The City of Williamsport is in the process of having a data management company document scanning and the digital conversion service of paperwork at the condemned City Hall on West Fourth Street.

City Council recently approved a resolution authorizing award of a professional services agreement to Data Management International for this service, as presented by Kris Black, city information technology coordinator. The agreement is for $120,000, with the funding source being a Williamsport Lycoming Competitive grant from the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania (FCFP), which was secured with the coordinated efforts of Melanie Shutt, city grants administrator, and Valerie Fessler, executive director of the city department of community and economic development and planning, Black said. The data scanning service is from New Castle, Delaware.

This is one of the steps that is needed to preserve the documentation that has to be relocated out of the building should it ever be sold. Public Financial Management, the city consultant in its Strategic Management Planning Process, 90 % of which was paid through a grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, recommended this digitalization of paper records be done.

PFM also recommended city officials take this step as part of the process to place the building in a better position for going on the market for sale, which is included in the 2026 budget. There was a $560,000 entry in the expected budget revenue side.

Black said he put this project out to bid on Pennbid hoping to get three or four respondents and got 19. With a limited budget, Black said he had asked for a per page price.

The papers are in the basement, what’s left in community development department and some in the first floor lobby, which was for streets and parks department also known as public works.

That is for the total amount, Black said, adding “it doesn’t matter if they have to make one or 30 trips.” The materials in the basement will be moved up to the first floor where everything will be located for the company to scan.

Mayor Derek Slaughter said there’s a plan for the historical maps. “They’re going up to Reighard Avenue,” he said, where the city Bureau of Codes office is located.

“This will get rid of the vast majority of paper documents that remain in City Hall,” Black said.

A couple years ago, the city adopted a state statute for scanning and must follow that, Slaughter said.

Black said the finance department “did an awesome job with the materials there.”

Councilman David Dussinger, an engineer by trade, said once this process is done, “we need to look into some sort of software that can access this. Some sort of cloud platform where we can access it and get better visibility of it long term.”

Black agreed but replied, “let’s get them digitized first and then there’ll be certain fields that they’d be categorized in.”

Councilwoman Liz Miele noted her appreciation to Jennifer Wilson, FCFP president and CEO, and the team at the foundation for the grant and for recognizing the important step of getting paper documents scanned digitally and preserved.