Forest Service supports Jarbidge cemetery land conveyance

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 3:02 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO, Nev. - A U.S. Forest Service supervisor says the agency does not oppose conveying ownership of an historic cemetery in Jarbidge to Elko County.

"If that's what the citizens of Jarbidge want, we're anxious to give it to them," Gloria Flora said Wednesday during a hearing before the Nevada Legislative Public Lands Committee.

Flora, supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said previous reports on the agency's stance concerning the cemetery were misconstrued.

Previously, the Forest Service opposed pending congressional legislation on the measure. But Flora said that opposition was based on regulations that prevent the agency from transferring lands without obtaining fair market value - not on the concept of county ownership of the cemetery.

"I think it got completely misconstrued when it didn't need to be," Flora said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has introduced a bill in Congress directing the agriculture secretary to convey two acres of national forest lands to Elko County for continued use as a cemetery.

"I think they see the light today that this is the right thing to do, the civic thing to do," Gibbons said Thursday. "I do not expect them to oppose the bill on the house floor."

During her presentation, Flora explained that the cemetery has been under Forest Service permit since 1915.

"Several years ago we were able to get a permit-in-perpetuity," she said, adding that such status is rare.

Nonetheless, she said, some of Jarbidge's few dozen full- and part-time residents have lobbied for permanent ownership of the one-acre cemetery and an adjacent acre to the north.

"We're anxious for the bill to go forward," Flora said. "If the citizens want that cemetery in their ownership, they should have it."

Gibbons said the bill could be voted on by the House next week.

"I do not believe there will be any problem with its passage. It's time we brought this cemetery into a new standing, a permanent standing for Elko County," he said.