Assembly urged to let voters decide on Lamb Park

Thursday, Feb. 18, 1999 | 11:53 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Longtime residents of Clark County told an Assembly committee Wednesday that voters in Southern Nevada should be allowed to decide whether to change the name of the Floyd Lamb State Park back to Tule Springs.

Patricia Long of Las Vegas said Lamb, a former state senator, was a criminal and "he should not have a park named after him. He no longer resides in Clark County."

But Leola Armstrong, a friend of Lamb, said he was responsible for the park. He is "an old man," she said, and it would be cruel to allow the Assembly Bill 161 to emerge from the Assembly Elections, Procedures and Ethics Committee. A vote will be taken later on the measure, which would put the name change issue before the voters in Clark County.

"I just wish they would leave me alone," Lamb, who lives in Lincoln County and who did not attend the hearing, told the Sun. He said a vote on the matter would not be fair since, given Southern Nevada's fast-growing population, he is not well known here anymore.

Lamb served 26 years in the Senate but was convicted in 1983 in an FBI sting of accepting $23,000 in bribes. He spent nine months in a federal prison, was paroled and the state restored his civil rights. He was later elected to the Lincoln County Commission but was ousted in a recall election.

The city of Las Vegas bought the Tule Springs land in 1964 and turned it into a park. But it ran short of money and asked the state to take it over. The state agreed, and Lamb was responsible for getting $2 million to improve the land. The Las Vegas City Council, before turning over the land, renamed it in honor of Lamb in 1977.