Middleburg Borough – OPEN RECORDS POLICY
The Borough hereby designates the Borough Secretary/ Administrator as the Borough Open Records Officer. The Open Records Officer may be reached at:
Middleburg Borough Office
13 North Main Street
Middleburg, PA, 17842-1007
Phone: (570) 837-2533
Fax: (570) 837-1729
Email: middleburgboro@ptd.net
General
All documents deemed public records shall be available for inspection, retrieval, and duplication at the Municipal Building during established business hours (9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday) with the exceptions of weekends and holidays.
Requests
Requests shall be made in writing to the Borough Open Records Officer on a form provided by the Borough.
Anonymous Requests
All written requests must be made by a legal resident of the United States and by a person, “corporation, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, other associations, government entity (other than the Commonwealth), estate, trust, foundation, or natural person.” 1 Pa.C.S. § 1991. Requests “shall include the name and address to which the agency should address its response.” 65 P.S. § 703. If request fails to meet these requirements, the Borough will not provide a response.
Fees
Paper copies shall be 25 cents per page per side. The certification of a record is $1 per record. Specialized documents including, but not limited to blue prints, color copies and nonstandard size documents shall be charged the actual cost of production. If mailing is requested, the cost of postage will be charged. The Borough shall require prepayment if the total fees are estimated to exceed $100.
Response
The Borough shall make a good-faith effort to provide the requested public record(s) as promptly as possible. The Open Records Officer shall cooperate with those requesting records to review and/or duplicate original Borough documents while taking reasonable measure to protect Borough documents from the possibility of theft, damage and/or modification.
The Open Records Officer shall review all written requests for access to public records. As soon as possible, but no later than five business days after receiving a written request to access public records, the Open Records Officer shall respond to such requests in writing consistent with Act 3 of 2008, the Right-to-Know Law.
Contact Information for Appeals
If a written request is denied or deemed denied, the requester may file an appeal in writing to the Office of Open Records, 333 Market Street, 16th Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17101-2234, by fax at (717) 425-5343 or by email at openrecords@pa.gov.
Appeals Process
The appeal shall be filed within 15 business days of the mailing date of the Borough’s response or within 15 business days of a deemed denial. The appeal shall state the grounds upon which the requester asserts the records is a public record and shall address any grounds stated by the Borough for delaying or denying the request.