Lawsuit filed over cemetery left as giant mound of earth

Descendants of people buried in a small cemetery in western Pennsylvania have sued the owners of a motel over an excavation project that left the cemetery a mound of earth more than 25 feet high.

The (Washington) Observer-Reporter reports that the suit filed April 4 against Nikita Lodging Inc. calls on the company to stabilize Rhodes Cemetery, allow access to the area and restore the cemetery to its original condition.

The cemetery behind the Econo Lodge Motel in Waynesburg, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Pittsburgh, has between eight and 12 graves, with the most recent burial in 1862. Mediation was ordered after earlier court action failed to resolve the dispute.

Company owner Keyur Patel said the firm is taking a different approach to resolving the matter, but declined to comment further.

Nikita originally planned to preserve the cemetery during the work on a new motel by building a retaining wall around it and steps leading to the graves. Franklin Township halted work on the new motel in the fall of 2015 until Nikita could take steps to stabilize the cemetery.

A judge called on the township to declare the cemetery a public nuisance and assume care for its restoration. But the township has maintained that it's not responsible for correcting the problem and hasn't been named in the suit.

Robbie Matesic, executive director of the county economic development department, said mediation involving the township and Nikita has been "on pause" for about a year. She said the descendants' lawsuit may lead to work being done more quickly on the mound, which she said is unstable.

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Information from: Observer-Reporter, http://www.observer-reporter.com