Digitalization- How we made our documents more accessible to everyone

 

Update: Since this story has been posted, the Township Offices have moved to 5858 King Highway.

 

Comstock Charter Township has a lot of documents.

“We had an issue when builders or an architect wanted to access blueprints,” said Comstock Charter Township Superintendent Scott Hess, “Even though they were categorized, we had thousands and thousands of blueprints.”

Sometimes, that meant looking for a needle in a haystack.

Superintendent Hess said, “Every time that somebody asked for a certain print it took us at least a couple of hours to dig through all the prints.”

Citizens, contractors, and other customers need to access blueprints and permits for buildings within the township.

Which was a lot of painstaking work for township staff to access.

Superintendent Hess said, “we’d have to go find the document, which took some time, then we’d have to have an outside service like Kalblue and make a copy, then we’d have to pick up the copy, and then the customer/citizen would have to pay for that copy.”

To make retrieving these documents more efficient for the township and customers, we began digitalizing our documents in May 2018.

It wasn’t a simple job.

“Taking each blueprint, we had to take all the staples out, scan that blueprint, and we’d format that blueprint so it could be categorized by streets and street numbers,” Superintendent Hess said, “the process took approximately 2 years, we used a current township staff member, we bought a scanner, and let that staff member organize them. It was more efficient that way.”

But we got the job done.

Now, all the blueprints in the township are safely stored on a server that is easy for township staff to use and accessible to the public.

Superintendent Hess said “The process took approximately 2 years, we used a current township staff member, we bought a scanner, and let that staff member organize them. It was more efficient that way.”

And it was well worth it, with all the necessary documents quickly and send them over with an email, at no cost to customers.

Superintendent Hess said, “When we go now to look for a print, we just pull up the street name and the address and not only is the blueprint of the house there but all permitting. So if they pulled a plumbing permit or sewer permit, any type of permit was also involved.”

The digitalization process is ongoing; however, it is easier.

As new buildings pop up around Comstock, the Kalamazoo Area Building Authority sends us their already digitalized blueprints, which we can easily store.

Going forward, the township will continue to digitalize more documents you may need.

Superintendent Hess said, “Next we’re making sure we have all sewer easements, plats, and anything that needs to be accessible by customers and citizens.”

Although these documents are not available online for the public, you can request whatever you need from the township office.

The township office is located at 6138 King Highway and you can call us at (269) 381-2360.