DALTON, Mass. — The town is exploring digitizing its records to improve documents organization and accessibility, while reducing the need for physical storage space.

 

Digitization and storage is an issue that the town encounters, more often than they would like, and has become increasingly apparent through the ongoing work of the Stormwater Management Commission, Chair Thomas Irwin told the Select Board in April.

 

"[The commission has] repeatedly struggled to determine what documents exist, access past commission records, and identify a secure searchable location for records we continue to generate," he said. 

 

Currently, the town's Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) documents are primarily stored on a Google documents account managed on a Berkshire Regional Planning Commission computer and, to a lesser extent, the stormwater management webpage, Irwin said.

 

"For obvious reasons, this is concerning. As Dalton moves toward full MS4 compliance, both the number and the size of these records will increase," he said.

 

He estimated that the stormwater commission alone will initially store at least 50 documents, but the issue extends farther than this department. 

 

"Recently, the Planning Board spent many hours searching for the east of the pond drawing and the 1992 land court decision related to Crane and Company, Petricca Industries Inc., and the Town of Dalton," Irwin said.