Nantucket seeks $250,000 to finish townwide scanning project and cover relocation costs

Town administration asked the Capital Committee on Nov. 6 for $250,000 to complete the townwide electronic document management program and to pay for temporary relocation and access services during a planned town‑building renovation.

Deputy Town Manager Greg Tilden, who presented the request, said the project began in 2019 with a $100,000 appropriation and that the town has since appropriated about $1.9 million in total. Tilden said the town has an executed $1.4 million contract with Iron Mountain to scan legacy records and that the first significant shipment — 2,695 boxes containing roughly 2.4 million pages — began Oct. 20. “We have already spent about $641,000,” Tilden said, and Iron Mountain had received one payment to date of about $81,000.

The $250,000 request is intended to: finish scanning for smaller departments (town administration, housing, human resources); cover temporary relocation and handling of records while the town building undergoes renovation; and pay for additional quality‑assurance work identified during beta testing. Tilden told the committee the Iron Mountain contract and the vendor’s design work were delayed earlier in the year by transport problems, and that the town will not destroy any original records until staff have verified the scanned images.

On where boxes are going, Tilden said most materials are being sent to Iron Mountain’s Framingham, Mass., facility and that oversized or very fragile historical items are routed to a New Jersey facility better equipped for that work. He described the scanning workflow: the vendor indexes batches so staff can flag unreadable pages, the planning director and project managers review sample images, and the town will store originals in Iron Mountain’s facility until a final retention/shredding decision is approved by staff. “We’re not gonna get rid of any documents. We’re not gonna shred anything until we’re completely fine that we’re happy with the scanning,” Tilden said.

Committee members pressed on retention and access. Staff said town‑clerk records are not included in this contract (the clerk uses a separate vendor and schedule) and that certain records with permanent retention or regulatory requirements cannot be destroyed even after scanning. Tilden said Iron Mountain quoted about $40,000 to store scanned boxes for three years in the Framingham area to allow a safety buffer while the town completes QA.

Officials also described an extra cost the town accepted earlier in the project: paper checks were historically stapled to some documents, so the vendor removed the staples and added an automated redaction check to avoid exposing bank account numbers — an unplanned but necessary step to protect privacy.

No formal committee vote was held on the $250,000 request during the Nov. 6 meeting; staff said the appropriation would be brought back through the normal capital process with detailed invoices and a proposed approach to ensure public access during any building renovation.

Why it matters: the scanning project aims to move historical and frequently requested records into a searchable digital system, improving public access and staff efficiency. Committee members said they want clear estimates of remaining costs, storage timelines and a public communications plan before advancing an appropriation onto a warrant.

Costs and schedule highlights (as presented): - Initial appropriation (2019): $100,000. - Total appropriations to date: about $1.9 million. - Iron Mountain contract: $1.4 million (executed). - Town spending to date: about $641,000; one invoice paid of ~$81,000 after scanning began. - Large shipment started Oct. 20: 2,695 boxes, ~2,400,000 pages; roughly 800,000 pages already removed from the island for scanning. - Iron Mountain temporary storage quote (3 years): ~$40,000. - Town’s requested additional appropriation: $250,000 (to complete small departments and support temporary relocation while the building is renovated).

Staff identified follow‑up items for committee review: an itemized estimate of remaining scanning and relocation costs, a public access/retention policy describing which records will remain in paper and which can be shredded after QA, and a communications plan describing how the public will access scanned materials once validated.

Provenance: presentation and QA discussion began in committee remarks at 00:01:14 and continued through about 00:17:21 of the meeting transcript.

Speakers (selected): Greg Tilden, deputy town manager; Mike Alvarez, IT director; Leslie Snell, planning director; Kevin Manuel, project manager.

Actions taken or noted: the $250,000 capital request was presented to the committee; no formal vote was recorded on Nov. 6.

Ending note: staff said the scanning program could complete major vendor work in early 2025 (the vendor’s schedule targeted March 30 for contract completion) but recommended the committee require a detailed cost estimate and a public‑facing QA summary before approving further appropriations.