State archive expert raises concerns about county record storage facility

A state archive expert says Luzerne County’s leased records storage facility in downtown Wilkes-Barre raises many concerns, particularly a lack of climate control that is damaging to records.

“The more the paper is subjected to temperature fluctuations, the more damage that is going to be done to that paper,” archivist Susan Hartman told members of the county records improvement committee Tuesday.

“It’s sort of a rather expensive attic in the way it is incorporated now.”

The rented space in the Thomas C. Thomas building on Union Street also has a hole in the wall that allows pigeons to enter, she said. Some shelves are not lined up with the fire sprinkler system, and the layout of the shelves, storage cages and pallets doesn’t maximize space, which means the county is paying for more space than it needs, she said.

Records that are eligible for destruction are also unnecessarily eating up costly leased space, she said.

“We feel that some improvement should be made, if possible, to Luzerne’s record facility, especially for the permanently valuable records – the deeds, the wills, mortgages,” Hartman said.

The report card was disappointing in light of the nearly $1 million paid to an outside records consultant and others to organize records in recent years. The expenses, which are being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, came out of a special fund that’s supposed to be used to preserve and improve records.

The fund, which is built from a property deed recording fee, has also been tapped in recent years to fund the $103,100 annual rent of the Thomas C. Thomas building to store records, which amounts to $2.88 per square foot.

Commissioners had tabled a vote in February to continue leasing the Thomas C. Thomas for several more years. The building’s owner is offering to charge the county about $12,888 less per year because a Kingston property owner had submitted a proposal to lease the county storage space for $2.52 per square foot.

Hartman said county officials must determine whether the Thomas C. Thomas building is suitable, and if so, whether improvements need to be made.

“Overall it appears that the storage space, though large and convenient, is possibly too expensive in looking at what other counties are paying for leased storage and what you’re getting for that space,” said Hartman, who has extensively researched county record facilities throughout the state.

Hartman and state archivist Jerry Ellis toured the facility last week and presented their findings Tuesday at the request of committee member Carolee Medico Olenginski, the county prothonotary.

Hartman and Ellis provided the assessment at no cost to the county and also noted that the Luzerne County Commissioners’ Office had failed to take advantage of the state’s past offer to provide two months of records organization assistance from a federally-funded archivist.

Tuesday’s meeting was scheduled in an attempt to regroup in light of Clerk of Courts Robert Reilly’s resignation as committee chairman due to the federal bribery charge against him. Reilly is also giving up his post as clerk of courts, effective Friday.

Federal prosecutors allege Reilly steered work to contractor Barton Weidlich in exchange for $1,500 in kickbacks. Most of Weidlich’s payments were out of the record fund and stayed hidden until earlier this year because Reilly paid the company through an outside records consultant, Wayne, Pa.-based LRW Solutions Group, also known as Little Red Wagon.

Reilly has maintained he didn’t obtain public votes authorizing payments to Weidlich and others because fellow record improvement committee members failed to attend meetings - a claim that at least two other members deny.

Roughly $37,516.85 remains in the fund, and it will continue to grow as new deeds are recorded. Recorder of Deeds James “Red” O’Brien said Tuesday that roughly $7,000 is added to the fund each month.

County Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, who did not attend Tuesday’s meeting due to a scheduling mix-up, was nominated committee chairman. Contacted after the meeting, Urban said he will accept the post.

Medico Olenginski, who had offered to be committee chairwoman, was elected vice chairwoman.

Hartman also advised the group to consider hiring a staff records manager. All other similarly sized counties have a staff person overseeing records, and the salary could be paid by the fund, she said.

The county also needs to identify records that must be kept or discarded and establish which records need “special care and environment,” she said.

While some counties lease space for records storage, others have opted to store them in county-owned facilities. Some of these facilities have become central locations for the public to access records for historical and genealogical research.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.

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Luzerne County Government

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