Von Tobel renews call to rename Floyd Lamb park

Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999 | 9:12 a.m.

She introduced a bill to have an advisory vote in Clark County next election on whether to rename it Tule Springs State Park.

But Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, said, "I'm opposed to it. Floyd Lamb served the state well. I don't know if we want to insult him this way."

Lamb was in the Senate for 26 years and was responsible for providing state money to save the park when the city of Las Vegas could not finance the venture. The city renamed the park after Lamb and then turned it over to the state.

Lamb was later nabbed in an FBI sting and convicted in 1983 of accepting $23,000 in bribes. He spent nine months in a federal prison and then was paroled. The state Pardons Board later restored his civil rights. Lamb was then elected to the Lincoln County Commission but was ousted in a recall election.

Some people, Von Tobel said, say the park should not be named after a person convicted of a felony. Other people, she said, simply want the park restored to its historic name.

AB161 would "take the controversy out" of the issue, she said, adding that if the name change is voted down, that would end the effort. Even if votersfavor the change, she added that the vote is advisory and the Legislature doesn't have to act.