Epsom selectmen have made it a goal this year to chip away at hundreds of files of sealed minutes, to vote on whether to make them public or keep them sealed, said Selectman Joanne Randall.

“You’re going to see, this year, a lot of minutes getting unsealed,” Randall said. “There’s just too much undercover.”

Most of the files were rightly sealed, she said, but added there is no longer any reason to keep many of them from the public.

There is no law that sets a time limit on either how long or how briefly minutes should be sealed. For minutes related to legal cases, the minutes must be sealed at least until the case is resolved, but do not have to remain sealed for a specific amount of time.

The board is going to hire an additional office worker for the Town Hall, and pulling out some of these files to bring to the board each week would be one of that person’s tasks, Randall said.

The files would likely be reviewed by board members Keith Cota, Bob Blodgett and Randall during the week. Selectmen would vote on which should be officially unsealed at their weekly Monday public meetings, Randall said.

She added many of the minutes currently sealed have to do with legal cases, including the legal battle over road agent Gordon Ellis’ firing in October 2006.

Currently, the only people who have access to sealed files are the Board of Selectmen and the town’s secretary, Randall said.

“Most of the sealed minutes only have basic, general information in them anyway,” Randall said, in the unlikely event the minutes should accidentally be leaked.