TIME CAPSULE PLACED IN MAUSOLEUM VAULT TODAY

Cape Girardeau Bicentennial Commission officials are taking some extra precautions when they place a time capsule in a mausoleum vault in Memorial Park today.

"The contents in the capsule will be packed in preservative packaging and all the air in the capsule will be extracted before sealing," said Martha Bender, a member of the Commission.

The Bicentennial Time Capsule, slightly larger than a bread basket, will be put in place at 9 a.m. today and will remain intact 50 years. The public is invited to attend a special dedicatory ceremony.

Among contents in the capsule are Bicentennial pins, T-shirts and hats, programs from Bicentennial events and activities, annual reports from St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital, Boy and Girl Scout information, Cape Girardeau telephone book, the Southeast Missourian's annual progress edition and miscellaneous information about the city and the Bicentennial year.

"We wanted items connected with Bicentennial events, the year and the city," said Bender.

The capsule, constructed by Future Packaging & Preserving, a Covina, Calif. company which specializes in building time capsules, is welded stainless steel, with the air extracted.

Future Packaging will register the capsule with an international time capsule registry, which will notify Cape Girardeau City officials in 50 years that is time to open the capsule.

Once the capsule is sealed, the Bicentennial Commission will "officially go out of business," said Bender. "The capsule placement is the final formal activity of the Commission."

The cost of the time capsule was paid for by funds raised by the Bicentennial Commission. Any remaining Commission funds will be used to provide a scholarship for a student graduating from a Cape Girardeau high school in the year, 2000, and who will be majoring in history or historic preservation.

The scholarship fund will be administered by the Vision 2000 Community Relations Committee until it is awarded.

A 35-year-old time capsule was opened in January 1992 to kick off bicentennial year planning in Cape Girardeau. But when Bicentennial Commission members opened that capsule, they found the contents -- a top hat, editions of the Southeast Missourian newspaper containing articles about the sesquicentennial, a telephone directory, and other documents -- were damaged by moisture.

"With new technology, we hope to avoid moisture damage this time," said Bender. "That is also one of the reasons for placing the capsule in the mausoleum, above ground."