Tuesday, September 23, 2008
By J.B. Smith
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Waco officials and their attorneys gave a tour Monday of the Texas Ranger Museum archaeology dig to a state legislator who is planning hearings on how the city handled the discovery of more than 150 skeletons in the way of a museum annex.
For three hours, city officials gave their side of the story: The city made honest mistakes but is working to fix them.
Their primary audience was state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, head of a House Culture, Recreation and Tourism subcommittee appointed to look into the Ranger case and how its lessons might apply to policies on cemeteries statewide.
Richard Thompson takes bones from museum expansion site / July 19, 2007
American Archaeology Group photos of grave excavations / March 2008
- 07-21-09 Waco City Council to consider 2 downtown TIF projects tonight
- 07-20-09 Waco City Council to consider doling out more money for excavation work near Ranger museum
- 05-12-09 National Park Service wants historic cemetery designation and other changes around Waco's Texas Ranger Museum
- 12-16-08 Waco City Council to decide whether to spend another nearly $500,000 for Rangers Museum work
- 10-29-08 Cemetery 'debacle' at Ranger Museum site will bring about new legislation, lawmaker says
- 10-08-08 City of Waco countersues archaeological firm in Texas Ranger Museum project
- 09-23-08 State legislator tours burial site at Texas Ranger Museum expansion
- 09-08-08 Political charges fly over graveyard dig at Ranger Museum
- 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 main reason we came was to see the site so that when we have a hearing, we’ll have some frame of reference,” Howard said. “It gave me a more full perspective on how the city came to make the decisions it made.”
State Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, and an aide to state Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson, R-Waco, also attended the meeting, along with City Manager Larry Groth.
In a slide-show presentation, City Attorney Leah Hayes and city-hired attorney Rick Bostwick argued that the city acted in good faith when it began digging utility trenches between the museum and the annex, which is to house Texas Rangers Company F.
The Ranger museum complex, known as Fort Fisher, was built atop part of the neglected First Street Cemetery, but the graves were supposedly relocated under a 1967 court order.
Bostwick said city crews began to dig the utility lines only after an archaeologist had surveyed the 8,000-square-foot site of the annex and found no graves, only the evidence of five empty burial shafts. The firm American Archaeology wrote in its report that “each of these five burials had been disinterred” under the 1967 project.
“It is recommended that the city be allowed to proceed with the current proposed project, and archaeological monitoring is not necessary,” the archaeology report concluded in early 2006.
The utility work began soon afterward but stopped when workers encountered bones, resuming only after the Texas Historical Commission stepped in to oversee the work.
American Archaeology Group, which sued the city after being fired earlier this year from the job, could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
Bostwick said city officials had no reason to believe that the graves around the annex area had not been relocated as required in the 1967 order.
“The historical record and physical record was consistent with the (belief) that graves had been moved to the other part of the cemetery,” Bostwick said. ”On that basis, we continued without archaeological monitoring.”
But in fact, there were historical records available at that time to suggest that hundreds of graves might remain in the cemetery.
In the 1967 relocation project, 153 gravestones from the lower cemetery were relocated to the upper cemetery, but the city has no records of how many bodies were exhumed. A museum project official who was a licensed undertaker signed documents that he had overseen “several” relocations, but no number was given.
Also, the lower part of First Street Cemetery certainly held far more than 153 graves. In fact, the registry from a single black funeral home, Boykins Funeral Home, shows 425 bodies buried at First Street between 1920 and the 1960s, including about 25 in the 1950s and 1960s, though it’s unclear how many were in the lower part.
Bostwick said in his presentation that the cemetery was developed “haphazardly” and was full by the late 19th century.
“There were a few burials after that, but very few,” he said. In an interview later, Bostwick clarified that he meant “few” in relation to the “two or three thousand” bodies that were thought to be in all of First Street Cemetery.
Howard, the subcommittee chairwoman, also asked about the city’s failure to get permission to displace recreational facilities developed under a federal Land and Water Conservation grant in the 1960s. Under the grant terms, the city cannot “convert” recreational land to another use without replacing it elsewhere.
Hayes, the city attorney, explained that part of the original Fort Fisher project on the north side of Interstate 35 had converted in the 1980s, but city officials involved in the current project mistakenly believed the whole tract had been offset.
Howard said it sounded like the city in both the archaeological case and the grant issue had acted on mistaken information.
“I’m hearing you say that this was done in good faith,” she said.
Howard said her subcommittee isn’t trying to investigate or enforce state law on the city of Waco but is trying to develop policies based on lessons learned from this case.
“There are burial sites across the state that need to be properly taken care of,” she said. “We need to have a system in place to protect these valuable historic sites.”
Hayes said the city is hiring an independent firm to analyze Fort Fisher and determine whether it qualifies for special protection under the National Historic Preservation Act as a “significant historical property.”
