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Council approves large-format scanner amid urgent discussion of Village Hall electrical hazards
Summary
Clerk Lucero won council approval to buy a large-format scanner to digitize brittle blueprints and records, but trustees also flagged apparent electrical and fire-safety hazards in Village Hall and agreed to immediate safety assessments and steps to move vulnerable records to safer storage.
Clerk Lucero told the Village of Romeo Board of Trustees on Jan. 27 that the village holds thousands of blueprints and other archival materials that are brittle, stored near a furnace and at risk of loss. She presented a $6,893 quote for a large-format scanner and said digitization would preserve records and reduce fire risk over time.
"We have probably the better half of 5,000 blueprints that we need to scan," Clerk Lucero said, noting older vellum and brittle documents that break when handled. She asked the council to authorize purchase of a scanner and to consider short-term storage or shredding-of-scanned originals to eliminate combustibles.
Trustees and staff questioned whether buying a scanner before addressing immediate electrical and fire hazards in Village Hall was prudent. Trustee Parker and others described loose electrical boxes, overloaded surge protectors and other code concerns and urged the president to authorize an urgent safety assessment and corrective work. President Panski said she would arrange assessments and that the village would seek grants or use department budgets to address building infrastructure.
The board approved the scanner purchase by majority vote with one opposed trustee (Parker) noting fiscal caution given building-safety concerns. Multiple trustees said they want records moved to climate-controlled storage or a temporary site (e.g., archival storage vendor) while scanning proceeds. Clerk Lucero said scanned originals could then be destroyed where appropriate to eliminate fire load and preserve the record.
What this means: the village will begin digitization of historical records and pursue safety remediation and possible off-site storage; trustees agreed to pursue infrastructure grants and to have the president arrange emergency safety assessments.
