Hello folks, This is the second article found in the Huntsville Times. Permission to post these two articles on the Internet was given to Kymm, who passed that permission on to the ROOTWALKER list. MS Meagan N. WALDE is the author of these two articles and we thank her also for their use. We hope you enjoy these two articles. Sincerely, Stan Magnesen ROOTWALKER site/list coordinator ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************** Article Two: Old cemeteries often emerge from the mists of history when development moves in By Megan N. WALDE In fast-growing Madison, surveyors and utility workers are often the first to discover old burial grounds as they prepare land for development. State law says they can't simply bulldoze the site once a cemetery is identified. It's a misdemeanor in Alabama to move or deface tombstones or graves. But sometimes the identification comes too late. "Where (the cemeteries are) poorly marked or partially washed away, they can sometimes be dug up before you realize you're in them," said Whitey BRESSETTE, Madison Water & Wastewater Board general manager. Utility workers often run water and sewer lines across otherwise vacant land, to encourage development in those areas. In the process, they sometimes run across whole tombstones, granite chunks or contents of graves themselves. "All the operators know to stop at the first sign of a grave," BRESSETTE said. "What we're doing is the best we can to be as aware as we can." While city workers were building a pipeline for the Keene Water Treatment Plant on Gillespie Road two and a half years ago, they found a cemetery. "When we recognized what it was, we simply redid the easements, built a fence and went around it," BRESSETTE said. Phillip WILBANKS, president of the Tennessee Valley Professional Land Surveyors Association, has come across 10 to 12 cemeteries in his 30-year career. He tries to find a deed for each one. "Sometimes there's not a deed to it," WILBANKS said. "It's just sitting in the middle of nowhere." Then it's up to the developer to leave the cemetery alone or to follow strict state guidelines for moving it. The developer must file a public notice in a local newspaper for two months, alerting residents that he wants to move the graves. He has to make a "reasonable attempt" to locate and notify descendants of those buried in the cemetery. Finally, he has to follow Health Department guidelines for removal of human remains, and those remains must be reburied and marked in another cemetery.