By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

AUSTIN — The disturbance of graves at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum grounds in Waco will result in an omnibus grave protection bill in the coming state legislative session, the head of a House committee said after a five-hour meeting on the matter Tuesday.

A special subcommittee of the House Committee on Parks, Recreation and Tourism heard a long debate on the city of Waco’s handling of the museum expansion, which resulted in the relocation of more than 190 unmarked graves.

The city is working with the state to build a Texas Ranger Company F headquarters behind the museum, in a park known as Fort Fisher. In building utility lines to the annex, the city has discovered that the area is full of graves from the old First Street Cemetery, which was supposed to have been cleared before the museum’s construction in 1968.

The subcommittee heard from critics of the city’s decisions in 1968 and during the current project. It also heard a detailed defense from city of Waco officials.

State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, head of the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Committee, said the testimony was strong and informative on both sides.

“There’s a lot of conflicting points of view,” he said. “Waco’s presentation seemed very credible, but then the other side jumps up and also makes a very compelling case.”

He said the point of the hearing wasn’t to pass judgment on Waco but to learn how the current law on cemeteries might be strengthened.

“I think we’re going to have an omnibus bill in this next session to keep things like this from happening in the future,” he said. “If this Waco debacle hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be doing this.”

Officials from the Texas Historical Commission, Texas Funeral Service and the Texas Attorney General’s Office testified that current laws regarding cemetery protection and relocation are unclear and conflicting.

There are no clear rules about how and in what cases graves may be moved, said Texas Historical Commission executive director Larry Oaks. The Texas Antiquities Code doesn’t even specifically address cemeteries, officials said.

That made it difficult for the commission to guide the city of Waco’s handling of bodies at Fort Fisher, Oaks said.

“We’re not apologists for what the city of Waco has done,” he said. “But the state laws are so poorly written that when we were asked, ‘Under what authority are you asking us to stop this work?’ we had to rely on a liberal interpretation of the law. We’re on shaky ground because (the rules) are so inartfully written or don’t exist at all.”

The head of the subcommittee, Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, asked heads of the funeral and historical commissions to draft proposals that could be used in legislation in the session that begins in January.

The subcommittee heard an explanation of the First Street Cemetery fiasco from Waco City Attorney Leah Hayes and counsel Rick Bostwick.

They said the city acted in good faith by hiring a firm to survey the foundation site before the new Ranger building was constructed. They said they proceeded with the project on the advice of American Archaeology Group. That firm and the city now are suing each other over the matter.

The attorneys made a case that present-day city officials had every reason to believe that the graves were removed as required under a court order in 1968.

John Griggs, an archaeologist who worked with American Archaeology Group, testified against the city of Waco, flanked by Waco dentist and amateur historian Brad Willis and former city parks employee Melvin Dotson.

They presented evidence that the city in 1968 moved only headstones, not bodies. For example, a Tribune-Herald account several months before the court order described the city’s ongoing efforts to relocate gravestones only.

Griggs said the city is breaking the law by building in a cemetery, and he mocked statements by the city attorney claiming that it’s not a cemetery because the court de-dedicated it in 1968.

After some back-and-forth about whether the unmarked graves constitute a cemetery, the subcommittee invited Assistant Attorney General Joe Thrash to address that question.

Thrash said the cemetery is in “legal limbo” because the de-dedication was based on a faulty assumption that the graves had been cleared and thus could be considered void for that reason.

“I don’t see a distinction between a cemetery and a dedicated cemetery,” he added.

City officials said they are taking steps to relocate utilities to areas where few or no additional bodies will have to be exhumed.

Other commitments the city offered were as follows:

* The city will create a memorial park for the undeveloped remainder of the Fort Fisher site, rededicating it for the deceased there.

* The exhumed graves will be identified as much as possible and reinterred in Rosemound Cemetery.

* The museum will not expand further into the First Street Cemetery area. That will require redesigning the $1 million Knox Hall renovation.

* The city admits that it unintentionally violated the terms of a 1960s federal recreation grant that developed Fort Fisher Park by “converting” the land for a different use. The city will purchase a 50-acre tract at the Mammoth Site to offset the loss of parkland.

The National Park Service has ruled that the city’s conversion was unintentional and will not be punished.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752