State Archives Awards $5.3 Million to Local Governments and Educational Institutions to Improve Records Management

The New York State Archives awarded $5.3 million in Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF) grants to 80 local governments, school districts, and educational institutions across the state to help improve records management systems to better serve the public, State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia announced.

“We’re proud to support projects to improve records management and preserve New York’s heritage through important documents,” said Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa. “When our records are preserved, we encourage civic engagement and allow future generations to learn from our shared history.”

“These grants help municipalities and schools preserve our state’s history,” said State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia. “We’re honored to support local governments and schools across the state meet their obligations to the citizens they serve, preserve local history and support easier access to records.”

“These grants continue to help local governments embrace the records management opportunities offered by new technology and e-government services,” said Christian Sampson, Town of Ramapo Town Clerk and chair of the Local Government Records Advisory Council, which provides advice and guidance to the State Education Department on programs and grants to support records management in local governments in New York State.

The New York State Archives, part of the State Education Department, administers the LGRMIF grants, which are used by local governments to improve their record management systems to better serve the public. It is a competitive program with grants awarded based on the merits of the applications. The LGRMIF derives its revenues from a small fee paid when people file or record documents with county clerks and the Register of the City of New York.

Since its inception in 1988, the program has provided over $230 million in competitive grant funds to local governments statewide. These funds support a wide variety of projects that help local governments manage paper, and increasingly, electronic records. Project categories include:

Disaster Management: projects aimed at developing, testing and implementing disaster and business recovery plans to protect local government archival and vital records, both hardcopy and electronic.
Inactive Records: projects aimed at planning, developing or improving the management of records during the inactive phase of their life cycle. Inactive records are records that are used infrequently but must be retained because their retention periods have not yet expired.
Historical Records: projects aimed at preserving historical records or using local government records as teaching tools in the community and in the classroom.
Files Management: projects aimed at improving the systematic control of active files.
Document Conversion and Access: projects aimed at converting records to another format through the use of microfilming or imaging.

Grant projects may start on July 1, 2019 and all work on grant projects must be completed by June 30, 2020.

Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund Grants

Awards for the LGRMIF grants range from $6,860 to $149,999. Awards by county are below:

