Official criticizes digging at possible cemetery

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) - A northern Indiana cemetery preservation official is upset he wasn't told that septic system excavation had begun at a site where a family believes some ancestors were buried in a graveyard dating to the mid-1800s.

Miami County Cemetery Board President Jeff Hagan told the Kokomo Tribune he wasn't told about the digging at the possible cemetery site in what is now a rural neighborhood a few miles north of Kokomo until long after work had begun.

"They said they treated it like every other septic permit, and that's why they didn't tell us," Hagan said. "I told (environmental health specialist) Ken Scott that this is a special one, and that he needed to take a little more interest in it. He said he wasn't an archaeologist."

Scott said contractors were told to report if any remains were found, but no county or state officials were on hand to observe the work.

The property has been in limbo since a modular home on the site burned to the ground about a year ago. The owner sued the county when she couldn't obtain a permit to rebuild. In June, the county attorney told Scott he could issue a septic permit, the Tribune said.

Hagan said it was his understanding that the county attorney intended to fight the lawsuit.

"We were told by the county attorney he was going to fight it, and then he turns around and does this," Hagan said,

Hagan said he found out that two of the county's three commissioners also hadn't been told the digging had been authorized.

Descendants of the Waisner and Rickard clans said they didn't know for close to two months that digging had begun.

One of them, Dan Phillips, of Portland, Ore., said he's disappointed in state and county officials for not protecting the site.

"Everyone's upset. It really is a disgrace that Miami County can do this to the forefathers who founded that county," said Phillips.