PVHA May Close Archive to Public

The Pajaro Valley Historical Association has made a major change due to finances. Tuesday, September 15, they have notified the archivist, Regan Huerta, that her services are no longer needed. According to Mrs. Huerta, I’ve been let go because there isn’t enough money to support my salary.”

Regan Huerta started with the PVHA in Watsonville in 2000. She was made an archivist in 2001. One of her major accomplishments was to organize the archive building when it was acquired. Through her efforts of getting donated furnishing, and shopping for discounts, she had the building furnished under-budget by about $18,000. This allowed the board to buy computers and network equipment.

Recently Regan Huerta, found a volunteer with enough audio equipment to improve the audio and transfer over 200 cassette tapes onto CD in mp3 format. Some of the audio tapes were 40 years old and starting to decay. She was also able to get a CD and cassette player for the archives.

One of her continued projects was to get current and older images of Watsonville and the surrounding area.

When she received her news about the end of her employment, she was working in improving the collection of telephone books for the archives. Part of the plan was to have a volunteer make copies of the listings and store them onto a CD.

Regan came by the archives to pack away her personal items, wish the volunteers well and wonder if the phone book collection will be completed by the next archivist. Regan had been with the PVHA for 16 years.

Depending on volunteers, the PVHA may have to close the archives to visitors and researchers.