Albert Lea and Freeborn County Historical Museum officials are collaborating to store city records at the museum in a cool, safe environment.

The museum was awarded a Legacy Community Collaboration grant from SELCO late last month to scan, preserve and store public records from the city.

On Monday, Albert Lea City Manager Chad Adams said he hoped city officials will have boxes of files to send to the museum within the next several weeks.

He noted he is pleased to work with the museum to have the documents scanned.

Project coordinator Pat Mulso said the collaboration will allow city officials, researchers, the museum and anyone else who is interested to access the records.

“We plan to hold a presentation that shows a sampling of the city of Albert Lea’s holdings,” Mulso said. “Input from the public will be gathered to assure the availability of the records are enhanced and meet the needs of city officials and local researchers.”

Mulso expects the project to take 45 weeks, noting she thinks it “should make a huge impact.”

She said she does not know how many documents will be stored at the museum, noting users will not be able to take documents home, but will be able to view them at the museum.

She said the grant application was submitted in February, noting the city and the museum needed to prove they were working together toward a common cause to use the grant dollars to the best of their ability to receive the grant funds.

This project was funded in part or in whole with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.