Years after a costly renovation to a Confederate marker on City property sparked controversy, Richmond officials are moving forward with plans to determine whether the remains it honors are still buried there.

Mayor Danny Avula’s administration plans to examine the Department of Public Utilities’ Wise Street substation property, where the marker is located, using a vendor with ground-penetrating radar to search for human remains or burial shafts. Testing is set for this spring, with next steps depending on the findings.

“It is paramount to understand the true nature of this site prior to determining appropriate next steps,” Avula’s Interim Press Secretary Julian Walker said in a statement. “If human remains are found on the property, any decisions related to the fate of the site would by necessity be made in accordance with applicable state laws and standards pertaining to historical sites and the potential removal and relocation of such remains.”

The marker was placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1939 to honor 100 South Carolina Confederate soldiers who died in a temporary hospital across from the marker and substation’s location, according to the marker’s inscription and other information.

In 2023, the marker saw over $16,000 in new improvements, including fencing and a bench. City officials, when asked for the rationale behind the expenditures, said the decision was in response to a citizen who wanted to honor their ancestor.

However, research and documentation from Mike Sarahan, a former City Attorney’s Office employee who has criticized Confederate tributes still present in the city, has challenged this explanation.

This marks the Avula administration’s first decision regarding the marker. Sarahan noted that the idea isn’t new — City Senior Manager and Historian Kimberly Chen suggested it during a Mayor’s Cabinet meeting in 2022 after her research failed to confirm whether the remains had been relocated.

Sarahan said the search and the City’s potential actions raise questions about how officials will handle any remains found on the property and how the public might respond.

“What will be the City’s next step?” Sarahan asked. “I believe there will be a very big disagreement if the City locates bodies and then tries to leave them where they were, thrown behind the substation building or elsewhere.”

Sarahan said he felt “vindicated” by the City’s decision to investigate.

““For two years, the City administration ignored the concerns I was raising about the marker,” he said. “In two months, the new administration has come back to do the right thing.”