What To Keep? What To Discard? Remegia Mitchell Chair, Planning and Zoning Board

Village Records
Study Underway,
Thanks To
NYS Grant

Is there a householder or business owner who hasn’t felt overwhelmed by the burden of accumulated paper? Even in this age of silicone chips, every computer user sooner or later needs to empty an electronic wastebasket.

Imagine the size and heft of Pittsford Village’s accumulated
records! Think of it: more than 100 years’ worth of financial records (taxes and sewer bills), building reports, personnel records, minutes of board and committee meetings, and general correspondence detailing the myriad transactions required to keep a municipality functioning.

Now, a $13,058, eight-month Archival Record grant from the NYS Department of Education is funding an effort to inventory and assess all Village records. Using data found in the MU1 Schedule Manual provided by the state, each item (paper or electronic) will be examined and assigned a “retention rate.” That rate will determine the length of time — in months or years—that an item must be saved.

“Our plan is to set up a system of periodic review, so that we can permanently save historically important records and discard those that have reached the end of their usefulness,” says Remegia Mitchell. Mitchell, chair of the Planning and Zoning Board, is now at work on the inventory and assessment.