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Woodbridge Receives Records Assessment Grant from State Archive

Mayor Cites Ongoing Need to Upgrade Vital Records, Streamline Archiving Process

WOODBRIDGE – Woodbridge Township has received $46,543 for a public records needs assessment and strategic planning process grant, Mayor Frank G. Pelzman has announced.

The funding comes from the state’s pioneering Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. According to Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas, more than $25 million has been awarded to the state’s 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities for strategic improvements in public archives and records management.

“We greatly appreciate this commitment toward helping us continue to upgrade our records management,” says Mayor Pelzman. “We have already automated our Building Department records and achieved significant savings in time and expense that are passed on to the taxpayer. The PARIS grant will help us expand that efficiency to other departments, especially those that directly service residents.”

According to Karl J. Niederer, State Records Committee Secretary, “ PARIS grants will address the need for building and improving the infrastructure of county and municipal records systems statewide.” New Jersey’s local governments will use grant funds to boost the efficiency of filing, storing and accessing public records, preserve valuable archives and drive down the administrative cost to taxpayers.

Currently, says Niederer, PARIS grants are available to all counties and cities with populations of 75,000 or more. PARIS funding will eventually be available to all municipalities in New Jersey.

Funded by document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks, PARIS is a key component of the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Program established by the state legislature in 2003. Grants are awarded by the State Records Committee, which comprises the State Treasurer, Attorney General, State Auditor, Director of Local Government Services (DCA) and the Director of the Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM). Both programs will be administered by DARM, a division of the Department of State.

From the municipal perspective, the timing of the grant couldn’t better, says Michael Esolda, Chief Information Officer of Woodbridge Township and Woodbridge Township School District . “Imaging and archiving technology is changing rapidly and providing new opportunities for municipalities to consolidate their paper and electronic records. This planning phase will let us take a very close look at municipal-wide document management systems and effective records storage policies and procedures.”

Secretary of State Thomas, whose department oversees the administration of state and local public records, compares the impact of PARIS to that of New Jersey’s historic first records law, An Act for the Preservation of the Public Records of the Colony of New Jersey, passed in 1760. “The new grant program constitutes an advancement as important today as the construction of the first fireproof vaults to protect New Jersey’s colonial archives nearly 250 years ago,” she says.