Tuesday, May 06, 2008
By J.B. Smith
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The city’s plan to extend a waterline to the Texas Ranger Museum complex addition by boring under graves may help avoid disturbing more human remains, but it won’t come cheap.
The Waco City Council today will vote on authorizing the city manager to solicit quotes and execute a contract of up to $350,000 for the work.
Richard Thompson takes bones from museum expansion site / July 19, 2007
American Archaeology Group photos of grave excavations / March 2008
- 09-06-08 State calls inquiry on graves at Ranger museum site
- 09-05-08 State funeral hearing's focus shifts to graves at Texas Ranger Museum expansion
- 09-04-08 State agency hearing in Waco today on families' access to graves
- 05-07-08 City OKs spending up to $350,000 to dig beneath graves for water line to museum
- 05-06-08 Letting First Street Cemetery dead rest in peace will come at a cost, city leaders say
- 04-27-08 Descendants of First Street Cemetery dead plea for peace at long last
- 04-02-08 Museum grounds may be re-dedicated as old cemetery
- 03-23-08 DEAD WRONG: Bad assumptions, ignorance played havoc with old city cemetery
- 03-08-08 Firm says city mismanaged burial site at Ranger museum
- 11-13-07 Grave concerns bedevil Texas Ranger Hall of Fame project
- 08-06-07 Texas Ranger Museum gets OK to resume construction at site where bones were unearthed
- 07-24-07 State officials scrutinizing loose human bones, ambitious museum plans
- 07-20-07 Missing bones cause big beef for city, museum officials
- 07-19-07 A bone to pick: Case of exposed skeletal remains 'gone awry'
The Texas Ranger headquarters and education building behind the museum is months behind opening because of remains of more than 160 bodies found along the path of sewer and waterlines. The original museum complex was built atop the old First Street Cemetery, and it has become apparent that human remains were not relocated when the grave markers were moved for the project in 1968.
Over the last year, the city earmarked $437,000 to American Archaeology to relocate graves from the path of the utility lines, and most of that money has been spent. The city this spring hired another archaeology firm to continue the work at a cost of $280,000. That’s in addition to the original $76,109 contract for the utility line extension.
The city has permission from the Texas Historical Commission to bore under the graves for an 8-inch waterline that would be encased in a tube that would protect the graves from leakage. The staff is seeking to bypass the usual competitive bidding process for the work, which would take about six weeks. City officials say they are exempted from those requirements because ongoing work at the grounds presents a danger to the graves and to the foundation of the new buildings.
jbsmith@wacotrib.com
757-5752
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