“[W]e should also mention that we have received many calls about the question of the cemetery that might be located on our new site, and about the movement to delay the project. We hope and expect that the questions about the site will be resolved shortly, and we will be patient and continue our planning and cultivation activities in the interim. Clearly, any controversy about a matter like this would compromise and delay our fundraising efforts.”
Says Terry Abbott, “At no time have the Friends not been supportive of a thorough investigation of the issue of graves. To suggest otherwise would be false.”
Al Cameron
So far HSPVA Friends has raised less than 1 percent
of its promised funds.
Al Cameron
HSPVA students must jockey for practice space in the
hallways.
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That stretch of land in the Fourth Ward has become a quagmire for the school district. Any way you look at it, HISD is going to spend more taxpayer money than it planned and end up offending somebody along the way — although that last part is almost inevitable with these kinds of things.
Say evidence of graves is found:
“We will continue to work just as we are now, at the direction of the Texas Historical Commission and in response to other government requirements that may be applicable,” says Abbott. Which means the district would have to foot a rather large bill. Developers reportedly spent an additional $900,000 exhuming bodies from Allen Parkway Village. And those remains weren’t part of a national cemetery.
And if there is no evidence of graves?
“Even if we don’t find graves,” says McGhee, “I will feel comfortable in the knowledge that maximum effort and planning (given the already understood time and resource constraints) went into the effort to find them.”
It’s that part in the parentheses that worries many involved with the project. The district isn’t paying to examine every single speck of dirt on the property, so there’s always going to a big “maybe” in the minds of the district’s detractors: Maybe the graves are there, but HISD missed them. These folks will be waiting with bated breath once the heavy machinery starts digging up the ground.
The quagmire deepens when it comes to the issue of environmental impact and green building. The district has been making slow steps toward improving its building practices, but that might be too little too late for its neighbors in the Fourth Ward. Johnson has a tendency to see the worst in every situation, but it’s hard to argue with him when he points out that the district plans to put a lot of concrete where there used to be a little. That water’s got to go somewhere.
And then you’ve got the Friends, who just might be the best HSPVA ever had. These boosters have got a long way to go before they’ve raised their promised $15 million. Maybe there’s an arts patron out there with $14.9 million burning a hole in her pocket, but most people think the part of the land designated for HSPVA is going to lie fallow for a while. Or maybe the district will come up with the rest of the money on its own. Then the Friends will have talked the district and the taxpayers into letting the school jump over many others that were more in need of replacement.
No matter what happens, this story is far from over.
