I receive email from a group that wants to have a new hiway built from Seguin to Lockhart to Austin. The idea is great, it is needed to make IH35 safer (now double the accident rate of any other Texas hiway because of NAFTA trucks). BUT.... This group is pushing and wants this NOW but one thing is not being mentioned as it never is when they discuss building hiways - cemeteries! They will tear through older, nearly lost family cemeteries that they find along the way. Even if they are taken care of they might be destroyed by the contractor. They have done it before when they built I-10. I suggest that we mount a campaign to make the state take notice of these historical resources. The State of Texas has a program to identify and protect historically qualified cemeteries but this takes time and effort. If you want information on that program write to me off the list. To have an immediate impact on this we must write to the same people these people are writing to and we have to be vocal. We have to have hand written letters AND phone calls ALSO. Stacey Benningfield Texas Turnpike Authority Division Texas Department of Transportation 125 E. 11th Street Austin, TX 78701-2483 I know how State Govt. works, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So why don't we SQUEAK loudly. I'm writing to Gerron Hite who is the head of the Texas Historical Commission's program to save cemeteries (they helped us save one just a month ago) to fill him in on the situation but there is not much that he can really do UNLESS we get vocal. Ron McCandless