Mayor Kyle Sheehy and City Manager Jessica Knudson hosted a special "Coffee with the Mayor and City Manager" on Jan. 27, 2025, to display artifacts recovered from time capsules buried at Lake Havasu City's north and south entrance monuments in 2000.

Sheehy said the city and volunteers decided to unearth the containers before a public reveal because there was no surviving road map for how they were sealed and because roadside sites are not safe for large gatherings. "And it also, although it looks like it might be safe on the side of the highway, it's not very safe on the side of the highway to have all of us join there or convene there in the morning," Sheehy said.

City staff and volunteers described a laborious unearthing that required jackhammers and crowbars and took roughly an hour to reach the sealed containers. City Manager Jessica Knudson said groundwater seeped into some boxes and caused visible water damage to letters and newspapers, though many items survived because they had been wrapped or placed in containers.

"We were very, very lucky that they were in containers wrapped, and by far most of them survived the process," Knudson said. Staff drilled holes to ventilate wet boxes and placed damaged items in a drying area; officials said they are cataloging recovered boxes and attempting preservation.

Speakers emphasized the monuments and capsules as a product of sustained community effort led by Keep Havasu Beautiful and dozens of local businesses, families and civic groups. Jim Leeson, who designed the monuments, recalled long committee discussions on size and appearance, and Joe Vitiello, the mason who built the structures, said much of the labor and materials were donated. "It was basically contributions. There was no money really raised for the projects themselves," Vitiello said.

Guy Reynolds, the citys parks superintendent, described the planting and irrigation that accompanied the monument projects and credited volunteers such as Cub Scout troops and local businesses for donating boulders, concrete and labor. "Whenever we did projects like this, the community always chipped in," Reynolds said.

Organizational boxes opened during the event included materials from the Lake Havasu Area Chamber of Commerce, Mohave Community College, the Havasu Art Guild, the Elks and Republic Services, among others. A Chamber letter and packet dated around 2000 contained visitor materials, an association booklet and the original Chamber plaques; the letter referenced then-current population estimates and local economic goals. Chamber representative Andrew (last name not provided) said, "The chamber is always involved in projects like this," and read portions of the group's contribution.

School groups also contributed. Representatives opened boxes from Daytona Middle School and Nautilus Elementary; city staff said letters from middle-school students were dried and remain legible. A Nautilus-area item included a handwritten student note that said, in part, "I wish that the world will be safer and have a better environment. I'm 10 years old. I go to Nautilus. My name is Matthew Palbicke."

Recovered artifacts cataloged at the event included a DOS-era floppy disk, commemorative coins, bank pamphlets with year-2000 rates, VHS and cassette tapes, chili cook-off ribbons, club photographs and school catalogs. City staff cautioned that some paper materials were significantly degraded by moisture and will require conservation.

Officials said they compiled names of contributors during research and outreach that relied on archival newspaper reporting and conversations with founding volunteers; the burial date recorded in city materials was Jan. 27, 2000. Staff will continue to contact families and organizations listed on the recovered containers to offer the preserved items or guidance on transfer to family or local archives.

The event closed after about an hour of public display and remarks. Sheehy invited attendees to continue to view and discuss items with staff after the formal program. "We'll stay around. If you have any questions for us about the city business, we'll be here to answer those for you," he said.