East Hampton Town moves toward digitizing municipal paper documents

East Hampton Town Board members are considering digitizing files for all municipal departments.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said during a board work session Tuesday that the current system of storing information on paper is "inefficient" and called the town behind the times in converting its documents into a digital format.

The digitizing would begin with the building department, which has the most documents, officials said.

A digital system would make information available to anyone looking to access records kept by town departments. Cantwell said the digitalization would also free up storage space that is now used to store paper documents.

The cost of digitizing is to be determined after a company is selected to handle the project if the board approves moving in that direction.

One estimate of $609,000 was presented to the board members Tuesday that would cover the beginning of the digitalizing process, but Cantwell said additional study was needed to make sure that figure is "competitive."