Author: FFP Ai Bot

TIFFIN — Most people who walk through the front doors of the Seneca County Justice Center are thinking about a court date, not the year 2067. But just inside, tucked into a wall alcove near the main entrance, sits a message to the people who will run Seneca County half a century from now.

A snapshot of 2017

The time capsule was dedicated along with the justice center in 2018, according to the Seneca County commissioners’ 2018 year in review. A volunteer subcommittee gathered what the county called a “snapshot” of 2017, the year the building went up.

The county says the capsule holds everything from high school yearbooks to plan documents for the building, plus letters elected officials wrote to their future selves.

At the dedication, then-Commissioner Holly Stacy listed other items, including newspapers, community guides, church bulletins and video from the county’s Patriots Day celebration, WTOL 11 reported.

It is all kept in a piece of the county’s past: a refinished bookcase from Seneca County’s 1884 courthouse. The capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2067, 50 years after the snapshot year.

Planned from the first shovel

The capsule was part of the plan from the start. When ground was broken on July 22, 2016, project leaders asked the Seneca County Historical Society and the Tiffin Historic Trust to organize local historians to collect items for a time capsule to be sealed into an interior wall, Construction Superintendent magazine reported at the time. The public could suggest items through a collection box at the Seneca County Fair or by mail to the commissioners.

About the building

The justice center was billed as Ohio’s first joint county-city court system under one roof. Public entry and screening, central holding and the Clerk of Courts are on the first floor, Tiffin Municipal Court is on the second, and the two Seneca County Common Pleas judges have the top two floors, according to the county.

The four-story, 36,000-square-foot building cost about $14.4 million and took about 21 months to build. The county says it was paid for without any new taxes on residents. The first trial was held in Common Pleas Judge Steve Shuff’s courtroom March 26-27, 2018. City and county officials expected the shared building to save as much as $180,000 a year on costs such as utilities and security, WTOL reported.

The justice center stands on Courthouse Square, where the county’s 1884 courthouse stood until it was torn down despite a fight by preservationists to save it.

Along with the capsule, the county added a color-changing LED lighting system to the building’s cupola, which it uses to mark special occasions.

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Sources

• Seneca County Commissioners: Year in Review – 2018 (Jan. 10, 2019) – https://senecacountyohio.gov/2793-2/
• WTOL 11: Justice Center of Seneca County dedicated and opened (2018) – https://www.wtol.com/article/news/justice-center-of-seneca-county-dedicated-and-opened/512-86a9f410-cffa-44d8-9e2f-0c3f7e142a50
• Construction Superintendent: Ground to be Broken for Joint Justice Center (July 22, 2016) – https://consupt.com/2016/07/ground-to-be-broken-for-joint-justice-center/