Sorry this is so long. -----Original Message----- From: Linda Lewis <cityslic@ix.netcom.com> To: USGENWEB-ALL-L@rootsweb.com <USGENWEB-ALL-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, June 27, 1998 12:55 AM Subject: [USGENWEB-ALL-L] FYI >Because the other articles were reported here, the third article should >be, also. > >Linda > > >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maintenance workers cleared away six BFI Dumpsters of outdated files and 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recording every penny spent at the county clerk's office, and outdated 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For years the Jacobs building housed these outdated records, but earlier 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. > ____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________ Fred Kunchick GSCS[SW] USN Retired Pennsauken NJ kunchick@bellatlantic.net Editor of The Northern KIMBALL On-Line Newsletter Member: NEHGS Camden County (NJ) Historical Society Lo/Lathrop Family Association Kimball Family Association Towne Family Association Home Page: URL: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/7158/index.html Coos County, NH USGenWeb CC. 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