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Beaver County reviews high costs tied to records storage and possible destruction or relocation
Summary
County staff told commissioners the county pays thousands monthly for off-site digital storage and faces six-figure costs to move or purge tens of thousands of cubic feet of records; staff will produce a detailed report and recommendations for departments.
Beaver County officials said at a Jan. 22 work session that the county is paying thousands of dollars monthly for digital storage tied to multiple departments and faces large costs to move or destroy decades of paper records.
A county records staff member told commissioners, "We're paying 5,000 a month for 4 offices to do some type of digital storage." The staff member said four departments are charged monthly and that the county needs to determine what those fees cover. Based on an inventory the staff member described as "close to 25 to 26,000 cubic feet," the staff member estimated moving the material to a new facility or clearing it out would cost "over to a hundred and $50,000 to move." Destroying some material would be slightly less expensive but still substantial.
Staff said some records are permanent — such as assessment and monitoring files or certain court and clerk records — while others are marked for destruction under retention guidelines. The records staff member said they were reviewing the holdings, checking retention schedules and planned to make recommendations to each department about what can be destroyed and what must be retained.
Commissioners discussed options that included using a temporary facility or shredding material on-site with a shred truck while planning for a permanent repository. The records staff member noted that the state provides guidelines for how long different kinds of documents should be retained and said the county will bring specific recommendations and cost estimates back to the board.
No formal action was taken at the work session; staff said they will finalize a report and present suggested next steps and budget implications to commissioners.
