Freestone County District Clerk Teresa Black has filed her Preservation and Restoration Records Plan for 2024, which will be considered during a public hearing at Freestone County Commissioner’s Court at 9:00 a.m. on September 29, 2023 in the Commissioner’s Courtroom of the Freestone County Courthouse in Fairfield, Texas.
(See public notice on page 7-A in this print edition, on newsstands now.)
The purpose of the plan is to define the restoration and Preservation, digital capture, storage retention and management of archived records belonging to the District Clerk’s Office. It is the intent of the District Clerk to follow guidelines set by the Texas State Library and Archive Commissioner.
The goal is to reproduce and archive all 1990 forward Civil, Criminal, Family, Juvenile documents, regardless of type, as efficiently as possible. The District Clerk’s Office is also looking at restoring records, suspending or reducing deterioration of public records, improving the public access to these documents in a manner that reduces the risk of deterioration, and possible reducing paper documents. The District Clerk’s Office will be obtaining bids from several vendors with regards to this goal.
The District Clerk’s Office is also requesting one Part-Time Employee to assist with packing up records and keeping records in order during the process.
The scope of the plan includes the following:
–All District Clerk records filed with the District Clerk
–Plans to restore and preserve records with significant value
–Future plans are to improve public and governmental access.
This plan addresses the restoration and preservation needs of the District Clerk Records Archive. No other departments are addressed.
As to inventory, currently the District Clerk’s Office holds over 1,000 books regarding civil and criminal actions.
Regarding Restoration and Preservation of Permanent Records, after reducing and /or reproducing these records, the District Clerk plans to utilize the space for the growing number of cases occurring daily. The space will allow better access of record by the public.
The District Court Archive Fund was established by Senate Bill 1685, which provides that the District Clerk of Freestone County may begin collecting a fee of $10, as approved by the Freestone County Commissioner’s Court on September 8, 2009, for filing in the District Civil Court of Freestone County. This fund became effective with the fiscal budget for Freestone County on October 1, 2009.
The District Clerk will continue collecting this fee January 1, 2024.
All monies collected will be placed in a line item in budget labeled District Clerk Archive Fund to be used for the restoration and preservation of records in the District Clerk’s Office.
For questions, contact Freestone County District Clerk Teresa Black at 903-389-2534.
