Submitted by coldrum ---
One month after a section of the seawall protecting the ancient Miami Circle collapsed, South Florida legislators and an Indian shamen called for state funds to repair the damage and open the site to the public.
''I beg of you,'' said Catherine Hummingbird Ramirez, a Carib Indian descendant, during a news conference Saturday afternoon at the site, in downtown Miami.
``If you feel something in your heart -- whatever help you need to get this going -- don't wait anymore.''
Taxpayers bought the 38-foot circle, carved into the limestone bedrock 2,000 years ago by now-extinct Tequesta Indians, for $26.7 million eight years ago. It was made of 28 basin holes dug into the limestone. Scientists have speculated the circle might have been anything from a calendar to a sacrifice site to an ancient dump.
It sat on prime real estate near the mouth of the Miami River and was going to be covered by a high-rise commercial development before archaeologists discovered it in 1998.
Construction on a temporary seawall began last week, but a permanent fix will cost at least $1.4 million, said Frank Tejidor, an engineer with Bermello Ajamil, the firm working on the plan. But that money couldn't be found in the state's last budget.
More than a dozen groups -- including federal, state and local officials, scientists and Native Americans -- have weighed in with plans to develop the site since it was discovered.
Eventually, the site might offer a visitors' center and a riverwalk. But funding has always been scarce, and progress slow.
For more, see the Miami Herald.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road