From an email:
"The case was brought by the developers of some land in the Nipsachuck area against the RI Advisory Commission on Historic Cemeteries. The developer argued that the Advisory Commission had acted improperly when it designated some historic cemeteries within the proposed development (one of the cemeteries was some of the rock piles that Meli had identified as marking burials). The case was dismissed because the Commission is only an advisory body - it cannot legally designate anything a cemetery - only the cities and towns in RI can do that under state statute. Thus the plaintiff's argument was moot and the case was dismissed. The question of just what the rock piles represent was outside the court's consideration and never came up. It was a case about procedure, not substance."
Update: Subject title corrected, thanks to "Annonymous" commentor.
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4 comments :
The case was file against the state advisory board, not the town.
I wonder: where does this leave the developers? On one hand the Advisory Board has no authority to designate cemeteries but on the other hand that board's determinations might be enough for the town to decide against the development. In other words North Smithfield is not the court, so what happens next?
What happens next, you ask? That is a rather straightforward and easy answer. The dollars, politics and carefully crafted effort to discredit all of this work will result in more dollars and less history. Just another bunch of 'field clearing' rocks lost to the ages.The just rewards for such a concerted effort!!!
To the victor goes the spoils. History means nothing unless somebody makes money of it. I wonder where all the warriors of King Philip's army were buried ( I am sure they were buried with the Puritans). All rock piles are explained by field clearing no matter if they are close you could not plant anything in between the piles of rocks.
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