Wood County Circuit Clerk Celeste Ridgway informs the Wood County Commission of the shredding of old county records on Monday. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

PARKERSBURG — More than 12,000 pounds of records have been shredded as part of a project to erase old records from county offices, Wood County officials announced Monday.

Circuit Clerk Celeste Ridgway appeared before the Wood County Commission to discuss the recently completed shredding project. Six county offices were involved, with the majority of cases coming from the district attorney’s and circuit clerk’s offices, she said.

Participating were the circuit clerk and district attorney’s offices, the county clerk, the sheriff’s office, the sheriff’s tax office and the assessor’s office, Ridgway said.

Gator Shredding was on site for three days, from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, producing 503 96-gallon containers containing 9,604 pounds of books, 287 pounds of x-rays and tapes and 2,280 pounds of evidence, according to a county commission report.

Pace Shredding completed the project the following week of three storage rooms filled with cabinets and boxes of previously scanned and digitized files, according to Ridgeway. The company filled 115 96-gallon containers with shredded documents from the circuit clerk’s office.

In total, the containers of shredded documents would have filled four 48-foot trailers, Ridgway said.

Records storage is a major issue for the county, which has taken steps to reduce the amount of old records in storage.

“I knew there was a problem that needed to be resolved.” » Ridgway said.

The county has encouraged as much digitalization as possible, according to Commission Chairman Blair Couch.

Historians worry about old chancery records, Ridgway said. These were not shredded, she added.

Chancery records through 1859 were turned over to the State Archives Division in Charleston, she said. Chancery records from 1860 will be housed in the circuit clerk’s office, Ridgway said.

Chancery records are useful in genealogical research and may include information about lands and estates, heirs, and other information.

In other business Monday, the commission:

* Reappointed Jennifer Christopher to the Wood County Historic Landmarks Commission.

*Renamed Kenny Harris, Todd Wines, Cory Bean, Terry Moore, Benjamin Auville, Anthony Edwards, Barry Justice, Sheriff Rick Woodyard, Carl Powell, Aaron Fleenor, Shawn Graham, John Cumpston, Shawn Marshall and Jake Carr at the local emergency room of Wood County. Planning Committee.

* Appointed Woodyard, Prosecutor Pat Lefebure, Chris Rutherford, Malorie Chadock, Jeff Reed, Dick Waybright and Tonya Fought to the Wood County Community Corrections Board.

* Appointed Vienna Mayor-elect Chad Emrick, Megan Lake, Patrick Bryan, Susan Barber, Tim Coffman, Marjean Kennedy, Jim Fawcett and Ed McDonough to the Wood County Development Authority.

* Appointed Marvin Kerr, Bill Gandee, Daniel Hickman, Greg Herrick, Marlin Sams, Chris Hoffman and Jim Stage to the Wood County Planning Commission.

The commission also approved the state Local Economic Development Grant request for $41,500.

Jess Mancini can be reached at [email protected]