THUNDER BAY — Ten thousand bankers' boxes plus thousands of maps, plans and artifacts take up a lot of room.
Just about every available space at the City of Thunder Bay's archives and records centre on Vickers Street North is now full of assorted documents and other items.
A planned expansion and renovations will provide capacity for about 40 more years worth of material by adding 4,200 square feet, or about 20 per cent of the existing space.
"The permanent archives are out of room. We're down to one more shelf, which we've already started putting records on," said Christina Wakefield, the city archivist.
Once a contractor is selected through a request for proposals, construction should get underway this fall, with completion anticipated by June 2026.
Besides more room for archives, Wakefield said the facility needs additional space for staff to do their work properly, and room to facilitate community outreach.
"We'd like to get more classes coming in, either from the university or the high schools, so this will include a classroom and a new reading room as well as a conservation/processing space."
Municipalities are required by legislation to maintain documents.
"We're keeping things like all the council meeting minutes, all the tax assessment rolls, and things like agreements. We're looking in the archives every day to help answer questions as to what decisions were made in the past, and ways to prove what the city was doing and why," Wakefield said.
She said members of the public and the business community are regular visitors to the facility.
"Environmental assessments are done, so we've got all the aerial photographs. We have a good collection of the Henderson directories (which listed businesses in the city and the addresses, phone numbers and professions of residents). We've got people coming in doing research on their families or things that have happened in the city. So we've got a lot of stuff that's of interest to the community."
Wakefield said that once construction begins, access to the building may be restricted at times.
"We're still figuring out what we're going to be doing, but there will still be some level of access, so don't not come just because...We'll arrange things for people to access records while we are renovating."
