Cumberland Archive Building Project Moves Forward

Cumberland County Archives building finally moving forward after almost eight years in the making.

County Mayor Allen Foster said funding was approved for the estimated $2 million project. He said the county needed more space and better storage for the archives than where it currently resides.

“It’s a lot of concrete, a lot of steel, and just a little bit of humidity control and temperature control, things like that,” Foster said. “But we just needed a better place and more storage for it. And this should put Cumberland County in a good place with archives for many, many years. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime project, and we’re the ones that were able to do it.”

The archives are currently held in a historic church. He said the newer part of the old church will be torn down and the historic part will be preserved.

Foster said the bids have been accepted, and projects of this nature typically take 12 to 18 months for completion. He said the project will be funded through certain fees that have been put on county clerk services.

“There are legal requirements for documents we have to keep plus there are some with a historical significance that we have to keep but we have to keep documents in a decent facility with standards so they don’t deteriorate,” Foster said.  “Years ago a small fee was added on to a couple of transactions taht’s actually go to pay through this. They go through the county clerk’s office. So the fees for documents that have to be stored are actually going to pay for them.”