One page at a time
Digitizing thousands of pages of recorded history aims to ‘preserve the irreplaceable’ at the Porter County recorder’s office
Could you imagine scanning, digitizing, organizing and indexing tens of thousands of recorded historical documents, some dating back to the early 1800s? This exhaustive project is now underway at the Porter County recorder’s office, where I visited to watch it in action. Well, maybe action is the wrong word.
“It’s tedious,” said Rhonda Olson, project manager for U.S. Imaging, a firm that digitizes land records for current and future generations to access.
“Fun is another word,” one of her colleagues quipped.
Five workers from the Michigan-based firm are working around the clock — 24/7 every day in 12-hour shifts — while living out of a local hotel for the next couple of months.
“If we worked only a traditional eight-hour shift, this project would take three times longer,” said Olson, who’s worked 38 years for her company.
Its marketing motto: “Preserving the Irreplaceable.”
The crew wears plastic gloves to keep fingerprints and skin oils off the microfilm and plastic sleeves. The microfilm is in better shape than the books, which were created later, a process that still takes place in many recorder’s offices. The crew’s workload is extremely monotonous,
“The completion of this project will guarantee the perpetuity of all of the records in the county recorder’s office, along with providing complete remote access to all of those public records.”
— Jon Miller, former Porter County recorder
“Those are a lot of people in top positions. I don’t think we need an HR person every day,” said White, who said he was more amenable to contracting someone.
Council President Rick Bella, D-5th, disagreed.
“The town now has about 170 employees. I wholeheartedly disagree with you. Now is the time,” Bella said.
The police department now has 61 employees and the Dean and Barbara White Community Center has nearly that many. Financial adviser Trista Hudson said the two positions will be partially paid with Redevelopment Commission money, with the remainder coming from a line appropriated in the Town Administration budget but not assigned to any specific matter.
The IT position will be basically paid the same as the current IT person, through several departments, but there will be some adjustments made, Hudson said.
“We’ll be doing some shuffling,” she said.
The council transferred more than $81,000 to cover the salaries.
In other matters, the council approved a new Mediterranean cuisine restaurant to be located at 8160 Mississippi St., in the space formerly occupied by Rapid Fire Pizza.
It also approved three large gatherings that have been taking place for years — St. Sava Church Serb Fest fundraiser at 9191 Mississippi St. to take place July 23-25, the Polonia Pilgrimage at 5755 Pennsylvania St. on Aug. 8, and India Fest at the Northwest Indiana Hindu Religious Center, 8605 Merrillville Road, Aug. 15.