Deerfield ironing out agreement with museum to store records

By CHRIS LARABEE

Staff Writer

Published: 02-06-2023 10:47 AM

DEERFIELD — Following a radiator leak last year in the 1888 Building that initially raised the state’s concern about protecting historical records from potential damage, the town is working out a deal with the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA) to store, archive and digitize the records.

Town Administrator Kayce Warren said she has been communicating with PVMA Executive Director Tim Neumann about an agreement between the town and museum to collect the thousands of historical documents dating back to the 17th century, to store them at the museum and to upload them to an online database. This effort would accomplish PVMA’s mission of historical preservation and satisfy state requirements around maintaining records.

Speaking by phone this week, Neumann said they are still ironing out specific details of the agreement, such as how records would be managed and how records requests would be handled, but PVMA would welcome the opportunity to handle the documents. The museum already stores a portion of the town’s records.

“It’s what PVMA does. Those records are important to our work and others. … We’re looking forward to doing that if it is at all possible,” Neumann said. “It’s being seriously pursued by both parties and we’re moving into the nuts and bolts of how this would work.”

The radiator leak — which occurred in a room separate from the vault in the 1888 Building, also known as the former South County Senior Center building — posed little risk to the records. However, a quick phone call kicked off a series of circumstances that attracted attention from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Peter Thomas, a retired historian who is now undertaking several of the town’s 350th celebration initiatives, had been creating digital copies of the documents stored in the vault and upon noticing the leak called a contact working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA then contacted the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, which contacted the Secretary of State’s Office in turn. Thomas had worked for FEMA for several years and was seeking friendly advice.

“I think what happened is the woman at FEMA actually called the Secretary of State’s Office,” Thomas said in February 2022. “I may have started something I didn’t want to.”

Warren said the agreement with PVMA would greatly benefit the town because digitizing records and uploading them to the internet means less time where staff are digging through documents for public records requests.

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

“If it’s stored somewhere that someone can get to it online, that’s what I tell people to do,” Warren said at the Jan. 27 Selectboard meeting.

If the town and museum come to an agreement, Neumann said PVMA will not charge the town.

“There may be expenses that need to be covered, but there would be no charges,” Neumann said, noting an example of potential expenses would be treating the documents for mold. “This is what we do. … We are Deerfield’s historical society.”

The Secretary of State’s Office has a number of requirements for storing and allowing access to records, including permanently retaining specific documents, such as Town Meeting records, Planning Board records and street listings, among numerous other documents, according to the agency’s retention schedule.

Once records are moved from the 1888 Building to PVMA, Neumann said the museum will begin determining what records may need to be prioritized for digitization.

“A lot of the work in a digitizing project is in the analysis of what you have,” he said.

With PVMA offering preliminary support for the agreement, the Selectboard signaled its satisfaction with moving forward as well. Before the agreement is executed, Neumann noted the museum’s board of directors will have to vote to approve it.

“They keep it in a good place to store, but they’ll also digitize it,” Selectboard member Carolyn Shores Ness said. “They’re doing it at no charge for us — that’s huge.”

Neumann said there’s no exact timeline for when the agreement would be ready, but he said it may be “soon.”

]]>