Terrebonne council discusses replacing broken Cardex filing carousel, asks staff for quotes

The Terrebonne Parish Budget & Finance Committee agreed to seek pricing and options after members raised concerns about a failed Cardex vertical carousel that stores council records.

Councilman Steve Harding, who placed the item on the agenda, said the machine is currently stuck and replacement will take months. "If we actually replace the cabinet that we have right now, it's gonna take 5 months for it to come in," Harding said. Harding estimated replacement and transfer costs could range from around $60,000 to more than $100,000.

Members weighed three paths: replace the unit, remove the mechanism and convert the existing cabinet for manual storage, or digitize archived records. Clayton Wazen suggested retaining the old unit for manual storage and placing a new machine in a secure "safe room" to preserve hard copies. "There was a possibility that it could have been turned into more of a manual machine where we could continue to use it for storage," Wazen said.

Council staff told members purchasing has been tasked with collecting quotes. "It is going to come from one of our budgeted accounts in our capital improvements for now," a staff member said when asked about funding. Several council members asked staff to return with comparative quotes showing (1) cost to replace the machine and move files, (2) cost to convert the existing unit to manual storage, and (3) cost to digitize records if allowed by state archives protocols.

Parish legal staff noted state archives rules govern hard-record archiving and that an approved protocol would be required for offsite storage of original documents. The committee did not take formal action beyond asking staff to compile options and pricing; council members said they will follow up offline and revisit the matter when quotes are available.