Washington State Archives, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State, is awarding $698,510 in grants to 37 government agencies statewide as part of the Local Records Grant Program for 2021-2022.

The Local Records Grant Program helps local-government agencies and entities upgrade their technological resources to improve their records retention and management, and response processes for public records requests.

Qualified agencies and entities applied online in June 2021. During the summer, an Archives Oversight Committee, composed of county auditors, county clerks, and representatives from other local-governments sectors, reviewed the applications and sent its recommendations to Secretary of State Kim Wyman, who approved the funding.

“The Local Records Grant Program ensures local-government agencies and entities have the resources they need to preserve and protect their vital public records,” said State Archivist Steve Excell. “Records management can be painstakingly challenging work, but what our local governments have achieved with the help of these grants is amazing. We are grateful for the opportunity to support their efforts to better manage their records.”

The city of Camas received a $20,000 Organize the File Room grant.

Bernie Bacon, CMC, Camas deputy city clerk, expressed her appreciation for Washington State Archives’ Local Records Grant Program. “Thank you for the selection and for your ongoing support of local government with this grant program. It’s proved critically important as we continually work to improve the city’s records retention, management, and disclosure of public records.”

The city of Bothell received a $29,663.10 Technology Tools grant.

“We are thrilled that Washington State Archives chose to fund our Technology Tools grant application,” said Ingrid Boswell, public works records specialist, city of Bothell. “We will use the grant money to upgrade our antiquated storage system and secure scanners for all records specialists across the city. The scanners will be especially helpful to our fire and police public safety teams.

“We cannot wait to get started on this project and bring the city of Bothell into the 21st century, and improve our customer service both internally and externally.”

Below is a list of 2021-22 grant recipients.

“Without the Local Records Grant Program, the process of digitizing records and launching our district into the ‘paperless’ world would have remained on the to-do wish list for a very long time,” said Anita Tenold, special education administrative coordinator at Ridgefield School District, which was awarded a Digital Imaging grant last year. “The grant was the inspiration for us to dig deep and move this from a dream to reality.”

The Local Records Grant Program was enacted by the state Legislature in 2017 and expanded in 2019, demonstrating Washington’s ongoing commitment to helping resource-strapped local governments preserve their irreplaceable records. Since its inception, the program has awarded over $3.12 million to hundreds of agencies and entities statewide including towns, counties, transit authorities, and fire, school, hospital, port, and public-utility districts.

The next round of the Local Records Grant Program is expected to launch in 2022. For more information, including previous recipients and eligibility requirements, click here, or contact [email protected] or 360-586-4901.