Palisadian., 1925-07-10
To the Editor:


of records, at an annual cost of $780,
900, on the plea that there is INSULT
cient room in the court house for Ell
ther the county clerk or the county
clerk and register of deeds Cf we
are foolish enough to revive that un-
necessary officel, l append hereto the
detail of the plan | submitted t. the
Board of Freeholders some months
ago, without any action, however, on
their part
The district court room on the sec
ond floor of the court house is used
on the average less than one day
week. The district court judge could
Just as well hold court in the supreme
or common pleas court room, the
freeholders' room or the tax board
room. One or two of the four are al
ways available.
The district court when vacated
could then be partitioned in half, the
surrogate's department moved into
one half (giving exactly the space it
has now, while the other half would
be available for other county Offices
court room, which is now two stories
high, can be made into two floors.
There's lots of room in the court
house.
The court division of the county
clerks office would then move across
the hall to the vacated surrogate s
quarters, adding Immediately % per
of ha
registry division.
SO much for utilizing existing avail
able space Now let us see what can
be done in the growing registry divi-
sion to meet it's needs in years to
come as we'll as to relieve present
congestion.
The present record books, OF which
there are close to 5000, contain on
an average 676 pages of double spaced
'pica" type typewriting. The paper
is very thick. There is much tough
er, stronger, long-fibered opaque pa
per made, half the thickness, which
will permit of 1850 pages in the same
binding. In addition to being more
durable, one book will do the work
There Is no necessity for double
spacing the typewriting. 1t can be sim
gle spaced This will again double
the capacity of the book, so that one
book will do the work and take the
space and place of four.
Someone is sure to say, "But the re-
copied books will lose their identity
as to numbers and paging" Not at
all. Proper number guides at the
head of each page and a special page
ruling in the place of the one now
used, plus proper numbering on the
back and upper side of the book COW
er, will meet that objection.
II four books can thus be COM
pressed into one it requires no mathe-
matician to figure that ultimately
when all the records are recopied
5000 existing books will have shrunk
TO $50, and the capacity of the exist
-9ng racks will have been increased
400 per cent. Or, alternatively, easily
half OF the racks can be removed un-
til needed to make more desk room
for the public using the office.
Perfectly simple, isn't it? And 1t
only needed the application of little
horse sense to solve the problem and
make a hall of records unnecessary
from the standpoint of floor space.
Another thing. Court houses some
times burn down. Can you conceive
what such calamity would mean to
Bergen county and every property
holder in it with the records of land
titles destroyed? This danger can be
eliminated. BY using the thin, tough
paper mentioned above carbon dupli-
Gates of the incoming records can be
made at the insignificant cost of pa
per. carbon paper and inexpensive
temporary bindings These carbon
volumes of new records, together with
the volumes that have been recopied
and withdrawn from use, could be
stored in the unused portion of the
jail against the possible morning
when we wake up to find our court
house in ashes
So much for filing space and
duplication of the records. Let us as
sumo that the Hudson river bridge
goes over and that Bergen countys
population grows from it's present
25O.OOO to 100000 in the next 25
years. At the same rate of increase
the condensed county records Will
have grown from $50 compressed vol
umes to 5000, substantially the same
as we have today Let us assume
that apparently the county clerks
quarters by reason thereof have again
become congested. What then?
Build a hall OF records? Yes, if you
want to. But you don't need to, for
the practically unused west corridor
of the court house between the surro-
gates present quarters and the coun-
ty clerks office can be closed off and
fitted up to take care of another thou
sand volumes and fourteen searchers
desks, while the present map room
and index department, for which
there is room elsewhere if the surro-
gate is moved upstairs, will aecommo-
date Liza volumes and provide desk
room for 80 searchers.
And yet, again, if some day under
the strain of necessity we put book
racks under the standing desks of the
searchers for the little used records,
we can house another 1,150 volumes.
So that, having reduced the present
5000 volumes to $50, instead of hav-
m huild hall nf rnpOrdg now or