ELBERTA, Ala. — The town of Elberta’s municipal records will soon be organized.

During its regular meeting Tuesday’ the Town Council voted to enlist Municode in codifying the town’s municipal codes at a cost of $12,450.

“Codification is the process of consolidating your general and permanent legislation, then organizing it into a Code of Ordinances,” information in the Municode website states. “The legislation is organized by topic (animals, business, etc.) or by department/title (Administration and Personnel, Revenue and Finance, etc.). Our staff attorneys compare the compiled legislation against state statutes and court decisions and adds the comments and recommendations which are reviewed during our onsite or virtual conference.”

“Our whole goal at the end would be tor organize your municipal codes according to subject matter and to make recommendations,” said Municode representative Dr. Dale Barstow Tuesday.

Town Clerk Sandy Germany pointed out that once that is complete, the town’s new website, TownOfElberta.com, could be utilized in conjunction with the electronic version of the municipal codes.

“On the town website we now have, have a link,” she said, explaining that it would enable the public to search the town’s municipal codes.

Prior to the vote, the Council discussed the fact that other Baldwin County municipalities, such as Fairhope and Summerdale organize their records through Municode.

“We’re about the last ones to get onboard,” Councilman Don Koontz said.

Germany also presented the town leaders with a letter from Foley City Clerk Vickey Southern endorsing the system.

“If a severe hurricane would come through and you lost that documentation, you would be losing a part of Elberta’s history,” the letter stated.

Elberta resident John Conti explained that he advised town leaders of the need to organize its municipal codes shortly after moving to the town last year. He was then enlisted to help head up the project. That included locating records that date back to 1904, which were stored in large margarine tins.

“Some of them are written in German,” he said.