St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis is hoping to capture everyday stories from area residents of the COVID-19 pandemic so future generations can unearth local history years from now.
At the opening ceremony for St. Cloud's Granite City Days festival last week, Kleis unveiled plans to erect a granite monument honoring health care workers — likely at Hester Park, which is near St. Cloud Hospital — and bury nearby a time capsule with news clippings and personal accounts of life during the pandemic.
Plans call for the capsule to be buried for 100 years — as a way to acknowledge the century that's passed since the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic and as a way to give future area residents the opportunity to get a glimpse of what took place during the COVID pandemic over the past two years.
"I'm a big fan of history and preserving history," Kleis said. "This is a point in time the whole world experienced."
During Kleis' tenure as mayor, he's entombed time capsules at several city buildings, including the police station, library, aquatic center and convention center. There's also a time capsule near Lake George that was buried in 2006 in celebration of the city's sesquicentennial.
Kleis said the COVID-19 time capsule will likely be buried this fall. "There are still stories being written about the pandemic, but we'd like to do it this year," he said.
