PHOTOS BY MEGHAN ERKKINEN

A BOY PLACES A ZIPLOC BAG OF LETTERS ON TOP OF THE CITY OF FIFE TIME CAPSULE BEFORE IT IS BURIED. The capsule was piled with sand on the city’s 51st anniversary Feb. 11.

Fife buries history

By Meghan Erkkinen

Fife concluded its Golden Jubilee 50th Anniversary by sealing and burying a 25-year time capsule to be opened Feb. 11, 2032.

The time capsule included letters from council members and students, council agendas, a brick from the Sterino’s building, a phonebook, a Blackberry, photos and newspapers from Feb. 11, 2007 – the city’s 50th birthday.

At a burial ceremony on the city’s 51st birthday, Mayor Barry Johnson reviewed the progress the city has made in the last 50 years.

“I view the city of Fife as a diamond in the rough now,” he said. “In the future we’ll be a jewel.”

Columbia Junior High and Fife High School students read letters they wrote, predicting what life would be like in 25 years. One student read about his vision for peace, and several made predictions about medical and technological advancements. They listed their personal goals, and one student even suggested that she would be ruler of the world by the time the capsule was re-opened.

Present council members, along with former Fife mayors Carl Stegman and Mike Kelley, shoveled sand into the hole.

The same capsule was unearthed last year at the Fife Community Center after having been buried for 25 years. The capsule, about three feet tall and a foot in diameter, was reburied next to city hall.

    Jeff Haney, a grounds-keeper for the parks and recreation department, sealed the fiberglass container with roofing tar and dug the four-foot hole to bury it. He ran into a small snag along the way – an irrigation pipe, which he rerouted around the container.

The capsule was buried in sand instead of dirt and rock to make it easier to unearth.

Haney said he is not concerned about how the container will withstand the years.

“That first [burial] worked really good, and [the capsule] came apart right,” he said. “It should come through fine.”

Johnson said the time capsule represented optimism.

“It forces people to look to the future,” he said. And like the students, he has predictions for 2032, as well.

“I see us having light rail through here and hope to see us with a very livable and walkable community,” he said. “We’ve got a great little city. It truly is a diamond in the rough.”

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