By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
Not to be opened until the year 2044, a time capsule was buried in Minoa on Saturday, Oct. 26.
Youths from Cub Scout Pack 210 and village officials filled the to-be-preserved capsule with a stockpile of items and lowered it about three feet into the ground.
Buried around 11 a.m. in front of the village municipal building at 240 N. Main St., the polyvinyl chloride tube used as the historic capsule was four inches in diameter and about two and a half feet long.
The village’s department of public works dug the hole in the ground, while the scouts and others present shoveled in the dirt to fill the ditch.
The contents of the time capsule will remain mostly a secret until the uncovering in 25 years. However, Mayor Bill Brazill did say that he wrote a letter to be incorporated in the mix.
“When I sat down to do it, I’m thinking, ‘Wow, in 25 years, I’d be 85 years old. Who knows if I’ll be here or not?” Brazill said.
He addressed the letter to whoever the future mayor will be as well as the village board and other residents.
Brazill said the letter discusses aspects of current-day Minoa, including its businesses and its overall goals as a community.
He also included a personal note to whoever would be his living family members at that time as well as, in case he would no longer be alive, a message to the then-current mayor to read the letter to those relatives.
The idea for the time capsule had been proposed by the Cub Scout pack during the village’s annual meeting in April.
“The kids were excited, and it’s a nice little project they put together,” Brazill said.
According to Brazill, each successive meeting—even past his tenure if necessary—will mention the time capsule as part of the record so it never reaches the point of being forgotten.
Brazill said nowadays materials can be preserved more easily through digital media and other technology than they could be in previous decades but that a time capsule ensures their safeguarding.
In 1994, another time capsule had been buried near the flagpole in the village’s Lewis Park. With a time stamp of 50 years, that capsule will be unearthed the same year as the one buried in October.
“I wonder what it’s going to be like in Minoa and how much we will have grown in those 25 years,” Brazill said. “You put things in perspective. It’s kind of humbling.”
He said he hopes it will still be the same “vibrant, exciting community” of present day.
