Monmouth Beach Mayor Somers Digs up the Past, Looks to the Future

By Patty Booth O’Neill

Members of public works Joe Chirichello and Andy Anderson; Mayor Tim Somers; Jim Cook, public works; with Anthony Villane, Greg Kelly and Phil Hinck, members of the Monmouth Beach Historical Committee.

Preparing for the celebration of America’s 250th birthday,  Monmouth Beach Mayor Tim Somers, members of the Public Works Dept. and the Monmouth Beach Historical Committee met outside City Hall on Beach Rd. Friday morning, April 10, to dig up a time capsule. The container was buried to celebrate the Bicentennial in 1975. Planning that ceremony 50 years ago, was Mayor Sydney B. Johnson.

Local residents had been asked for something of interest to place inside a capsule designed by then members of the public works department. To insure there was no contamination, especially by water, the container was coated with tar and placed inside a plastic bag then buried three-four feet beneath the ground.

“We weren’t sure if it would still be in any kind of shape, how far down it was or even if we had the exact spot,” said Mayor Somers on Friday.

The group reminisced about who was around for the 1975 ceremony, the mayor being in grade school, but remembered that there was also another time capsule buried at Monmouth Beach School at the time.

After removing a cement slab and a lot of digging by Joe Chirichello and Jim Cook, Andy Anderson finally jumped into the hole to work the container free enough to pull up.

The morning excavation was very unceremonious with only a few people. “Especially if there wasn’t anything left of the container,” said Mayor Somers. “We didn’t know what shape it would be in. We didn’t want a Geraldo Rivera, Al Capone’s vault situation again,’ he joked.

The contents of the capsule will be displayed at Boro Hall and there will be a ceremony on Saturday, June 14, at 10AM.

There will be a flag presentation, a reenactment of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and kids will read the Constitution. “There will be a lot going on that day,” said Mayor Somers. “We will also be gathering information for our next capsule that we will be burying.”