County greenlights courthouse time capsule retrieval and accepts small historic-preservation grant

The Kootenai County Board of Commissioners accepted a $2,500 grant from the Idaho Secretary of State to support a July 3 courthouse-lawn celebration and authorized retrieval of a suspected time capsule from the courthouse cornerstone.

John Guler of the Historic Preservation Commission told the board that fiber-optic inspection had confirmed an object behind the cornerstone and outlined two options to extract it: use a retired local mason offering work as a donation or hire a licensed, bonded contractor who provided a $750 quote that would cover insurance and bonding. County staff expressed concern about liability if volunteers performed the work without county-level licensing or bonding.

Guler said the grant would be used toward a working budget of roughly $7,250 for the celebration; the commission reported $2,250 in private sponsorships and asked the board to accept the grant so purchases and retrieval work could proceed.

Action taken: The board voted to accept the $2,500 grant and approved moving forward with retrieval of the time capsule, including authorization to secure contractor services that would provide insurance and bonding coverage for the work.

What’s next: The preservation commission will proceed with extraction under the direction of staff and with contractor or volunteer arrangements consistent with county insurance requirements; the commission also plans an exhibit of items recovered from the capsule.