EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! READ MORE ABOUT IT--Good Old Boy Backpeddling is alive and well in Marion County West Virginia--read about the building that had burned 3 times, windows out, rain coming in on county documents; read about "we didn't throw any important records away"--I WONDER IF THEY BULLDOZE CEMETERIES, ALSO?!! Sam Cline Morgan County Council ~ http://www.scican.net/government/mc-gov/councilm.html Morgan County Indiana Historian - IHB/IHS ~ http://www2.ihs1830.org/ihs1830/cohist.htm Indiana Genealogical Society ~ http://www.indgensoc.org/ Greene County Indiana INGenWeb ~ http://www.rootsweb.com/~ingreene/greenegw.htm Knox County Indiana INGenWeb ~ http://www.rootsweb.com/~inknox/knox.htm Lawrence County Indiana INGenWeb ~ http://www.rootsweb.com/~inlawren/lawrengw.htm Morgan County Indiana INGenWeb ~ http://www.rootsweb.com/~inmorgan/index.html INGenWeb Links ~ http://www.rootsweb.com/~inmorgan/igwcclnk.html Greene County Indiana Genealogical Society ~ http://www.rootsweb.com/~ingreene/gcgs.htm HoosierWeb ~ http://www.hoosierweb.org Morgan County History And Genealogy Association ~ http://www.rootsweb.com/~inmchaga/mchagai.html The candle light will always be gleaming through the sycamores. The latch string is always out. -----Original Message----- From: Linda Lewis <cityslic@ix.netcom.com> To: USGENWEB-ALL-L@rootsweb.com <USGENWEB-ALL-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Friday, June 26, 1998 9:57 PM Subject: [USGENWEB-ALL-L] FYI >This is a multi-part message in MIME format. > >--------------53944F92A63 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > >Because the other articles were reported here, the third article should >be, also. > >Linda > >--------------53944F92A63 >Content-Type: message/rfc822 >Content-Disposition: inline > >Return-Path: <va-roots@vsla.edu> >Received: from vlinsvr.vsla.edu ([192.131.239.7]) > by ixmail6.ix.netcom.com (8.8.7-s-4/8.8.7/(NETCOM v1.01)) with ESMTP id VAA09128; ; > Fri, 26 Jun 1998 21:41:29 -0700 (PDT) >Received: from vlinsvr (localhost [127.0.0.1]) > by vlinsvr.vsla.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id AAA00625; > Sat, 27 Jun 1998 00:41:28 -0400 (EDT) >Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 00:41:28 -0400 (EDT) >Message-Id: <199806270439.AAA00431@camel14.mindspring.com> >Errors-To: eroderic@vsla.edu >Reply-To: pmullinax@mindspring.com >Originator: va-roots@vlinsvr.vsla.edu >Sender: va-roots@vsla.edu >Precedence: bulk >From: "Pam Mullinax" <pmullinax@mindspring.com> >To: Multiple recipients of list <va-roots@vlinsvr.vsla.edu> >Subject: THIRD NEWSPAPER STORY ABOUT MARION COUNTY >X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas >X-Comment: Virginia Genealogy Discussion Group >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by dfw-ix2.ix.netcom.com id XAA00956 > >Please bear with me for this last, long email. There was a third story >published today, June 26, by the WV Times about Marion County, and to be >fair, it should be available to the same people who have read the first t= >wo >stories. It was, as follows: > >* * * * * >By Theresa Haynes=20 >Times West Virginian Staff Writer > >FAIRMONT -=20 >Local genealogists searching for an old marriage record or birth >certificate do not need to go sifting through the trash. > >Marion County Clerk Janice Cosco said her department did not throw away a= >ny >permanent records from the Jacobs building earlier this month when >maintenance workers cleared away six BFI Dumpsters of outdated files and >papers from the historic building. > >"Everything we are charged by law to keep was not thrown away," she said. >"No permanent records, that I know of, were thrown away." > >Cosco, who has been the county's clerk for 18 years, said she still has >original copies of wills, birth certificates, death certificates, deeds, >marriage certificates, land transfers, voter registration records and >county commission records dating back to the county's inception in 1842. > >She said her department discarded old fiscal records, pieces of paper >recording every penny spent at the county clerk's office, and outdated >universal consumer code slips, which record credit transactions. > >Cosco said she is legally responsible to save the receipt books for 10 >years and the consumer code slips for seven years, but she boxed and stor= >ed >the records for at least two decades. > >For years the Jacobs building housed these outdated records, but earlier >this month Cosco gave maintenance workers permission to trash the papers >including some receipt books dating back to 1920. > >The county clerk said she would have liked to save everything but there >just was not room to house it all. =A0=A0"The public needs to understand = >that >in order to keep their precious records we have to have a place to put >them," she said as she stood inside one of the courthouse's many fireproo= >f >vaults filled with old wills and birth, marriage and death records. > >"(Marion County Commissioner) Cody Starcher has gotten all kinds of flak >over this, but Cody should get an award," she said. "He found the money t= >o >restore the Jacob's