MASON COUNTY — In a release on Tuesday, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced the awarding of several grants to West Virginia County commissions, one of which went to the Mason County Commission.

According to the release, the grants will help fund the commission with their respective records management and preservation projects, which were approved by the Records Management and Preservation Board (RMPB). The projects will improve management, storage conditions, access, and preservation of public records held in county government offices.

More specifically, the Mason County Commission received a grant for $1,576 in order to purchase updated tax maps, map binders, and one public access computer in the county clerk’s office.

“Every West Virginia county, and the people who call them home, have a story to tell and these grant funds will help preserve those stories for generations to come,” Tomblin said in the release.

A total of 30 grants were awarded to various counties and totaled $427,540. Grants also went to the following counties: Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Clay, Fayette, Gilmer, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Kanawha, Lewis, Logan, Marion, Mercer, Mineral, Mingo, Monroe, Pendleton, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Roane, Summers, Tucker, Upshur, Webster, and Wood.

The RMPB staff will provide assistance in setting up the grant projects, which officially begin July 1, 2013.

The RMPB was created by the West Virginia Legislature in 2000 to develop a system of records management and preservation for county governments. Funding for the grants program comes from filing fees collected by county clerks and deposited in the special Public Records and Preservation Account. Applications for the next grant cycle will be available Sept 1, 2013.

For more information on the RMPB, contact Denise Ferguson, county records archivist, West Virginia Archives and History, at 304-558-0230 ext. 150, or denise.l.ferguson@wv.gov.