Awards for LGRMIF grants
County	Institution	Category	Award
Albany	Capital Region BOCES	Disaster Management	$74,372
Albany	County of Albany	Document Conversion and Access	$149,947
Albany	Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$27,027
Albany	Town of Westerlo	Inactive Records	$47,416
Allegany	Town of Almond	Inactive Records	$35,145
Cattaraugus	Town of Freedom	Document Conversion and Access	$43,953
Chemung	Elmira Heights CSD	Inactive Records	$28,584
Chemung	Town of Big Flats	Document Conversion and Access	$49,943
Clinton	Town of Schuyler Falls	Inactive Records	$24,990
Cortland	County of Cortland	Document Conversion and Access	$149,875
Delaware	Otsego-Delaware-Schoharie-Greene BOCES	Document Conversion and Access	$149,970
Dutchess	County of Dutchess (Community College)	Document Conversion and Access	$69,555
Dutchess	County of Dutchess	Document Conversion and Access	$11,830
Dutchess	Millbrook CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$44,707
Dutchess	Pawling CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$64,734
Erie	Hamburg CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$74,987
Erie	Town of Evans	Document Conversion and Access	$66,900
Essex	County of Essex	Document Conversion and Access	$74,075
Essex	Town of St Armand	Inactive Records	$32,453
Genesee	Genesee Valley BOCES	Document Conversion and Access	$55,647
Genesee	Town of Batavia	Document Conversion and Access	$111,456
Hamilton	Inlet Common SD	Inactive Records	$31,993
Jefferson	Jefferson County Local Development Corp.	Inactive Records	$82,028
Monroe	Town of Henrietta	Document Conversion and Access	$64,210
Monroe	Village of Brockport	Document Conversion and Access	$113,466
Monroe	Village of Churchville	Document Conversion and Access	$28,801
Montgomery	County of Montgomery	Document Conversion and Access	$17,325
Montgomery	Fulton-Montgomery Community College	Document Conversion and Access	$74,127
Montgomery	Village of Nelliston	Inactive Records	$30,578
Nassau	County of Nassau	Document Conversion and Access	$74,500
Nassau	Freeport UFSD	Document Conversion and Access	$6,860
Nassau	Village of Farmingdale	Document Conversion and Access	$72,553
Nassau	Village of Sea Cliff	Inactive Records	$21,551
Nassau	Village of Upper Brookville	Inactive Records	$19,790
Nassau	Water Authority of Great Neck North	Inactive Records	$53,100
New York	CUNY Central Administration	Document Conversion and Access	$49,999
New York	Fashion Institute of Technology	Inactive Records	$74,970
New York	NYC Administration for Children’s Services	Document Conversion and Access	$75,000
New York	NYC Commission on Human Rights	Document Conversion and Access	$46,687
New York	NYC Department of City Planning	Document Conversion and Access	$69,331
New York	NYC Department of Correction	Document Conversion and Access	$75,000
New York	NYC Department of Education	Document Conversion and Access	$75,000
New York	NYC Department of Finance	Document Conversion and Access	$75,000
New York	NYC Department of Records and Information Services	Historical Records	$75,000
New York	NYC Department of Records and Information Services	Administrative (DORIS only)	$149,017
New York	NYC Mayors Office	Document Conversion and Access	$74,998
New York	NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner	Document Conversion and Access	$68,355
Niagara	Town of Lewiston	Document Conversion and Access	$68,395
Oneida	Town of Leyden	Inactive Records	$15,236
Onondaga	Lafayette CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$59,682
Ontario	County of Ontario	Document Conversion and Access	$149,818
Ontario	Manchester-Shortsville CSD (Red Jacket)	Document Conversion and Access	$60,491
Ontario	Village of Rushville	Files Management	$18,858
Orange	Minisink Valley CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$49,815
Orange	Orange-Ulster BOCES	Document Conversion and Access	$149,551
Orleans	Town of Yates	Inactive Records	$20,836
Oswego	County of Oswego	Document Conversion and Access	$71,698
Otsego	Town of Hartwick	Inactive Records	$42,718
Putnam	County of Putnam	Document Conversion and Access	$74,035
Rockland	Village of New Hempstead	Inactive Records	$18,375
Saint Lawrence	St Lawrence-Lewis BOCES	Document Conversion and Access	$149,999
Saint Lawrence	Village of Gouverneur	Document Conversion and Access	$96,763
Saint Lawrence	Village of Heuvelton	Inactive Records	$149,497
Saratoga	City of Saratoga Springs	Document Conversion and Access	$74,875
Schenectady	Schenectady City SD	Document Conversion and Access	$33,303
Schenectady	West Glenville Fire District	Inactive Records	$46,946
Steuben	Arkport CSD	Inactive Records	$20,454
Steuben	Bath CSD	Inactive Records	$34,447
Suffolk	Board of Trustees of the Freeholders	Document Conversion and Access	$74,963
Suffolk	Eastern Suffolk BOCES	Document Conversion and Access	$130,558
Suffolk	Eastport-South Manor CSD	Inactive Records	$73,564
Suffolk	Town of Smithtown	Document Conversion and Access	$75,000
Sullivan	Fallsburg CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$49,593
Sullivan	Tri-Valley CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$51,040
Warren	County of Warren	Document Conversion and Access	$74,100
Washington	Whitehall CSD	Inactive Records	$34,063
Westchester	Irvington UFSD	Document Conversion and Access	$39,019
Westchester	North Salem CSD	Document Conversion and Access	$42,757
Westchester	Town of Ossining	Inactive Records	$147,870
Westchester	Westchester BOCES	Document Conversion and Access	$53,660
Yates	County of Yates	Document Conversion and Access	$148,385