– By The Associated Press

Outraged members of a historic church renewed their calls for the city of Worcester to halt renovation work in its historic Common and burial ground on Thursday after workmen unearthed bones and a portion of a skull.

The remains were found Tuesday underneath a sidewalk installed in the 1970s and near where workmen uncovered three flattened gravestones in July when they lifted another portion of sidewalk.

“If you dig a trench across a burial ground how can you not expect to disturb graves,” said James Cote, moderator of the 140-member First Congregational Church of Worcester. “They just shouldn’t be doing it.”

Cote said members of the congregation with family members buried in the Common are extremely upset.

They want assurances that the bones, removed for laboratory study by state researchers, will be returned for an appropriate burial and no more graves will be disturbed, he said.

The church, which began protesting soon after the city announced its plans for a $5 million makeover of the Common, could consider legal action at an upcoming special meeting of the congregation, he said. State laws prohibit disturbance of a known burial ground.

Church and other officials estimate more than 200 graves remain in the Common, which was used as a cemetery in the 1700s and 1800s. In 1995 the city unearthed the remains of a woman when it installed a bus stop.

“We’re appalled,” said Michael Bowie, president of the local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. He said many Revolutionary War veterans are buried in the Common, which was also the first place in Massachusetts where the Declaration of Independence was read.

Robert Antonelli, the city’s acting park commissioner, said city officials had believed the graves stopped short of the sidewalk.

“The area was disturbed previously so we did not foresee finding anything there,” he said.

“We are taking every precaution and doing what we can to treat respectfully anything we do find,” he said.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission ordered the city to hire archeologists from the University of Massachusetts to monitor the work after the gravestones were uncovered.

It appeared the remains, which were found about 18 inches below the surface, had become mixed with dirt used as fill, said state Archaeologist Brona Simon.

The more than century-old bones were removed by the archeologists for study, she said.

“We need to analyze them to see if we can identify the person,” she said. “Afterward, if someone comes forward and requests they be reintered, we can respond.”

The graves found in July were photographed and documented by the archeologists, she said, and then left in place. The city was required to protect the flattened headstones with additional fill before installing the new sidewalk, she said.

“We have been working with the city for years to protect the graves,” Simon said, adding the recent discoveries “have helped us determine more accurately the boundaries that were in the previous records.”

AP-ES-09-16-04 1804EDT