Welcome to Hutch Post’s feature series "A Day in the Life." We've gone behind the scenes to see what "a day in the life" is like for some of Reno County's busiest shops, factories and businesses. We'll show the inner workings of facilities you may pass every day, to finally see what goes on inside. From boilers to donuts, join us as we learn how things are designed and produced right here in Reno County with "A Day in the Life." This series will be posted every other Sunday morning.
By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson is known for its salt production and the Hutchinson Salt Mine has been a part of Hutchinson for many years. As the mine expanded and progressed, it provided a unique opportunity for a group of Wichita businessmen who saw a need for secure areas to store records and other data. The result was Underground Vaults and Storage, which is now known as UV&S.
For more than 60 years, UV&S has operated as a service-oriented records storage company, adding new services through the years to meet client’s needs.
The company provides all services required when using offsite storage for paper and media, multiple IT services, secure shredding, and event services.
The storage area occupied by UV&S, 650 feet underground, is enormous, covering 3.5 million square feet.
Some of the vaults are nearly the length of a football field. The area has everything from movie and television show film, to data cards from computers, to paper documents of nearly everything you can imagine.
The area is perfect for storage as it is a constant 68 degrees with little, if any, environmental impact. The area also provides special storage for things that need to be kept cooler than the mine's own set temperature.
One area also houses a large amount of geophysical and seismic data from the oil exploration industry.
The company also does digital, film and document restoration and recording to other forms as needed. The company also does document and hard drive destruction.
One of the unique things workers face during the day is a complete detachment from the outside world. It may snow, rain, storm or something else and the workers are completely shielded from that for the entire workday with a few exceptions.
The other unique aspect of UV&S is that it operates right next to the working salt mine. The main elevator lifts for the mine operate just on the other side of a plastic curtain where five-ton buckets of salt are lifted out of the mine.
UV&S was incorporated on June 11, 1959. Numerous sights nationwide were evaluated, then the salt mine was selected. Factors including, but not limited to, the geographically-central site, the security and environment inherent in a mine 650 feet below the earth’s surface, and the unlimited space this active mine could provide for expansion and business development made it their first choice.
Known in the industry as an early entrant in the offsite records management field, UV&S is still a privately-owned-and-operated company. Many of the original families continue in the management and direction of the company.
Over the years, the company has expanded to other sites including the mines in Kansas City, Louisville, Oklahoma City and even the UK.
A Day in the Life is brought to you by:
Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce
Kincaid Manufacturing
JW Machine
Haven Steel
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