“What we want to convey is that we have always been transparent in trying to comply will all permitting requirements,” she said.
jbsmith@wacotrib.com
757-5752
Comments
By bj
Sep 24, 2008 6:28 AM | Link to this
This is a bunch of mumbo jumbo. The City of Waco obviously did not conduct proper research before deciding to put a building on the cemetery site. When this museum was built, there was plenty of land available in and around Waco where it could have been placed without disturbing a cemetery. Further, if they had land to replace recreational facilities on the other side of the highway, why couldn't this museum have been built on the other side of the highway?
Looks to me like Donna Howard is already looking for excuses for the City of Waco, so don't expect the Legislature to strengthen anything.
By Same Ol'
Sep 23, 2008 6:15 PM | Link to this
Yeah Bill, "it's like the writer was writing a PR piece for the City of Waco". That's because the writer obviously WAS writing a PR piece for the City of Waco (or it was written for him). In fact, the whole exercise--the meeting and the article--were nothing but a PR event for the City of Waco. The purpose of a hearing should be to find out the truth as supported by facts. Since when does it promote the truth for the state representative, Donna Howard, to come to Waco to hear an unchallenged presentation from the City of Waco's high paid, fancy outside attorney (otherwise known as a hired liar) to spin a story that puts the City in the best possible light? Why weren't interested parties given the opportunity to point out to Ms. Howard the factual information that would quash the claims that the City made innocent mistakes but acted in good faith. If the City's dog and pony show is going to be Ms. Howard's "frame of reference" as she was so bold to state, then it's a ridiculous waste of time and money to have the hearing. They sure must have Donna Howard in their back pocket. Waco We Do (corruption). You just have to wonder what the political trade is.
By shepart
Sep 23, 2008 4:02 PM | Link to this
The city's outside lawyer, Mr. Bostwick, has already put his foot in his mouth by saying: 1) there were very few burials in the cemetery after 1900 and 2) there are only 2,000-3,000 graves in the cemetery. Of a sample of the first 209 dated burials listed alphabetically in a survey of First Street Cemetery published by the Central Texas Genealogical Society in 1965, 88 are 20th century. That's 42%! And a Dec. 10, 1881 article published in the Waco Examiner places the number of graves at 7,000! The article explains that a large number of the graves were marked with wooden markers, which are perishable. Is Mr. Bostwick simply a sloppy researcher, or is he intentionally misrepresenting the truth??
By Bob
Sep 23, 2008 1:42 PM | Link to this
żOh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceiveż
The City Manager really gets around. Health commitee member to outlaw smoking in bars. What pray tell are his other envolvements?
And why is the city hiring the same attorney defending Ms. Mills?
Perhaps the Waco elected leadership follows the practices of the late Duke of Duvall County?
So Wacoans, "Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee", when you allow the current desecration of the 1st Street Cemetary to continue. Where is the outrage?
By Bill
Sep 23, 2008 10:41 AM | Link to this
Story was badly written.
Its like the writer was writing a PR piece for the City of Waco rather than reporting the facts in the news.
Real story is that 40 years ago the City of Waco made a huge mistake in moving headstones and not the graves to build the museum.
Today the problem stems from the City of Waco's denial and cover ups. City should have stood up said there were mistakes made in the past and fixed the problem instead of denying the problem existed.
By Good faith?
Sep 23, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this
Good faith? Isn't it curious how the City of Waco made a series of "honest mistakes" over a 40 year period, all of which allowed it to do exactly what it wanted to accomplish in expanding the Ranger Museum complex and in doing so, trashing First Street Cemetery and Fort Fisher Park. Where is an example of the City refraining from doing something it otherwise wanted to do in an overly cautious attempt to preserve the cemetery and the park?
And who was at the meeting to speak up for First Street Cemetery and Fort Fisher?
Good faith? What's the deal with the City of Waco hiring this Bostwick guy as its attorney? He's also the attorney for Margaret Mills who seems to acknowledged that she stole at least $70,000 of Waco tax money and is now charged with stealing $500,000 or more. So as long as he is an attorney for the City of Waco, is he going to get Mills to pay back the money or as her attorney is he going to try to make sure she doesn't have to pay back any of it? Presumably, he will be cross examining Larry Groth pretty hard at Mills trial, and yet he was there more or less representing Groth as a City of Waco official at the meeting yesterday. It's hard to believe that neither the City of Waco nor Bostwick can understand how this cozy little relationship would give the appearance of a possible conflict of interest. It kind of makes you wonder what's next. Will Bostwick both be suing the City of Waco on behalf of his client, Mills, for slander and as an attorney for Waco arrange for the City to pay her some huge out-of-court settlement so that he can collect a fee on both sides?
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