MAHONING COUNTY Microfilm project slowly proceeds

County workers are struggling to keep up with reviewing the microfilms.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Decades' worth of boxes filled with old public records have disappeared from the Mahoning County Courthouse.
They've been replaced with decades' worth of microfilm reels -- filled with old public records.
The county has nearly completed its two-year project to get out from under a huge backlog of public documents that had been waiting to be copied onto microfilm.
"They're getting pretty well caught up," said Maureen Smith, county microfilm director.
Ohio law requires that county governments keep paper documents on file for specified periods of time, after which the documents can be destroyed. Before that happens, though, they are copied onto microfilm so there is still a permanent record of them.
For years in Mahoning County, the paperwork piled up considerably faster than the microfilm department could keep up with copying it.
Budget cuts had caused the microfilm staff to be reduced from 25 in the 1970s to three in 2001. By that time, the courthouse was stacked with boxes of documents that had been piling up since the 1980s.
Hired agency for job
That's when county commissioners decided to get some help. They hired Ohio Industries for the Handicapped, which agreed to do the microfilming for $410,816. Beginning in June 2001, county records were shipped to Tiffin, Ohio, where OIH employees copied them onto microfilm.
Ohio Industries for the Handicapped is a statewide program created by the governor's office to provide vocational training and job opportunities for people with severe disabilities. Microfilming is among the many services it provides.
The contract was supposed to expire next month, but commissioners recently extended the deadline to Dec. 31, said James Fortunato, county purchasing director. He said there was no change in the cost.
Smith said the agency has made significant progress on the microfilming, but needs more time to finish, which is the reason for the extension.
"It's been slowed down on our end, not theirs," Smith said.
Getting swamped
Even though commissioners hired two additional employees for the department in late 2001 to help with reviewing and editing the films, Smith said the staff has been swamped with trying to keep up.
"It's a slow process," she said.
She said the staff hasn't been able to keep up the microfilming of more recent documents because they have been so busy reviewing and editing the work done by OIH.
"I'm hoping that once we get all this editing out of the way, we can crack down and get caught up very quickly," Smith said.
County Administrator Gary Kubic said last year that the county was considering buying a computerized document scanning system that could do away with the need for most microfilming.
That's still on the table, even though the county is facing a potential budget shortfall this year because its revenue streams have grown stagnant.
He said such a scanning system would make information more easily accessible to both government officials and the public, which is why commissioners hope to eventually go that route.
"It's something we still would like to do," Kubic said. "The problem is -- and always will be for us -- money."
Kubic said he is not sure when the county will be able to buy a scanning system because there are other, more pressing financial issues to address first.
bjackson@vindy.com