...or paper shredder, to be precise! WARC Speeds Ahead 37,000 boxes... and 98% of it's paper records. That's the capacity of the GNWT's new Western Arctic Records Centre (WARC), which opened in February. It's in the newly renovated, GNWT central warehouse on Yellowknife's Byrne Road, across from McDonald's. Bigger and Cheaper Storage GNWT Records Manager Janet Pennington comments, "The Government's previous smaller Headquarters storage areas were completely filled. Also, the Hodgson Building storage area was located in prime downtown space. The new centre is computerized, more economical and bigger – the 16,000 square foot shelving area has twice the storage space of the old areas. All Headquarters GNWT records can now be conveniently housed in one location. As well, GNWT Records Management staff have relocated to the centre." Bill Kaip, with PW&S's North Slave Regional office, managed the renovations project with Pennington's input, and he's pleased with the results. Bill explains, "The building became available when the liquor warehouse was privatized. For our records centre, we used national standards, plus we closely followed the design that the Yukon Government used for its 3-year- old records centre, learning from their construction and operational experiences, and making a few related improvements." Inside, the centre is physically imposing. The expansive box storage area is as big as a hockey rink – about 80 x 200 feet. The 22 rows of shelving are a total of 18 feet high. Two rows of boxes are stored on each shelf. Staff use a scissors-lift (see photo) to reach the top shelves. They also follow standard safety procedures, wearing hard hats and steel-toed boots inside the storage area. Felicia Cash, Records Analyst and Access to Information Coordinator, points out, "As well as consolidating HQ records, we'll move Regional long-term records – those that have to be kept longer than 7 years – from the West's Regional centres in Inuvik, Smith and Simpson into the new centre. That will take some pressure off the Regional centres, which are reaching capacity. The largest Regional centre, in Smith, holds 3000 boxes. Russ Jones and Karen Johnson on the Scissors-lift. | Next Page | Our mission is to deliver quality services to satisfy the needs of our customers, while achieving the best value for government, communities, businesses and residents. For the information of our customers Contact: Janet Pennington Asset Management Division Public Works & Services Phone: (867) 920-8035 Fax: (867) 873-0247 www.gov.nt.ca/PWS/newsl1.htm