Thursday, February 22, 2007 Older Editions

Saving archives from dampness of 'the crypt'

By Brian Messenger

The underground space reserved for town-government storage is in dire need of repair and improvement, say Andover officials who contend with state mandates that require certain municipal records be kept onsite for up to three decades.

"We jokingly refer to it as 'the vault' or 'the crypt,'" said Conservation Director Bob Douglas. "I think 'dingy' would certainly be appropriate."

The town archives are located below Memorial Auditorium at Doherty Middle School. And they could be in line for a major renovation if $300,000 in design funds are approved at Town Meeting as part of this year's capital improvement budget.

The money would also go toward renovating Memorial Auditorium's interior, and improving Doherty Middle School's gymnasium and handicap accessibility. Town Offices, Doherty Middle School and Memorial Auditorium are connected and located on Bartlet Street.

At least three rooms below ground level and numerous departmental offices are used to store the slew of records within Town Offices.

The last major work on the auditorium came in the mid-1980s and did not include updates to the town archives, said Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski.

"I think it's quite inadequate. We could use more square footage," said Stapczynski. "There's insufficient room in there. The whole HVAC system needs to be improved to handle records storage."

Not only is there inadequate heating and lighting where the archives are stored, but there's also no sprinkler system where some of the town's oldest and most important records are kept, said Plant and Facilities Director Joe Piantedosi.

"It's just an old basement that's very humid, and records can get ruined. It lacks lighting and heating and it really needs dehumidification," said Piantedosi.

After unlocking a door labeled "Keep Out" deep within the bottom floor of Town Offices, Piantedosi moved past numerous seven-foot tall shelves stocked with boxes, maps and models earlier this week before coming to a small corner designated for his department.

Plant and Facilities must keep all outside contract bids, drawings and plans stored on-site, as well as plans for all 22 town buildings.

"It's an enormous amount of material," said Piantedosi. "I just have no space. If you look at my office space, we're jammed ... If someone comes in wanting to see something, it's like a treasure hunt."

The Planning, Conservation, Health, Plant and Facilities, and Zoning departments, as well as the town clerk all keep their records in the town archives. While most records are required to be kept for seven years, some must be held for up to 30, said Piantedosi.

"It's very difficult to find things. It's hard to get people to come down here," said Piantedosi from within the archives. "It's a dark, damp space. There's a lot of asbestos in here."

Asbestos insulation removal would be just one of many aspects involved in a major renovation of the town archives under the current capital improvement budget item. Preliminary construction estimates for the Memorial Auditorium project are $4.5 million.

"This is one of the few areas in the whole town with asbestos," he said. "But it's in good condition and it's not a hazard."

A new floor-to-ceiling record storage system would increase the space available to the town and make it much easier to access needed information, said Piantedosi.

While newer systems can rotate records quickly and easily within confined spaces and mechanically bring selected materials down to a working-level at the push of a button, a simple wheeled staircase with proper railings could also work to serve town employees searching a newly organized archive.

"We're going to look at the different options out there and find something that's cost-effective for the space that we have," said Piantedosi.

"The problem was it was never designed as a records storage area. And that's what we want to do is redo that whole basement area," said Stapczynski. "That space is a really important part of our infrastructure of the town."