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Williamstown Closes Town Hall for Cleanup on Wednesday
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:53AM / Wednesday, August 17, 2016
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WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. — Town Hall will be closed today, Wednesday, but on Thursday, it will have a little more open space.
 
As discussed at a Board of Selectmen meeting earlier this summer, Town Manager Jason Hoch decided to close the town's offices for one day to allow staff to do weed through some of the mountains of paperwork that have accumulated over the years.
 
"Some of the people who participated [in closures] in the past said it was a great way to get a handle on it, so I'm going to follow that advice," Hoch told the board at its June 13 meeting.
 
The task sounds daunting.
 
"One of the data points from the company that looked through all of this building and the Public Works Department is that we have approximately seven tons of paper that can be reasonably and safely removed from Town Hall,” Hoch said.
 
Earlier this year, the town hired Norwood-based King Information Systems to look at Williamstown's records and see what documents could be copied in another format and/or destroyed.
 
"Some of it is excess,” Hoch said. "Some of it is things that will be microfilmed and securely maintained that way.
 
"We say 'microfilm,' and people sort of look at you funny, but under state law, that is still the form of permanent record that's allowed."
 
Hoch said that King gave the town a 125-page report indexing all the town's paper records and recommending which ones can go after the consultant "ferreted into all the dark corners of this building."
 
"Part of the catalyst for this was to find ways for the Community Development Office to be more efficient and effective," he said. "They have a number of duplicated records. If you've ever been up there, you'll see that we're actually storing records in the old shower rooms, among other places."
 
The municipal building was at one time a Williams College fraternity house before the town acquired the North Street structure.
 
Hoch announced the Aug. 17 date as the likely date of the closure back in June in hopes that people with business at Town Hall could plan accordingly. The town posted a reminder earlier this week on its Facebook page.
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