Pooling resources
By JENNIFER KELLEY
Cherry Hill Sun
3/9/2007

Cherry Hill, Gloucester join in grant application for electronic archives project

Council recently passed a resolution authorizing the township to apply for a state Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support grant. The $125,000 in aid will offer Cherry Hill the opportunity to team up with Gloucester Township to leverage the funds, reduce information-technology department expenses and make both municipalities’ record-management systems more efficient, officials from both townships told The Sun.

The state launched its PARIS grant program to meet the document-preservation and storage needs of county and municipal governments. For example, the township clerk’s office has public information record books dating back decades – the funds awarded will be used to electronically archive and restore these historical records, which are often accessed by the public and municipal employees. In addition, current records and documents will be captured electronically, instead of using expensive and outdated microfilm equipment, township officials said.

The grant application, which is being handled by Cherry Hill Project Manager Ari Messenger, is the result of a process that began last year with both townships undergoing a needs assessment analysis by the firm Eisenberg Associates – an independent third party. According to Messenger, Gloucester and Cherry Hill contained similar findings in their reports, such as the need to replace excess paper records with electronic files, the need to retire historical documents by creating digital images of them, and the need to develop a system that would recover vital documents in case of a disaster.

But despite sharing priorities regarding their records management, the townships’ current IT infrastructure situations differ dramatically, Messenger noted.

Cherry Hill possesses a very strong IT department, with hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in infrastructure. Presently, Gloucester Township has one tech person and is not equipped to host document-imaging.

Utilizing Cherry Hill’s existing IT infrastructure, only a small monetary investment is needed to allow it to host multiple townships’ record systems, he said, noting that in building on Cherry Hill’s backend, additional municipalities will save more than $100,000 each.

Gloucester will purchase a document scanner, a workstation at which to view records, and licenses for the use of Cherry Hill’s records management software with a portion of the grant money, said the township’s clerk, Rosemary DiJosie.

“Our shared-services agreement will help both of us – and, it’s what the state wants anyway,” she said. “We’re excited to be joining up with Cherry Hill in going for this grant.”

And Cherry Hill makes out pretty well in the deal, too.

According to Messenger, residents and municipal employees will have better access to documents once the project is complete. The records will be scanned into an electronic system, which will, in turn, limit damage to older historic documents. The township also will receive funding from the state to upgrade its current IT services, resulting in faster information sharing and increased storage capabilities.

“In the end, the grant will enable us to increase our efficiency, helping residents get information more quickly,” he said.

In addition, the towns will swap backup copies of all their records in case a catastrophe strikes that wipes out the originals for either community.

From a financial standpoint, it was critical for the two townships to team up, officials in both municipalities told The Sun. Gloucester and Cherry Hill fell within the PARIS grant’s second category – townships with populations between 45,000 and 75,000. That classification meant that the most each township could receive by itself was $50,000 in grant money, Messenger said. By sharing IT services with Gloucester, Cherry Hill increased the amount available to the townships to a total of $125,000.

He noted that, so far, feedback on the draft proposal sent to the PARIS foundation has been favorable and received praise for both townships. With the final proposal due by the end of the month, grant money could be awarded as soon as June.

Once the funds are dispersed, Township Information Technology Chief Tim Brady will be executing the installation of the new electronic imaging system in Gloucester, installing scanning hardware and client software, and connecting them to Cherry Hill’s servers over a secure connection, officials said. Gloucester will do its own scanning on site, but its data will be housed in a Cherry Hill server room. Gloucester’s residents and employees would be able to access the scanned documents via a Web site, also hosted in Cherry Hill.

Brady noted that Cherry Hill has been investing in infrastructure improvements through grant funds and other capital sources for the past five years, “and has built a very scalable network environment. Adding users is fairly simple and our systems have the capacity to do this without problem,” he said.

After the secure connection is built between the two townships – which will take about six to nine months – Brady added, there will be other opportunities for the two communities to share information and services.

The enhancements to the server software and hardware in Cherry Hill’s IT department will benefit the township’s own network, he said, noting that “having a secure network connection to an alternate location also adds an opportunity to our robust disaster recovery plan.

“This grant will allow Cherry Hill to upgrade and maintain our current software system and upgrade our hardware, while Gloucester Township will be able to implement their new document management program using our infrastructure and personnel without them having to make large capital purchases that would otherwise deny them this technology,” Brady told The Sun.

The township’s IT department is currently participating in several shared service projects involving Cherry Hill’s fire district, the public library and school district.