ELKHART — Emergency repairs to a riverbank along Grace Lawn Cemetery will begin today, Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore announced Monday night.

Moore’s announcement during a city council meeting Monday capped two days of speculation over the condition of the cemetery as a result of decades of erosion along the river.

Moore emphasized that he believes that individual grave plots have not been damaged as a result of the erosion and downplayed reports that human bone fragments might have been found.

Moore said two items resembling bone fragments had been tested. One turned out not to be a bone and the other was probably from an animal, he said.

Moore said a plan for an emergency repair of the riverbank was approved by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Monday, opening the door for the city to begin repairs.

Moore decided Sunday to temporarily close the city-owned cemetery.

“We did that for the safety of the public because the riverbank back there has become quite steep and some people have been walking around there and even gone down that steep riverbank creating more erosion,” Moore said.

“We’re very interested in the preservation of our cemetery as well,” he said.

While the cemetery remains closed, anyone who wants to specifically visit a grave site can receive an escort and can call the cemetery office ahead of time to make plans. The phone number is 293-2811.

Signs explaining the situation were to be posted at the cemetery, he said.

Moore said he was unsure how long the work would take and how long the cemetery might be closed.

Moore pointed out that no burial vaults have been exposed or damaged because of erosion.

“None have been broken into and there’s no reason to suspect that there are any human bones in the area,” he said.

Meanwhile, a woman who says erosion is destroying the 180-year-old cemetery in Elkhart says the situation is 10 times worse at a historic burial ground in Bristol where she believes she has found human bone fragments that have been unearthed.

Kelly Anderson’s crusade to preserve Grace Lawn Cemetery on Middlebury Street in Elkhart began Friday after she reported seeing pieces of bones sticking out from the dirt because of erosion.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” said Anderson, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization that includes women whose ancestors played a part in the United States’ independence.

Elkhart police took two white objects that Anderson found to a forensic pathologist for examination. Laura Koch, police spokeswoman, said Monday that while a pathologist had determined neither item appeared to be a human bone, officers reported seeing animal carcasses in the cemetery.

But the lab results didn’t keep Anderson from exploring another cemetery nine miles away in Bristol. Anderson had a hunch that the cemetery there had similar problems with erosion.

At Oak Ridge Cemetery on Vistula Street in Bristol, Anderson discovered a mound of dirt at the edge of the graveyard.

“You can clearly see bones poking out in the dirt,” said Anderson, a stay-at-home mother from Elkhart who has a background as a medical lab technician. “On the other side, it’s just a landslide, and if you go down there and move the dirt around a little, there are just tons and tons of bones. How would you feel? This is our heritage.”

Bill Wuthrich, Bristol’s town manager, explained that the pile of dirt is extra soil used to cover graves.

“If she found bone fragments, then she probably found a raccoon, a deer or a dog or something,” he said. “If there are any bone fragments, they’re not human. If there is, none of us have ever heard about it.”

Wuthrich added that Oak Ridge Cemetery does not have problems with erosion.

“There’s nothing that I know of,” he said.

Natural erosion has been minimal this summer, Moore noted.

“Part of that is because we haven’t had any rain,” he said. “The other thing is the river is so low that it hasn’t caused any erosion. The only erosion I saw on Saturday and Sunday walking around there was from people walking around and from some people who go fishing around there, and that seems to be kicking the dirt loose.”

City crews will work to stabilize the riverbank along the west side of the cemetery using large stones commonly known as riprap, Moore said.