AGENDA #4b

 

MEMORANDUM

 

TO:                   Mayor and Town Council

 

FROM:            W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

 

SUBJECT:       Restoration of the Town’s Oldest Minute Books

 

DATE:             March 1, 2004

 

 

Enactment of the attached budget amendment would provide funds for restoration and preservation of the Town’s three oldest Minute Books.

 

BACKGROUND

 

Adopted minutes of Town Council meetings now are printed on acid-free paper and bound in special binders for long-term storage.  These binders are deacidified to protect the records from discoloration, embrittlement, and other types of deterioration.  This process was first implemented in Chapel Hill in early 1956 and is widely used as an accepted archival standard.

 

DISCUSSION

 

Minute Books No. 1, 2, and 3 are the oldest records of the Town that are stored in the Town Archives.  Book 1 covers the period July 17, 1869 through May 8, 1899; Book 2 covers the period May 8, 1899 through April 27, 1915; and, Book 3 covers the period May 8, 1915 through August 17, 1925.  These records were hand-written up until May of 1910.  Beginning with the May 15, 1910 minutes, the records are in typed form.

 

As shown on the attached photographs (Attachment 1), these three Minute Books are badly deteriorated and stained.  The binders are brittle and the spines are broken, causing the sewn-in pages to pull out of the binder.  The pages are discolored and are easily torn, and have become too fragile to handle.  In many instances, the ink has faded to the point that many of the entries are difficult to read.

 

We have contacted a vendor that specializes in the restoration of books and manuscripts, recommended to us by the NC Department of Archives and History.  Their representatives have examined the three volumes and proposed a process to restore and preserve these records (Attachment 2).

 

The process would include:

 

·              Volumes would be unbound and ink solubility tested.

·              Pages would be prewashed in distilled water several times, then deacidified.

·              Previous repairs would be removed (for example, tape).

·              Tears and/or cracks would be mended using either Japanese tissue or archival adhesive.

·              After deacidification and repair, pages would be encapsulated in archival quality film and sealed on all four sides.

·              After encapsulation, each volume would be split into two parts and bound into Enduro Heritage Recorder post binders for permanent storage.

 

Because of the deterioration of the original binders, it is not possible to restore them.  It will be necessary to dismantle them in order to remove the pages intact for restoration.

 

The cost of restoring these three volumes is estimated at $4,800.  We were able to identify $1,000 from the Town Clerk’s current year budget to assist in funding this project.

 

RECOMMENDATION

 

We recommend enactment of the attached budget ordinance to provide funding for the restoration of Minute Books 1, 2 and 3.

 

ATTACHMENTS

 

  1. Photographs of Minutes Books to be restored (p. 4).
  2. Cost Estimates from Joseph J. Mariotti Co., Inc. (p. 6).

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND “THE ORDINANCE CONCERNING APPROPRIATIONS AND THE RAISING OF REVENUE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING JULY 1, 2003” (2004-03-01/O-1)

 

BE IT ORDAINED by the Council of the Town of Chapel Hill that the Budget Ordinance entitled “An Ordinance Concerning Appropriations and the Raising of Revenue for the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2003” as duly adopted on June 9, 2003 and the same is hereby amended as follows:

 

This the 1st day of March, 2004.