Cedar Rapids library to open time capsule at old site

A time capsule buried at the former downtown Cedar Rapids Public Library, 500 First St. SE, will be opened Tuesday.

Excavation of the time capsule is expected to begin at 9 a.m., weather permitting, and take about an hour.

The time capsule was buried before the library opened in 1985.

The City Council voted last week to sell the flooddamaged library building to TrueNorth, which is leaving its current site to make way for a new library.

True North, an insurance and financial services firm, said it will pay $250,000 for the former library, an amount it will subtract from the purchase price to the city of its existing site.

The city will receive a lease fee from TrueNorth for up to 15 months at a rate of $10,000 a month while the library site is being renovated for the firm.

TrueNorth is asking $7.5 million on its existing site on Fourth Avenue SE across from Greene Square Park.

The council voted in February to locate the new downtown library there.

TrueNorth says it will invest a minimum of $7.5 million in the old building, will retain 120 jobs and will create 50 new jobs in the future with an average wage of $90,000 a year.

The Cedar Rapids library board hopes to have a new downtown library completed by December 2012.