Shelby Township unveils digital archives crafted by Eisenhower co-op, graduate

Aleksandra “Sandra” Dushaj made sure her time as the Shelby Township Supervisor’s Office’s co-op student employee would be remembered as long as there is a www.shelbytwp.org.

Dushaj, who started in Township Hall in October of 2013, organized a project that saw her turn more than 1,000 newspapers into a digital archive chronicling the significant accomplishments, reforms and policy changes of the Board of Trustees dating from November 2008 to current events.

“I saw that Mr. Stathakis had a very large inventory of newspapers that were stored in boxes to keep a record of the Board of Trustees and the Township’s success,” Dushaj said. “I asked him why he had so many newspapers, and he told me he had been saving them since he came into office. I told him that it would be easier to keep track of the articles if he scanned them into a computer, and he said he had never thought of doing that.”

Dushaj, who will attend Oakland University on a full scholarship in the fall, then brought the idea to Deputy Supervisor Brad Bates, who thought the possible project dovetailed perfectly with the Township’s work to launch a redesigned website with more tools for transparency and sharing information with residents.

“Sandra brings an amazing skillset to Township Hall,” Bates said. “In addition to her work ethic and respectful and personable approach to Township business, she has a wealth of knowledge in web and graphic design through her experiences running three online stores with her father. She used these skills in an area where we could improve information sharing by creating the Townships’ new digital archives.”

The archives are found through a link on the Township Supervisor’s page at shelbytwp.org/departments/supervisors_office. The archives provide a third-party account of all Township accomplishments, reforms and policy advances as reported by local media.

“Sandra took what was essentially a pile of information and distilled it into a résumé for the Board of Trustees and the Township,” Stathakis said. “With topics like budget reforms, financial policy advances and a timeline of improved infrastructure, this is a clear picture of how the Board and employees have worked for our residents and taxpayers.”

In addition to crafting the digital archives and writing a user’s manual so future employees can maintain the page after she leaves Township Hall this July, Dushaj, 18, aided more than just the Supervisor’s Office in her tenure.

She also provided support for the Human Resources Department by filing and archiving their documents and filled in for the Planning Department when she served as the “interim assistant” to the Planner when Assistant to the Planner Cathy Bahr was on vacation.

“Sandra showed that she has what it takes to be successful in her plan to enter the business word by being able to adapt and meet the demands of what ended up on her plate on any given day,” Stathakis said. “By creating a new and exciting feature for our website like the digital archives and filling in and helping our Planning Department with its day-to-day operations, Sandra was an asset that the Township will sorely miss.” t,”3@