DUR board discusses permanent file storage options

The Red Oak Downtown Urban Renewal Board tackled a light agenda at the regular monthly meeting April 6.
The DUR Board had no grant requests up for first round approval. DUR Chairman Roger Vial said based on the board’s current budget status, a hiatus in grant requests wasn’t necessarily a bad situation for the moment.
“We’re kind of low on funding until we get our next bit of funding for the 2022-23 Fiscal Year in June, so it’s okay if we’re in a bit of a lull right now. Based on the applications we’ve already received, we’re at a negative funding balance of about $2,500 until June,” Vial said.
Two projects were awaiting final approval, the first project being 317 E. Reed St., Mark Jackson’s Red Oak Hardware Hank and Hallmark Gold Crown Store. The grant request was for the replacement of multiple single-pane windows. At the time of the meeting, no new information had been received. DUR Board member Mark Jackson said the project was on hold awaiting materials.
“We’re still waiting for the windows to become available. He’s going to be replacing the windows on the front and the back of the building,” Jackson explained.
The other project awaiting final approval was 410 E. Coolbaugh St., the Red Oak Grand Theatre, a project to tuckpoint the north elevation and inside parapet wall. The project was estimated at $28,744, and the grant request was for $7,186. No new information on that project was received either.
DUR Board Member Marty Barnett said she believed the theatre had applied through the community foundation for that project.
“I believe they were allowed that full amount from the foundation, so I would think that request outdated and is off the table, and they probably aren’t aware it’s still being considered by the DUR Board,” Barnett said.
Barnett said she would research to confirm that the project had been paid for out of the community foundation, and they could discuss the funding request at the May DUR meeting.
The DUR Board also discussed a permanent location for file storage for the DUR Board. Vial said he had hard copies of all the files, and information on a personal laptop, but he felt it wasn’t enough.
“To me, more than one of us, possibly two of us, need to have a meeting with Red Oak city administrator Brad Wright, and have a discussion about where we’re going to put this stuff,” commented Vial.
DUR Board member Ann Carder said that in conversations with former Red Oak Mayor Bill Billings, he indicated there was plenty of storage space in the lower level of the Red Oak City Hall. Vial said he felt a need to have the documents both saved as a hard copy, and scanned.
“I have a whole box of files, which would mean we’d probably need a day to remove staples and scan documents and save them to a folder. It’s something we need to do anyway, and it would be beneficial to have access to a high-speed scanner,” Vial advised.
Scanning the documents to a shared drive or the Cloud, Vial said, would allow him to have easier access to the files from any location. He also felt it would be a good idea to have a scan of the files kept in possession of Red Oak City Clerk Mary Bolton.
“I can scan them and email them to Mary, then once I get a new file, I can scan it completely, and then send it to Mary and she can add it to the records at city hall. The pain right now is that there’s a whole box of them. That’s the way we’ve done it for 20 years, and that was largely because we didn’t have access to this technology 20 years ago,” Vial said.
Carder felt that it was a good idea to have everything saved electronically as files that could be shared would be a big benefit to the DUR Board.
“The city would have them, but they wouldn’t have to do mch work themselves to have them, and if, heaven forbid, you lost your laptop, you’d have a backup of the files saved with the City of Red Oak,” stated Carder.
Additionally, Vial said that the documents did not have any sensitive information on them, and all that was on the application was information that could be found publicly anyway.
Vial was hopeful that by the next DUR meeting, he would have all the paper files scanned electronically.
The next question to be raised was a set location for receiving DUR applications. Barnett said she believed the Red Oak Chamber and Industry Association had the applications. DUR Board Member Pete Crawford said another logical location would be Red Oak City Hall.
Vial said having the applications at city hall was a good location, however, the information was outdated. Carder agreed that the online information on the city’s website was very old.
“The city’s website does have the application and a letter explaining the function of the DUR, but it goes back to your predecessor, Jan Norris. The application also may be dated from the one we use. If we meet with the city, it would be a good opportunity for us to discuss the outdated information on the website,” advised Carder.
Plans were made to discuss the file storage and website information at a future date with the City of Red Oak.