Cayuga County DREAMS Project

In February 2022, the Cayuga County Legislature approved a $4M project to transform the county's record-keeping system into a cloud-based digital environment.  DREAMS is an acronym for Digital Records Electronic Access Management System.  The project is currently in phase 1 of a 4-5 year multi-phase commitment and is funded in part by ARPA Funds and a grant from the National Archives Department.  

The main county archives are located in the former county jail on Court Street that also houses the county Historian's Office.  That 62-year-old building is at 97% storage capacity, and it's not climate controlled, which compromises the quality of records. The space costs more than $22,000 per year just for basic maintenance. The building also needs repairs to its roof, plumbing and furnace, and its windows are deteriorating.

The DREAMS initiative will save the County money by retiring an antiquated decrepit building and implementing a sustainable, scalable and operationally efficient technological solution to the records storage problem.  It will combine three departments into one and provide better value of service to the taxpayers.  The cloud-based SaaS/Cloud solution minimizes onsite IT investments and operations and will facilitate improved records accessibility to county employees.

As a member of one of the Clerk's departments, Kris has been informed and engaged with the DREAMS project since it's initial stages.  She will work cooperatively and effectively with the IT and Records Retentions teams, as well as other department heads and municipalities, to see the project through to completion and will explore other ways to use the SaaS platform to expand accessibility and functionality for county employees and residents.