The walls of Russ Malone's office are lined with his city's history. Rows of leather-bound volumes dating back as early as 1777, document the governing of generations past.
"Now is the time to salvage them all," Malone said yesterday, looking proudly at some of the old records laid out before him.
As city clerk, Malone is responsible for keeping track and making a record of every vote the City Council makes and every rule they pass. Every time the mayor sends a written communication to the council, it goes by Malone's desk.
"It's time for me to concentrate on preservation of records," said Malone, who has been spending the summer organizing old files. "We don't want to get to a point where you turn a page and it crumbles."
In about a week, the city will be receiving new scanning equipment that will make it possible to get old records onto computer disks and files, which is something that already happens to any files coming today. Malone says the original records will get stored in climate controlled vaults.
"These are historical records, it's about preservation for the future," Malone said.
Malone said the city would probably need about 300 square feet of vault space and $300,000 to $400,000 to preserve existing records. The money could come out of the Community Preservation Act fund, he said.
As he sorted through files, Malone pulled out old voting records and rule books and paired them up with City Hall documents from the past few years. The display will be exhibited at the National Archives and Records on Trapelo Road during Historic Waltham Week in Sept. 14-23.
"We're taking the old records and comparing them to how we do things today," Malone said.
Carefully opening up a 1777 book of orders, Malone turns printed pages that have so far remained intact and completely legible. Skimming a few orders, readers will notice the linguistic contrast from today. Instead of using "ask" or "request" orders from that time said "pray."
Before Malone came to the clerk's office in 2001, the city had just begun putting some records onto computer disks. The new scanning system, he said, will allow them to continue the process. Right now Malone can pull up orders dating back to 1932 by searching the computer files. The city will also be able to scan vital birth, death, and marriage records.
"This will all save the handling and re-handling of records," he said.
As vice president of the Massachusetts Towns Clerks Association, Malone said he goes to conventions regularly and the subject of records preservation comes up again and again.
"It seems like we're headed in the right direction," he said.
For Malone, records of city government provide are important educational tools for the general public. When someone wants to know why a zoning guideline or ordinance exists, he says, the person must be able to trace the history. The records, he says, ensure government accountability.
Malone, 64, was born in Waltham as one of seven children to Sicilian immigrants. His family has a long history of public service, leaving him with a personal investment in preserving public records. His mother was on the Recreation Board, his uncle was a court clerk, his brother Joe is a former state treasurer, and his sister, Rosalie Tashjian, is a school principal married to Waltham's director of Consolidated Public Works.
"We've been around Waltham for a long time," he said. "It would be a disaster to lose any records."
Nicole Haley can be reached at nhaley@cnc.com or 781-398-8004.
