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Clear skies. Low 56F. Winds light and variable..

Clear skies. Low 56F. Winds light and variable.

HUDSON — For the past 8 years, The Columbia County KISS Program has been offering seniors the opportunity to shred their sensitive documents free of charge by dropping their documents off at their local town halls. 2020 proved to be a year unlike any other with Covid-19 striking and closing or halting “business as usual” most places. Amid rising tensions and fear of the unknown, Columbia County Clerk and founder of the KISS Program, Holly Tanner decided it was important to keep as much normalcy as possible, especially for our most vulnerable seniors. The KISS program continued to safely run throughout 2020 with the assistance of the dedicated crew at Certified Document Security, the Columbia County Clerk’s office and town/city hall staff.

The KISS Program will once again become available to seniors in every participating town/city in Columbia County from June 6 through June 24. The KISS Program stands for Keeping the Identities of Seniors Safe and was designed to protect the identities of our seniors while assisting them in the shredding of their sensitive materials. Much of what we toss in the trash should actually be shredded for our own safety. Again, this is a completely free program in which seniors are able to dispose of their sensitive documents they no longer need, discretely and securely at zero cost to them and zero cost to county taxpayers. Seniors can bring their sensitive materials (old credit card receipts, bank statements, tax records etc.) to their local Town/City Hall and place them in a locked 64 gallon container. The container is kept secure until ProShred Security (who has acquired Certified Document Security as of 7/1/2021) arrives and takes the container away for shredding.

Extra safety and protection measures continue to be implemented to ensure the well-being of seniors participating in the program following CDC and county health department guidelines.

This program is available quarterly and has recently wrapped up its 1st quarter of 2022, which ran from March 14 through March 25, 2022 and saw seniors shred 13,503 pounds of paper (a record for most ever shredded in one quarter). Since the program’s inception in 2013, the program has grown from 2 towns participating to all 18 towns participating, including the City of Hudson and our newest location, the Claverack Free Library. The amount of paper that has been shredded through the program has grown leaps and bounds as well. In 2013, 300 total pounds of paper was shredded through the program. Since then, a total of 109,207 pounds (54.6 tons) of paper has been shredded which would have otherwise been lingering around, causing clutter, and compromising the security and identity of our seniors. Despite Covid-19, seniors were still able to shred over 50,000 pounds of paper since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and the numbers continue to grow, showing what a valuable resource the KISS program is for seniors.

Seniors are encouraged to contact their local Town/City Hall for hours of operation and more information on the program. Future dates for the KISS Program will be Aug. 29 through Sept. 9. Justin Weaver, Columbia County Clerk’s Records Services Manager, is overseeing the program and can also be contacted with any questions at 518-822-0143.

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