Washington counties and cities will soon benefit from grant funding awarded by the Local Records Grant Program administered by the Washington State Archives, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State. The grants will help local governments preserve and protect their documents and history.

The City of Edmonds will soon be able to organize its file room, Jefferson County will have access to new technology tools, and the Ridgefield School District can start digitally scanning its records. In all, 33 out of 91 applicants received grant funding, a total of $642,678 out of $1,861,708 requested.

There are three types of grants:

Type of grant	Number awarded	Funds awarded	Percentage of funds
Organize the file room	17	$164,361	25.6%
Technology tools	7	$158,713	24.7%
Digital imaging	9	$319,604	49.7%

“These grants are vital to small government entities that rely on them to assist with their records storage,” said State Archivist Steve Excell. “Without this program, many of these historical records would be withering away in a closet in a forgotten back room. Thankfully, this year the Legislature extended the Local Records Grant Program so cities and counties can continue receiving state assistance managing their records.”

The Local Records Grant Program was established by the Legislature in 2017 to help improve records retention, management, and disclosure of public records. Any local government agency or entity, such as counties, cities, towns, fire districts, school districts, hospital districts, port districts, public utility districts, transit authorities, and other special purpose districts are eligible.

For a list of all the grant awardees in the most recent cycle, as well as a map of Washington depicting all the local governments that have received assistance through the program, visit the State Archives’ website. To see how other local governments across Washington have been assisted by the program, visit the State Archives’ website.