Township scanning project contract awarded
By Dana Casadei
Come 2025 AmeriScan Imaging will begin the hefty task of digitizing all of Bloomfield Township’s legacy records, as part of phase two for the township’s scanning project, following unanimous approval by the board of trustees on Monday, November 11.
The upcoming project, set to start in 2025 and be completed by the end of 2026, will only digitize those records that need permanent retention, and also any incoming documents that do as well.
Due to there being no one in the township who is a document manager professional, clerk Martin Brook was happy to let Taylor Lydon, president and owner of Security Archives Data Management lead during the presentation. The township used his company to help them pick the best fit for this specific project.
Lydon said they were seeking quotes from qualified imaging service companies to provide digital imaging services; produce digital images from collections of documents and drawings; provide metadata for all digital images and delivery suitable for uploading into Laserfiche Cloud; all work must comply with requirements specified in the Michigan Records Reproduction Act; and all work must be completed by Dec. 31, 2026 in line with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) rules and requirements. This particular project is primarily being paid for through ARPA.
They received eight responses, who were all very qualified candidates, according to Lydon. Their estimates were based off of an estimated 3,000,000 pages and 250,000 drawings that will need to be scanned.
AmeriScan Imaging came in at the lowest bid of $445,638.55. Of that estimated cost, $442,037.15 will be allocated from ARPA funding.
Originally, $500,000 from the township’s ARPA funds were budgeted for this project. With AmeriScan Imaging completing this leg of the project, they will actually be under the original budget.
AmeriScan Imaging isn’t new to the township either. They have also already worked with the township through their Documents on Demand, the portion on the township website that allows people to download everything from meeting minutes to packets for the board of trustees meetings.
If the township wants to destroy the documents that are digitized, they’ll have to ensure they follow the state of Michigan’s quality assurance standards. Within those standards there will have to be an independent quality check that a certain percentage of the digital images that require permanent retention are legible.
Brook said that after the documents are digitized that they plan to destroy the rest unless there is a historical significance to the record. He will return before the board for a recommendation for an outside consultant who will check the quality control is present so they can confidently destroy the records. This won’t be needed until they start the work next year.
