Hello all! Let me first thank everyone for their kind words to me regarding the work I've been up to over the old records at the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse. I accept that I have been someone who has been jumping up and down to get something done but ask that the real heroes will be those that do the actual work saving these historic records. On Friday, 22 Oct 04, I met with Tracy Berezansky, Assistant Director of the Alabama Dept of Archives and History, Tom Turley, Local Government Records Divison of ADAH and Fran Brazeal, who is the Circuit Court Clerk and who allowed ADAH to make a tour of the 7th floor. Due to the activities of the elections, this tour was allowed only if it be brief. The purpose was to let ADAH see the scope of the problems. Now, ADAH will develop a plan to actually save these records. It can not be impressed enough that this was a 30 minute spot check but I'm happy to report that in this spot check, ADAH did not find any mold. To my untrained eye, what appeared to me as inactive mold was really a heavy build up of dirt and dust. There were at least two instances where Mr. Turley asked Tracey to check a volume to be certain and she asked us to smell the air. Sure enough the air did not smell moldy. This is great news but still points out that if these records have been neglected so long to become so filthy that the accumulation of dirt and dust is so extreme that they appear to be moldy, they are long overdue for attention. Although, thankfully no mold in this spot check was discovered, the above paragraph should serve as only a partial description of the conditions our records are in. Another part of this problem is the jumbled up mess of the area. Think of cleaning out a storage closet that you haven't dealt with in 10 to 15 years but have repeatedly thrown stuff in there to get it out of your way and you can complete the picture. Now enlarge that closet to the size of a basketball court and lengthen the time of neglect to 20 or 30 years and you come closer to seeing what we are up against. This will take a long time and a great deal of work to correct. What has occurred over the years is that our old records has had more current records, office equipment, Christmas stuff and just about anything you can think of thrown in the storage closet to get it out of the way. It has been many many years since this area has received any house cleaning. To that end, ADAH has found records that should have been destroyed years ago. Just as you keep bank statements, utility receipts and income tax records for a certain length of time and then dispose of them, so to do our courthouse officials have a schedule of disposition, which they have not kept up with. Catching up with that schedule is how ADAH feels is the best way to begin to solve our problem. You just got to start somewhere and by getting rid of the stuff that is outdated, you will have less to clean and also more room to work in. ADAH says they will contact the Probate Judge Office, the Circuit Court Office and the License Commissioner Office to see what and when some general house cleaning can be done. This will have to wait until after the elections, which is less than two weeks away. At this point, I'm very pleased with all that has happened. My only concern is that with all of this contacting, thinking, planning and arranging, by the time real progress can be made, we will be dangerously close to the the Holiday season and we all know how crazy that time can be. With that, I ask all of those willing, to stay on the ready, hopefully the time for work is drawing near. I say thank you to everyone. Regards, Mike Sullivan [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>