The Village of Great Neck and its building department are “bursting at the seams” from excessive files, two officials said at a village board meeting last Tuesday, leading to a proposal to digitize all the building department records for safe keeping.
Described as a “substantial project,” Village Clerk-Treasurer Joe Gill said this would duplicate every single building department file, including property files, closed and open permit files, records from the board of zoning appeals and architectural review committee, building permit applications and other papers.
“We’re bursting at the seams in this building and this is a project that is inevitable at some point,” Village Clerk-Treasurer Joe Gill said at a board meeting.
“It’s got to be 50 filing cabinets plus all the flat files,” Gill later added.
Gill said the work would likely cost about $220,000, according to an estimate from Siri Systems, although the number is subject to change based on further analysis of the building files, and take four to five months.
“Bursting at the seams is a good description,” Robert Barbach, the building superintendent, echoed later in the meeting. “The amount of activity we have seen the past couple of years has been increasing significantly. The contemplated activity is going to push us way over the line and we need to reduce our footprint as opposed to increase it.”
Were the proposal to be approved, Gill and Barbach said the original records would likely remain on file for a few years after they are converted into data files available via a data server and remotely.
“The amount of money is simply to convert paper to a data file,” Barbach said. “That’s all this is.”
The Village of Great Neck would be among many municipalities and villages embarking on such a project like East Hampton, Gill said.
In unrelated business, there was debate around the topic of LED street lighting in the village and trustees introduced a local law to bring one residential zone up to date when it comes to accessory buildings like garages.
