News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
White County Government set to rent three storage units to help provide adequate space for the storage of court documents.
The requirements of having to be stored in a controlled climate and fireproof facility have made it difficult for the county to find storage locations. White County Circuit Court Clerk Beverly Jolley said the storage units will provide space within the office temporarily but is still not ideal.
“See the problem is anywhere that we have got files we have to travel,” Jolley said. “Now I know it’s not far down to the storage building but still we have to travel, and some weeks six to eight to ten times a week and there’s some weeks we don’t have to go but there are a lot of weeks that we have to go a lot.”
The county will allocate $1,500 to rent the storage units for three months as temporary storage and reevaluate long-term solutions at a later date. Jolley said she hopes the county commission will follow through on a previous plan that was proposed in 2010 about adding on to the justice center to provide more space.
“When new administration came in those plans disappeared,” Jolley said. “I still have a copy of them that I have told the commission that I have, but we would have a new office on the other end plus an upstairs storage and I think that would do for a long time.”
Jolley said the documents have not yet been moved and that her office staff will need some help moving the documents.
“I’ll have to have help and I’ll have to see if the sheriff can loan me some inmates to help move them,” Jolley said. “Because me and my girls are not going to move them. The court does not slow down because we don’t have room.”
Jolley said she plans to move the older files that they have not had to go back for. Jolley said by law they are required to keep court files for 99 years. Jolley said there are paperless options but the county still has to keep a hard copy of each file.
