Wetzel County has received $14,500 to provide funding for conservation/restoration of permanent County Clerk records. County Clerk Carol Haught says, “We are pleased to receive this funding to continue the restoration and preservation project of Wetzel County books dating back to 1846.”

The Records Management and Preservation Board (RMPB) has awarded $317,858 in grant funds to 30 West Virginia county commissions for county records management and preservation projects through its County Records Management and Preservation Grants program. The board reviewed submissions and made its recommendations in January for projects to improve management, storage conditions, access, and preservation of public records held in several county offices. Following official letters announcing the successful grants, RMPB staff began conducting courthouse site visits to provide technical assistance in setting up the grant project, which officially begins with the new fiscal year July 1. Grant awards range from $3,477 to $26,000.

The RMPB, with its continuing interest in addressing records storage and management issues in the courthouses, announced three grant criteria in its invitation to applicants last September. The three criteria were: conduct a total records inventory and condition assessment, and develop a master records management plan for county records; remove non-records and accumulations of records having reached or exceeded required retention periods; and provide proper and improved storage of and access to permanent records or records with required retention periods in excess of 25 years. The latter will include physical storage to provide proper shelving and/or archival records boxes, and security/preservation microfilm, with a digital imaging combination for enhanced access.

Funding for the County Records Management and Preservation Program is from the filing fees collected by county clerks and deposited in the special Public Records and Preservation Revenue Account. The funds serve as an incentive to county officials to improve the management of their public records and conditions for their preservation. The RMPB was created by the West Virginia Legislature in 2000 to develop uniform county records management programs. Its primary focus is to establish guidelines and provide technical assistance to address the needs of the records of county governments through a uniform records management system and to further encourage adoption of these goals through the county records grant program. In pursuit of these goals, the RMPB authorized a statewide survey and report on the current state of county records, developed rules and a County Records Management Manual for county offices, and sponsored records management workshops for county officials and staffs. The next grant cycle and priorities will be announced Sept. 1 for the fiscal year 2009-2010.

For more information about the Records Management and Preservation Board’s annual grant program or the work of the RMPB, contact Joseph N. Geiger Jr., acting director of the West Virginia State Archives for the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, by phone at (304) 558-0230, ext. 165, by e-mail at joe.geiger@wvculture.org, or by mail at Records Management and Preservation Board, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Building 9, 1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East, Charleston, WV 25305-0300. Information can be accessed electronically at www.wvculture.org/history/rmpb/rmbp.html.

The RMPB Grant Recipients for fiscal year July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009 total $317,858 in grant funds. This represents a minimum of 90 percent of total projects expenditures with counties to provide required match.