EDITORIAL
Let our founders rest

The Planning Department believes the town needs a safer route for bicycle and foot traffic on Quaker Road over to Milk Street at its intersection with Prospect and Milk Street Extension.

We agree, but not at the expense of the remains of the island's founders, many of whose bodies lie unmarked, as was the Quaker way, in this 4.7-acre cemetery owned by Nantucket County and left untouched since it was plotted in 1730.

With ground-penetrating radar revealing 39 possible sites containing remains and historic artifacts on the proposed bike path route, two of them clearly marked with headstones well within the 20-foot swath that the town surveyed recently, it should not even be necessary to dig test pits that would disturb graves further.

Such a proposal should be considered unconscionable by the town, especially when other options exist.

What about marking a route that runs south on Winn Street off Madaket Road, crosses Upper Vestal Street and runs to Milk Street Extension? Or one that turns east on Upper Vestal Street from Winn and goes south to Saratoga Lane? How about just exploring these and other ideas before desecrating one of Nantucket's historic landmarks that draws thousands of visitors to the island annually?

Putting a path through the Quaker Burial Ground where thousands of members of the Society of Friends are known to be buried would be like building houses in the moors or adding a T-shirt shop to the whaling museum. All three are parts of Nantucket we hold dear and don't want to see altered by anything other than time.