Wednesday, September 25, 2019

City archaeologist briefs Commission on Charlotte Street's disturbed burials (Former Mayor George Gardner's St. Augustine Report)








City archaeologist briefs
Commission on Charlotte
Street's disturbed burials
   It's quite amazing what is still intact after a hundred years of utility impacts.
   City Archaeologist Andrea White defended Sunday night work by a city contractor unmonitored by an archaeologist in a report to city commissioners Monday.
   "The project was specifically to tie into a new water line and was done Sunday night into Monday mainly to minimize disruption to anyone using water," she said.
   City Manager John Regan added, "The contractor was authorized to work Sunday night and we did have a city construction inspector, but it was going to require a water outage."
   "That work was not monitored," White continued, "however two days later we were there monitoring. This work was different, removing old water line. During that time we observed human burials. We stopped work and notified the state archaeologist."
   She said a conference call last Friday with the city and state archaeologist, cathedral basilica and community representatives resulted on three areas of focus:
A review of the area of overnight work to see what if any impacts were made. A second area of pulling pipe out - about 15 feet, where we noticed potentially impacted burials. Third are where additional pipe has to be removed. We will expose and examine that area and then with the State Archaeologist determine what needs to be done.
   White estimated two months to complete the project, removing some 20 feet of old pipe.

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