By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

The Waco City Council on Tuesday authorized up to $350,000 to bore 16 feet underground for a waterline at the Texas Ranger Museum complex, a method that city staff urged as a cheaper alternative to trenching through grave sites.

Still, some council members voiced qualms about the growing price tag of running utilities through a former cemetery to serve the new Texas Ranger Company F headquarters building.

Since last summer, some 160 bodies have been exhumed from the utility lines’ route. One waterline remains to be built, and the city’s archaeologist estimates another 120 bodies might lie along that route.

“I know this situation pains us all, and none of us believed that we would be here,” Councilman Randy Riggs said. “When we first looked at this, we thought it would be expensive, but we thought this was all it would take. It keeps escalating. Is there going to be more, or is this going to be it?”

City Manager Larry Groth said he had no bottom-line price estimate for the project to build the lines and relocate graves. However, he said he hopes the utility boring project will cost well under the $350,000 estimate.

Other costs that remain in flux include:

* The original contract to install the lines, which cost $76,109 but may be cheaper because of the boring project.

* Contracts with American Archaeology, which totaled $437,000. The firm was fired, and $70,000 of the contract hasn’t been paid.

* A $280,000 contract with the new archaeologist, PBS&J of Austin. However, the majority of that archaeology might not be needed with the boring project.

* The cost, as yet undetermined, of reburying bodies in a city cemetery and rededicating the remainder of Fort Fisher as a cemetery.

Groth said he hopes no more bodies will have to be exhumed. The 8-inch waterline, encased in a 16-inch tube, would begin at Interstate 35 and go underground 16 to 17 feet, far below any known graves, Groth said.

“We feel very comfortable with a 10-foot margin,” he said. “The chances of hitting a grave at 16 feet is almost inconceivable.  . . .  If we had continued with the open cut, we’d almost certainly have to come back for more money. This will not only stop that cost, but it will result in the least number of graves disturbed.”

Councilman Rick Allen said the city is making the best of a bad situation.

“I hope the citizens of Waco realize that this is a process none of us would have foreseen,” he said. “I hope the Texas Ranger Museum board sees that, in spite of maybe some hurt feelings with the city this year, that we are bending over backwards to make this a first-class place.”

In a related matter, the council got a presentation on the plans for the Knox Hall expansion and renovation at the museum complex. The project should begin in September and wrap up early next summer.

The $1 million project, funded by city bond money, will increase Knox Hall’s seating capacity, add large windows onto the Brazos and Fort Fisher Park, improve catering space and replace restrooms.

The project will add 3,900 square feet, for a total of 12,700. The expansion will mostly be to the south and will extend only into areas that previously have been disturbed, museum director Byron Johnson said. Archaeologists will study the site for graves before any construction begins.

The discovery of bodies at Fort Fisher has caused the city and Ranger museum boosters to back off their earlier expansion plans and look at building upward within the building’s existing footprint.

Councilman Jim Bush, a longtime Ranger museum supporter, said the master plan needs to be revised so the museum can go full speed ahead with fundraising, but that may take awhile.

“We need to get the issue of grave relocations completely behind us before we can do a lot of master planning,” he said.

In other business Tuesday, the council:

* Heard a presentation on the South Waco Recreation Center’s $1.8 million renovation from architect Ron Hobbs.

He recommends sheathing most of the building in metal panels and creating a modern curvilinear glass hallway on the side facing the park and parking lot.

“Right now, it’s terribly outdated,” Hobbs said of the center’s appearance. “We didn’t believe it would go far enough to make the interior work if the exterior is so outdated.  . . . When this project is complete, people aren’t going to believe it’s the same building.”

* Voted on first reading to ban light-emitting diode (LED) or electronic billboards from the city limits. The city staff argued such billboards are distracting and could cause wrecks.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752