KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Frustrated neighbors near the Quindaro Ruins in Kansas City, Kansas, are unhappy about the cemetery's upkeep.
That frustration came to a head Wednesday after discovering heavy machinery parked near the cemetery and fresh track marks across the sacred grounds.
"This is one of the, if not the only, specific black graveyard that we have," Janice Witt, a Quindaro community member. said.
Some graves in the cemetery date back to the 1800s and the site is currently under consideration for historical protection.
"My family came over in the 1930s in the Great Migration," Witt said. "My grandfather was born in 1861. I guarantee you some of my relatives are in this graveyard."
Witt and other Quindaro residents expressed frustration to 41 Action News about the current condition of the cemetery, voicing concerns about the work being done adjacent to the cemetery by Phillips 66, which has an easement permitting it access to the cemetery grounds when necessary for work on a nearby pipeline.
But the company's legal right to be there was cold comfort.
"They just drove straight through the graveyard," Tscher Manck, an old Quindaro Museum Board Member, said.
The cemetery is managed by the Parks Department for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. The county has granted an easement through the cemetery because of the terrain and limited access to the pipeline, which runs adjacent to train tracks.
Phillips 66 has been conducting maintenance on its pipeline after notifying the Parks Department in July that it needed to perform some work.
"At Phillips 66, we strive to conduct ourselves according to our core values of safety, honor, and commitment," the company told 41 Action News, in part, in a statement. "We are committed to being good stewards of our assets, as well as the communities where we operate and our employees live."
The full statement is below:
At Phillips 66, we strive to conduct ourselves according to our core values of safety, honor, and commitment. We are committed to being good stewards of our assets, as well as the communities where we operate and our employees live.
We are currently completing maintenance work on a pipeline that runs adjacent to the Quindaro Cemetery. We have easement agreements to use the road that runs through the cemetery property and that road is the only way to safely access our worksite due to the steep hills in the area. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County Parks Department maintains the cemetery property and we began working with them in July before beginning work to use the road to access our pipeline. We took great care to avoid damaging grave markers near the road such as placing yellow flags to make the grave markers more visible. We also had spotters in place to ensure our equipment did not leave the roadway and damage the cemetery.
We feel badly that our activities upset some members of the community, and we would welcome an opportunity to talk to them about it. Phillips 66 prides itself on being a good neighbor in the areas where we operate. We are committed to preserving the grave sites and restoring the road and area around to an even better condition than it was in before we began our work. Additionally, we plan to speak with community representatives to identify how we might help preserve the rich history of the Quindaro Cemetery and Ruins area.
