Together with the Civil Service Committee, other federal agencies, including national archives, the Civil Defense Bureau (precursor of the Federal Crisis Management Agency) and the Social Insurance Administration began to store registers at the Boyers facility at the same time. Jg Franz, the then head of the Boyers Mine Office, told newspaper reporter in 1966 that federal agencies have “spare equipment for everything” stored in a special area of Boyers to protect records in the case of nuclear rainfall.
Franz told the local newspaper that employees “hope that we will never have to worry about nuclear explosion,” but if this happens, the mine will be safely sealed, according to the archives of newspapers reviewed by Wired. “The mine is equipped with a 30-day supply of food and stocks for all employees.”
At that time, Boyers staff were supposedly able to process about 600 pounds of records each day to the facility straight from Washington. They based on the recently constructed system of interstate motorway for timely delivery. In fact, the federal government has built an exit from the inter -stanke -speed Pennsylvania especially for “quick access to the mine in the case of an emergency”, in accordance with the article in Pittsburgh Press.
There are other practical benefits that make aged mines a good place to store records. First of all, their usually rural and secluded settings form a layer of natural safety from other types of threats. The changed mines provides “excellent fire protection” and resistance to events such as “flood, theft, civic disorders, aircraft failures, tornadoes, lightning,” he noted 1999 Iron Mountain presentation for national archives.
Carmichael tells Wired that access to underground objects he visited is usually strictly controlled, often through very guarded entrances. These amenities also often have maze -like projects that would probably discourage or confuse thieves if they somehow get to them.
Several current limestone managers told Wired that their caves are naturally from 55 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the optimal temperature in most storage situations. John Smith, director of industrial property at a company that manages lime storage Carefree industrial park Near Kansas City, Missouri said that this means that the costs of utility are “much lower” compared to terrestrial facilities. Its main expenses are associated with ventilation because the caves are very wet.
Everything is going wrong
Shortly before the arrival of the Civil Service Committee to Boyers, the US Federal Retirement Apparatus was a mess. Government report from 1951 He stated that the “appropriate record system” was not yet in place and called the congress to “insist”, which was created. Initially, it seemed that the band in Boyers was able to reverse. News-Herald informed in 1966 that with only 55 employees, the system in the mine operated “with the same efficiency and effectiveness as in Washington.”
However, as the number of pensioners was still growing, things have dropped. In the early eighties, the Personal Management Office was studied to find the basic causes of excessive delays in the processing of retirement claims. In 1981, the Government Bureau for responsibility recommended OPM “developing a long -term plan for automating the retirement claims process”.