December 14, 2005

From: Virginia A. Buechele
P O Box 243
Pleasant Valley, NY 12569
(845) 452-6417

To: Donald Miller, Director
Dutchess County Central Services &
Records Management Officer
27 High Street
Poughkeepsie, New York 12601

cc: Colette Lafuente, County Clerk
William R. Steinhaus, County Executive
Dutchess County Legislature
Dutchess County Historical Society
Geoff Heuf,  Acting Director
NYS Dept. of Education
Gov't Records Services Manager
Records Advisory Services
Linda Bull, NYS Dept. of Education
Regional Advisory Office
Local Government Advisory Services
Ray Lefever, Coordinator
NYS Dept. of Education
Archival Advisory Services
Poughkeepsie Journal
Anthony Farmer
Margaretta Downey
Poughkeepsie Weekly Beat
Elaine Fernandez

Dear Mr. Miller,

I know as Dutchess County's Director of Central Services (Purchasing) and Records Management Officer, you must be one busy man. I often wonder how it is that you can possibly handle both jobs, let alone handle them both well, especially with the number of archival records stored at the Washington Street Facility. Surely proper storage, preservation and handling of the myriad of Dutchess County archival records, as well as servicing the public in this regard, must be a full time task in and of itself. When I see you at legislature meetings I thought perhaps it was my vision that caused me to see double but I guess maybe there really is two of you! How do you do that?

Since you seem to dispute my claims in the Beat article, I deem it important here to bring to your attention my most recent experience with the inappropriate handling of some of our earliest historical documents; most often referred to as "Ancient Documents". Although you say your facility is adequate, climate controlled and well-organized, I must submit to you my latest experience regarding certain of these "Ancient Documents" and how this experience indicates the inappropriate handling of Dutchess County's earliest historical records.

On December 5, 2005 I requested the following three Ancient Document Numbers from the Records Center via the County Clerk's Office: 7379, 8047 and 2830.

Shortly thereafter, I returned to the County Clerks Office to review the requested documents as delivered to the Clerks Office for my review. I was handed a folder with three documents contained within. Two of the Documents requested were the correct documents. However Document #2837 was received instead of Document #2830.

I reviewed the two correctly received documents for my research purposes after donning my own pair of white cotton gloves and then returned all three documents in the folder they were given to me in to the Clerk's Records Room Staff. At the same time I completed another request for Ancient Document #2830.

Today, Wednesday, December 14, 2005 I returned to the County Clerk's records room to review what I hoped would be Ancient Document #2830 - The Document I received was not in a folder or protected in any way and furthermore it was paper clipped with a large metal paper clip to my request form and handed to me with no protection, let alone archival protection, at all. I immediately requested an archival folder for this document to be placed in, removed delicately the metal paper clip and placed the document in the archival folder I was given by the Records Room Staff. Once again I donned my own pair of white cotton gloves. Upon opening the folder, I was immediately able to recognize that the document I had been sent was Ancient Document #28130 dated 1788 and not #2830 and returned the document once again to the Records Room Staff with a request for them to investigate how I might receive Document #2830 as requested. I have been informed by the County Clerk's Staff in the record room at 22 Market Street that the requested document has been located and will be available for my review at the Record Room on my next visit there.

As you can tell from my statement in the Poughkeepsie Weekly Beat Article, this is not the first time I have had this experience with the mishandling of Dutchess County's earliest historical records. I see no need to give details here on my previous experiences in this regard, other than to say that our early poorhouse records do not belong in the Commissioner of Social Services Office. However, they may be better off there just as the early historical records recently returned from the State are better off in the County Clerk's Office.

If today's experience was the first instance I would not be writing you. However this and many other experiences are what have led to my being an activist in regard to appointing a County Historian and hiring an archivist to insure that our historical records are appropriately preserved and handled and that the public is serviced.

Let me say that I am not as concerned with having had to make four trips to the County Clerks Office to review a document as I am with the inappropriate handling of these "Ancient Documents" and others. Although these Ancient Documents have been microfilmed, my experience has been that the quality of the films is extremely poor as shown by the much better (and I might add readable) quality presented when one views the original document. It is time for these documents to be digitized and I am confident there are grant monies available for this purpose, if only same were to be pursued.

If our County Executive were to appoint a County Historian and provide funding for an archivist as well as facilities appropriately staffed and geared towards the handling of these and other early historical records, our historical records would be much better served as would the public. A separate and distinct archival facility for our historical records where the public would be adequately serviced by a staff geared towards handling same and assisting researchers, an archivist, adherence to our local records management law and a records management plan would go along way toward preserving our County's earliest historical records for ourselves and future generations of researchers. This would also serve a dual purpose by relieving overcrowding in the current records management facility on Washington Street.

As our County Records Management Officer, I must ask you WHY our County Records Management Law [ http://www.oocities.org/Heartland/Acres/2843/dclocallaw1986_3  ] is not being complied with since (among other aspects of this law ) there does not appear to have ever been a Records Management Advisory Board; and WHAT plans you have to remedy the situation with the handling and preservation of our "Ancient Documents" and other historical records of extreme value to researchers?

