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<p>The impact of a Thursday night water leak that damaged Luzerne County government records won&#8217;t be clear for several days or weeks, a county official said Friday.</p><p>David Parsnik, administrative services division head, said a company specializing in emergency record recovery was called in to move the records to another location, dry them out and inventory them.</p><p>&#8220;They will tell us which ones are salvageable and destroyed,&#8221; Parsnik said, stressing the company will be paid by insurance &#8212; not the county&#8217;s general fund operating budget.</p><p>He estimated at least one tractor-trailer would be filled with water-logged records that must be removed.</p><p>Building owner Thomas C. Thomas identified a faulty sprinkler head as the cause of the leak at his warehouse on Union Street in Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>Water rained onto records kept on three floors leased by the county for an unknown length of time until county District Attorney&#8217;s Office workers discovered the problem.</p><p>Thomas said the building&#8217;s fire sprinkler system was well-maintained and inspected quarterly.</p><p>The county has been in the process of moving records out of the leased property into a new county-owned storage facility in Hanover Township. That move, which began in July, was prompted by a state archive expert&#8217;s warnings years ago that the Thomas facility was insufficient for record storage due to temperature extremes, lack of security, leaks and fire hazards.</p><p>Parsnik said the water damage would have been more extensive if the move had not been underway because water touched areas that previously contained records, particularly on the third floor.</p><p>The remaining records not soaked at the Wilkes-Barre property will be moved into the Hanover Township site next week, he said.</p><p>&#8220;In light of what happened, we are going to accelerate our moving plan,&#8221; he said.</p><p>In addition to the District Attorney&#8217;s Office, representatives of court administration and mapping visited the building Friday to review the damage, he said.</p><p>The county pays $103,104 annually to rent storage space at the property.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Parsnik </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_MOS2.CMYK_.jpg</photo0><caption0>Parsnik </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Extent of water damage to Luzerne County records still unknown