It’s a lot of paper.
Centre Wellington council has authorized the hiring of a temporary employee for nine months to bring to together the paper records from five municipalities in order to decide what must be kept and what can be destroyed.
Deputy-Clerk Kerry O’Kane told the personnel committee that council had established a budget of $50,000 for the work in 2008, and another $10,000 in the operating budget for records management.
The township now has stored its documents in the former West Garafraxa municipal office.
O’Kane would work with the temporary employee for July and August, after which the employee would work alone on the records. The hourly rate will run between $18 and $20, and the contract person will have to be accurate, careful, and able to recognize the importance and value of records.
Chief Administrative Officer Michael Wood told the committee that someone with experience in a municipal clerk’s office would have an understanding of the work.
Clerk Marion Morris said in an interview on Monday that O’Kane has already made a start on the work, but there is a great deal of it.
“The accumulated paper of all the municipalities is dumped in one spot,” she said of the old township office.
Morris added, “It has been moved a couple of times. It needs to be cleared up. We’ll get the backlog done.”
And, she said, after that, the township will have to develop a method of storing municipal records for Centre Wellington. She said she suspects that will be an electronic set up.
“We need to get one it before it gets too big,” Morris said.
Council unanimously endorsed the move to hire a temporary worker.
