UPDATE: Ooltewah Cemetery Will Be Moved

      A solution surfaces to the controversial cemetery chaos in Ooltewah. More than an hour of passionate debate happened at the Hamilton County Commission this morning and a temporary agreement happened.

     County Mayor Claude Ramsey lifted the stop work order.That means with a judge's consent, the developer can now relocate the graves.

     Understand the remains will stay on the same piece of property. But the graves, estimated at 170, will be moved to the back elevated portion of Wells Cemetery. Some of them date back to the early 1800's. People living in Mill Run subdivision were also upset with hardwood trees cut.

   The developer must replant those.The graves will sit outside of 50 foot buffers and on a hilltop overlooking Wolftever Creek. Developer Sam Boles company missed the 2002 zoning restrictions that would have prevented this upheaval.

    They obtained deeds through the register's office, but the covenants were not there. Boles appeared before the Commission and tried to make amends. "If a neighbor comes to me and says he has a problem, I'm going to listen. That's the kind of people we are. We'll try to do the right thing and accommodate our neighbors," Boles said.

   Nearby resident Randolph Sticher remains upset. "I wish we could get some Indian affairs people in here, maybe they could stop it make them leave those graves alone," Sticher lives nearby and believes this history and desecration to graves far outweighs the planned strip mall.

Two people spoke before the Commission saying tradition indicated Cherokees started the cemetery.

Meanwhile, developer Boles denied Sticher's claim a construction worker says the graves were being used as quote fill dirt.

Meanwhile, the next meeting happens at the Commission on December 31st.

Commissioner Hullander suggests a springtime memorial to the relocated cemetery for those affected.