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HOGANSVILLE — The Hogansville City Council voted to enter into an agreement Tuesday with the Troup County Archives to store its vital records.

This city is required to keep and maintain certain vital records for a minimum set number of years. Hogansville agreed to work with the Archives to assist with record retention at their facility in LaGrange. This also includes digitalizing vital records, which may include maps, plans, council meetings, financial records, etc.

This new partnership will begin on July 1 prior to the new fiscal year.

The cost for the Archives services will be $28,000, paid monthly throughout the contract and will be renewed automatically every year.

Currently, the Archives perform all of the record retention for the Troup County School System, Troup County Government and the city of LaGrange.

“They would also help us with record destruction,” Hogansville City Manager Jonathan Lynn said.

“Our records will periodically age out, and they will help us do the record destruction, but they will not do it without the approval of staff to get that process done. They will handle the full gambit of services.”

Hogansville Mayor Jake Ayers commented Hogansville was behind with its record retention and inquired how long it would take for the Archives to get the city up to par.

Lynn said there was not an established timeline.

“First, they will take all of the old records, then as they can they will start the process of archiving and digitizing as much as they can, but they will immediately start with new records, with that same process,” he said. “We will be current, we will just be playing catch up on what is in the past.”

The vote was unanimous. Councilmember Mandy Neese, who is a member of the Troup County Archives board, recused herself.

However, she did comment that the partnership could further connect Hogansville citizens with its past.

“We would also like for Hogansville citizens, [if] their family is passing and they have stuff that we would need to keep for our city […] we would like for people to know to start bringing that stuff in,” she said. “We need to preserve our history, and as people are going, we need to bring it here.”

Lynn said the city found a lot of historic documents during its renovation of the Royal Theater that can now be properly preserved.

“We even found C.O. Lambs college diplomas, so for those of you who don’t know who he is, that’s a cool thing to research,” Lynn said.

“He [constructed] the amphitheater and the [Royal Theater] here.”