I also ask you now for consideration for, and cooperation with, our County Historian when the County Executive sees fit to be a man of his word and present a qualified candidate to the legislature for approval, to see that the current situation regarding our historical records is addressed and our Records Management Law is adhered to.

Researchers from around the country, and taxpayers deserve this for research and educational purposes for ourselves and future generations.

Thank You in advance for your attention to the issues I have set forth here. I trust these issues will be addressed in conjunction with local officials and others at the State level available to assist you and I would appreciate being kept informed.

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Poughkeepsie Weekly Beat Article published June 3, 2005 entitled "County Archives: Protecting a Link to the Past" By Ian MacFarland

In April, the New York State Archives turned four ancient documents from Dutchess County's public records over to County Clerk Colette Lafuente. The oldest dates back two decades before the American Revolution, and the newest was closed in 1829.

Now they're sitting in a box on a rolling television cart – because, in Lafuente's estimation, her air-conditioned office at 22 Market Street is the closest thing Dutchess County has to an adequate storage facility for the oldest of its historical records.

“There's such a rich history we have,” Lafuente said last week. “We really should be better protecting it and saving it.”

Lafuente said she holds the storage and preservation of county records as one of her most important responsibilities as County Clerk, and is pushing for the county to upgrade and modernize its storage facility.

A wealth of information

Inquiring minds will find a variety of information in Dutchess County's archives, and a little digging will unearth a thorough history of the county's day-to-day business.

You could find out who owned your house in 1873, or when your grandfather immigrated from overseas and filed for citizenship. There are property deeds, mortgages, meeting minutes, liens, oaths of office, subdivision maps, gun permits, court records, military discharges and much more.

“Just being around the material, you'll develop an interest,” said Lafuente, a former history teacher herself. “If you let yourself open it up, you'd end up stuck down there and you'd never come up.”

Some documents are slipped into file folders or shot on microfilm, while others are held in lockers or bound in heavy books. Some of the books have already begun to deteriorate; Lafuente displayed one book of deeds where a few strips of transparent tape were all that saved a column of numbers from oblivion.

Property records from 1991-on are archived electronically, and the map archives are currently being transferred onto computers. However, forms are not filed electronically in Dutchess County, so members of the County Clerk's staff must continue to scan new documents into the computer system as they work backwards through the archives.

During an impromptu tour of the County Clerk's office last week, including the record room on the second floor of the County Office Building and the basement storage facility, The Beat learned that this storage space is rapidly nearing its capacity.

“We absolutely have no room,” said Suzy Marino, the requisition desk supervisor.

Ideally, she explained, all records on the second floor should be rotated into the basement every two years, with records from the basement moved out to the county's record management facility on Washington Street to make room. But a lack of space means that's not possible, she said. “We don't have a plan anymore. Each item is on its own schedule.”

According to the log displayed in the record room, some items currently stored there date to the 1970s, while others reach back just five years. The basement storage room contains items as old as naturalization petition logs from the 1930s.

Lapse in oversight

The county's Record Management Program was established by the Legislature in a 1986 law. It calls for the Department of Central Services (Purchasing) to oversee the program, which would consist of an appointed Records Management Officer to administer the program and a Records Advisory Board made up of county officials and local historians and archivists that will advise the officer and have final say over what goes in the archives.

The program is based at the county's record storage facility at 170 Washington St. in the City of Poughkeepsie.

Currently the Records Management Officer is Donald Miller, the director of central services. But the Records Advisory Board, as defined in the 1986 law, does not exist at this time, he said. What's more, the Washington Street facility is filling up.

“We're supposed to be moving,” he said this week. “…We're growing out of the space.” He said the county has not selected a new location yet, but there is a lease negotiating team seeking one.

But Lafuente described the state of the county's archives in far bleaker terms. She said the Washington Street facility, which she declined to allow The Beat access to, could only be “loosely termed” a proper storage facility.

“It's not an adequate and proper storage for these documents,” she said. “We should have climate-controlled environments for ancient documents and microfilm, as well as materials that aren't ancient.”

Virginia Buechele, an amateur historian and genealogist who lives in the Town of Poughkeepsie, said her research outings to the clerk's office have convinced her that the county needs vast improvements to its archives. “I don't believe our records are being appropriately archived, preserved, and taken care of,” she said. “…It's getting to a crisis point.”

Buechele said she has seen old, fragile documents improperly handled or placed in folders that were too small to protect them adequately. The scattered and almost arbitrary method of moving documents from the record room to the basement to Washington Street also makes it harder to locate and access research materials, she said. “This is how historical records get lost, or possibly even destroyed.”

But Miller disputed the claim that the Washington Street facility was inadequate, saying it was climate controlled and well-organized. “There's a lot of activity there, and we know where everything is,” he said.

Buechele said she thought the county was missing a valuable heritage tourism opportunity by not making it easier for visitors to do research when they come to see the county's historic sites. “People don't come to do it because we don't have a research facility to accommodate them,” she said. “Unless they're researching Roosevelt.”