jersey’s historic first records law, An Act for the Preservation of the Public Records of the Colony of New Jersey, passed in 1760. “The new grant program constitutes an advancement as important today as the construction of the first fireproof vaults to protect New Jersey’s colonial archives nearly 250 years ago,” she says.
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| DARM PRESS RELEASES | ||||||||||||||||||||
LOCAL
PUBLIC RECORDS AND ARCHIVES
UPGRADES AHEAD (TRENTON, NEW JERSEY) A new state grant program will begin transforming the quality, efficiency and security of local public recordkeeping in New Jersey. The New Jersey State Records Committee today voted to award more than $25 million in grants to the state’s 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities for strategic improvements in public archives and records management. The grants were authorized through the state’s pioneering Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. Nearly eighty state, county, and local officials were on hand at the State Records Center in Ewing as the Committee voted on the awards. Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas, whose department oversees the administration of state and local public records, hailed the Committee’s action, comparing the impact of PARIS to that of New Jersey’s historic first records law, “An Act for the Preservation of the Publick Records of the Colony of New Jersey,” passed in 1760. She said the new grant program constitutes “an advancement as important today as the construction of the first fireproof vaults to protect New Jersey’s colonial archives was nearly 250 years ago.” Authorized by the Legislature in 2003 and launched in 2005, PARIS is by far the largest competitive grant program of its kind in the nation. It represents New Jersey’s first statewide initiative to boost the efficiency, integrity and security of public records systems at the county and municipal level. It will help to preserve more than three centuries of historical government archives, and promote intergovernmental sharing of services and facilities. “County and municipal governments function as regional and local service providers to New Jersey’s citizens,” said Secretary Thomas. “An essential, yet unsung service they provide is recordkeeping. The records counties, cities and towns preserve and make available every day directly affect the lives of millions as well as the understanding we have of the rich history of our state and our local communities. PARIS provides the resources needed to do the job right.” PARIS, will fund major advancements in county and municipal government archives and records programs statewide. According to Karl J. Niederer, State Records Committee Secretary, “PARIS grants will address the need for building and improving the infrastructure of county and municipal records systems enterprise-wide.” New Jersey’s local governments will use grant funds to boost the efficiency of filing, storing and accessing public records, preserve valuable archives, and drive down the administrative cost to taxpayers. “The advanced technology and tools are available,” Niederer said, “and PARIS makes them affordable to cash-strapped counties and municipalities.” PARIS encourages county and municipal governments to explore opportunities to partner in cooperative archives and records management ventures, including shared services and facilities. In this strategic vision the 21 county governments have a key role, each serving as a regional hub for records management, preservation and storage services, and most municipalities will be able to utilize their county’s records facilities and services for convenient, secure offsite storage, document imaging services, electronic records systems backup, etc. The largest cities and townships may find it advisable to establish their own facilities and services. Statewide, the counties and largest municipalities figure to play strategic roles in transforming local records administration, so the first round of PARIS grants will focus in this area. “Citizens rely on county and local governments to meet an almost limitless range of information needs from public records,” Thomas commented. “Well kept, easily accessible records are indispensable for government to be efficient, credible and accountable in serving the public, for safeguarding individual property and civil rights, and even for our citizens to discover their families' histories. And this is only a short list of the many uses made of New Jersey’s local government records.” This year, counties were eligible to apply for up to $1.5 million for a wide variety of records projects. Cities and townships with populations of 75,000 or more were eligible to apply for a maximum of $50,000 to conduct a comprehensive records program needs assessment and strategic plan. PARIS funding will eventually be available to all municipalities. Funded by document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks, PARIS is a key component of the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Program established by the state legislature in July 2003. Grants are awarded by the State Records Committee, which comprises the State Treasurer, Attorney General, State Auditor, Director of Local Government Services (DCA), and the Director of the Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM). Both programs will be administered by DARM, a division of the Department of State. For a complete listing of New Jersey’s first PARIS grants to counties and municipalities, visit http://www.njarchives.org/links/paris.html#fy2005award. |
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The
Press Articles
| Contact Information: | ||||
| Jennifer
Petrino, Administrator, PARIS Grants Program |
2300
Stuyvesant Avenue P.O. Box 307 Trenton, NJ 08625-0307 |
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