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Deleted files at Grand Island Town Hall restored

Posted at 9:02 PM, Apr 28, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-29 15:01:48-04

Grand Island Town Supervisor Nathan McMurray is trying to figure out why 1,700 town files were deleted from the town’s computer system.

“I simply asked the IT team, 'Where did these files go?' And they explained to me someone using the previous supervisor’s user name logged in and deleted them within the last three days the supervisor was in office,” McMurray said.

7 Eyewitness News learned that the person he was talking about was Mary Cooke. McMurray said it appears she deleted important records with sensitive information before leaving office in December.

7 Eyewitness News Reporter Justin Moore went to Cooke’s home on Grand Island. She declined to do an on camera interview, but she told us she’s not responsible. She said the only thing she deleted before leaving office was her emails.

The town was able to recover the deleted documents from a back-up server. McMurray said because the documents were recovered, this case won’t go any further.

Now the supervisor is working with the Town of Grand Island Council to come up with a policy so this type of situation won’t happen again.

“I just want to make sure going forward we have a solid document retention policy,” McMurray said.