A solution on how to preserve and protect the Cass County government’s oldest artifacts is slowly taking shape.

County Clerk Monica Kennedy delivered a report to the seven members of the Cass County Board of Commissioners during their meeting last week about the preliminary work she and other members of the county administration have performed in recent months to update her office’s vault of historic records. The report stated that it would cost the county an estimated $44,142 to install new environment control equipment inside the facility as well as restore records damaged over the years.

“That should be enough to regulate our vault, keep everything from further deteriorating, which is our goal, and start the process of correcting some of the damage that has been done over the years,” Kennedy said.

Meeting with County Administrator Roger Fraser, Maintenance Director Dave Dickey and Information Systems Director Kerry Collins, Kennedy has been working for weeks to come up with potential fixes to the records room, located on the first floor of the county annex in Cassopolis.

The room currently lacks ventilation, temperature control and other features that prevent the buildup of harmful levels of humidity that can damage the books, microfilms and other physical records stored within it.

The lynchpin of the clerk’s proposed solution is the installation of a $26,437 Liebert Environmental Control System, which would regulate these harmful elements. The quote for the equipment was provided by R.W. LaPine, which would also provide crews to install it, Kennedy said.

“I believe that is a unit that the sheriff’s department uses and [Collins] uses in the information systems department to make sure that the equipment and servers stays cool,” Kennedy said. “We know it’s a good thing, and they work in those offices.”

The clerk also reached out to Kofile Inc. to perform restoration work to five original register of deeds record books that have sustained damaged over the years, as well as to perform digital imaging of their contents, for an estimated $12,705. The office also received a $3,000 quote from Tyler Technologies to have these images uploaded to the county’s current system, Kennedy said.

Finishing up the requested funds was a contingency cost of $2,000.

A priority for Kennedy’s office for a number of years, the clerk decided to compile the quotes and make a request for funds now. While the commissioners have considered the option of moving the clerk’s office out of the building should the restoration of the neighboring courthouse be completed, Kennedy said that she could no longer wait to see how the project shapes up.

“We decided to go ahead and make the request now, because the summers have been so humid and the damage keeps getting so much worse,” she said.

The commissioners will take up the issue for further discussion at a later date.