KINGWOOD — The Preston County Circuit Clerk’s Office received a grant to help digitize records.
The records management grant is from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture & History for $13,640, County Administrator Kathy Mace told county commissioners at their most recent meeting.
There is a 10% match for the grant, which was accounted for in the upcoming budget, which takes effect July 1, Mace said. It will be used to scan and digitize civil cases from 2005-16 and to purchase shelving.
Circuit Clerk Lisa Leishman said since 2016, the cases have been scanned into the system as they come in.
Having cases in a digital format saves her staff time when a case file is needed — they can simply type in a case number rather than having to hunt down a physical file. Leishman’s office stores records in three places — upstairs in the courthouse, downstairs in the courthouse and off-site.
“These records that we have the grant for are stored downstairs in another room. So therefore, when we get these files scanned into our system we’ll be able to remove those files from the building and take them into a different storage area,” Leishman said. “It’s almost like shifting things around. You know, I have files upstairs now that need to go downstairs, my downstairs files need to go to another area. So this grant will help with that part; relieve some of the storage problems.”
Storage is an issue, Leishman said.
By law, files for civil cases that are dismissed must be kept for five years. A tort or contract case needs to be kept for 50 years and real property rights must be kept forever, according to the records retention schedule.
Leishman said she appreciates the grant and the storage relief it will provide. Scanning the documents will be a process, but it’s a process that needs to be done and her staff will work at it.
All three commissioners voted to accept the grant.
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