building so we could have a place to put the permanen= >t >records." > >Last year Starcher was instrumental in getting the state to approve >transferring $330,000 from the jail improvement fund to renovate the >dilapidated Jacobs building. > >When renovations are complete, the old building will be used for office >space and record storage. > >Starcher, who is also overseeing the Jacobs building cleanup, said he did >not sort through the five floors of piled papers and books, but allowed t= >he >county clerk, circuit clerk, prosecuting attorney and assessor to walk >through the building and take what they wanted. Everything else was >discarded. > >Local historians believe some records, including 10 leather-bound pre-Civ= >il >War Justice of the Peace books, were thrown away because no one in the >courthouse set them aside to be kept. > >Because Justice of the Peace books are not considered permanent records, >Starcher said the county could have thrown them away years ago. > >But the former Justice of the Peace said he does not know for sure if the >Justice of the Peace books dating back to 1842 were destroyed because he >does not know what the historical books look like or why anyone would wan= >t >them. > >"I don't know why anyone would want to look at those anyway," he asked. "= >I >guess it is all in the eye of the beholder." =A0=A0Starcher said even if >historians thought the information in the books was valuable, the books >themselves were damaged from years of sitting in a dusty, nearly abandone= >d >building. > >"That building was burned three times and everything in there was rained >on. Some of the windows were broken out," he said. "Anything in there was >scarred, scratched or torn up." > >The county commissioner said the Jacobs building still is in such poor >condition he is afraid to allow genealogists and historians to search >through the remaining records at the old building. > >"We couldn't keep all five floors of junk and garbage and renovate that >building," he said. "We thought we would do something better for the town >and the county and renovate the building. That took precedence over a >couple of books that might have been thrown away."=20 >* * * * * > >MY COMMENTS: > >First of all, thank each of you who have contributed your emails and >letters in protest of the actions by the Marion County Commissioners. I >was amazed at how quickly the masses responded despite our physical >separation (this 'ole Internet is pretty good, eh?). The pressure we >created was felt by all the local government, citizens and especially the >county commissioners of Marion County. =20 > >The jury is still out on whether all the materials that were dumped were, >indeed, unrelated to the object of genealogy or historian researchers. I >don't feel comfortable that their "definition" of what was thrown away >excludes materials that would be of benefit to some! We imagined the >worst, since Mr. Cody Starcher admitted there was not an inventory of wha= >t >was tossed. With no inventory, we were all free to imagine what was in >that pile, and Mr. Starcher can not prove us wrong. He has no idea he >didn't toss some historical or cultural treasure, no matter how minor it >may have been to him. > >This is a democracy, and we do have a right to be told before public >records are thrown away. Our outrage continues to be about our paid >officials making unilateral decisions such as was made. They should not = >be >allowed to decide who to invite in to "take what they want" and then to >decide to have the rest hauled away before anyone else could see it. =20 > >It was Cody Starcher's secretive actions that raised the suspicions of th= >e >local Marion County historians and, eventually, the newspapers and then >each of us. We were all outraged over Commissioner Starcher's arbitrary >exercise of power, and we've done well to spotlight it! We have all acte= >d >in the spirit of the early American Revolutionaries (many of our ancestor= >s) >who demanded public officials be accountable to the public. As a friend >said, "we showed up with Email pitchforks, and Cody didn't like it." > >Hopefully, our actions this week will serve to keep records that are left >in Marion County and elsewhere preserved. Thank you again for helping to >spotlight a wrongful action. If you should want to continue that pressur= >e, >that is up to you. An address list of the Marion County Commissioners is >below: > > > BOARD OFCOMMISSIONERS > >PRESIDENT, James E Sago (304-367-5400) =09 >200 Jackson Street / Fairmont, WV 26554 =20 > >Commissioner Cecily Enos (304-367-5400) >200 Jackson Street / Fairmont, WV 26554 > >Commissioner Cody Starcher (304-367-5400) >200 Jackson Street / Fairmont, WV 26554 > >Assessor Thomas Davis (304-367-5410) >200 Jackson Street / Fairmont, WV 26554 > >Circuit Clerk Barbara Core (304-367-5360) >PO Box 1269 / Fairmont, WV 26554 > >County Clerk Janice Cosco (304-367-5440) >PO Box 1267 / Fairmont, WV 26554 > >* * * * * > >Pam Mullinax >E-Mail: > pmullinax@mindspring.com > > > >--------------53944F92A63-- > > >==== USGENWEB-ALL Mailing List ==== >The USGenWeb Project is not a commercial project. > >