Antrim Township trims files alphabetically
By PAT FRIDGEN Echo Pilot

Antrim Township employees Sylvia House, Renee Perrin and Rose Knable pare duplicate records to create more storage space in the filing cabinets at the back of the room.

June 18 was not just another day at the office. A number of Antrim Township employees showed up at 7 a.m. to begin purging the eight file cabinets in the meeting room. The purpose was to discard duplicates of documents to free up storage space, as well as to be prepared should the township decide to scan its records, said assistant zoning officer Sylvia House.

Four or five employees at a time sat at tables throughout the room, thumbing through paper after paper. By 11 a.m. they were on the Cs. By day's end they were in the E drawer. They worked through correspondence, plans, applications and review sheets, some dating to 1968.

"Our predecessors kept everything," laughed House. "It's taking a lot longer than we anticipated."

The haul at 4:30 p.m was two large trash bags full of Antrim's past. Since the secure method in which the records were to be destroyed had yet to be determined, the excess was temporarily stored in another corner of Antrim property. A second work day was scheduled and the employees will keep plugging away.