The Norfolk County Commission voted Jan. 15 to relocate the Registry of Deeds’ disaster recovery room at 614 High Street in Dedham to a room on the second floor of the cafeteria building at the Norfolk County Agricultural High School in Walpole, with the condition that the Dedham room not be decommissioned until the new site is fully operational.

The move is intended to free secure, climate-controlled space in the Dedham building for high-density records storage while locating disaster-recovery infrastructure on county-owned school property farther from the courthouse and downtown electrical grid. County Director John Cronin told commissioners the county’s CIO had identified a room at the agricultural school that is “virtually the same size” as the existing space and that staff would relocate infrastructure, work with Verizon to activate lines, and then repurpose the Dedham room for records storage.

Registrar William P. O'Donnell, Registrar of Deeds, criticized the plan during the discussion, saying the disaster recovery site in Dedham had kept the registry “open and operational every work day” during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the registry’s proximity to the courthouse and long-standing presence in Dedham support keeping an operational site near the shire town. O'Donnell said he had been offered alternative storage locations and asked the commission to preserve access and continuity for registry operations.

Commissioners and staff emphasized that relocation would not occur until the Walpole room is ready. Director Cronin and other staff said activation requires a separate Verizon line and matching equipment; the county will not decommission the Dedham disaster recovery site until the Aggie site is tested and fully activated. Commissioners also agreed to inspect the Blue House and the current plan-room storage to evaluate additional space options for records or temporary public service use.

The motion to relocate the disaster recovery room, as described in staff materials and with the operational condition, carried in a voice vote. The commissioners directed staff to continue coordinating with the Registrar of Deeds on any additional space needs and to report back; commissioners said a formal agenda item for final authorization would appear at the next meeting.

Background: County staff described the proposal as part of a broader records-disposition and space-utilization effort guided by the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s disposition schedule and continuity-of-government guidance (cited in the meeting as executive order 490). The proposed Walpole room was described in staff materials as roughly the same square footage as the current Dedham disaster recovery room (staff cited about 210 square feet versus approximately 215 square feet at Dedham). Staff said the new site will be configured for high-density shelving once records are moved and that the relocation will be coordinated with technology and facilities teams to preserve continuity of operations.