Gibbons backs Jarbidge in cemetery fight

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Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999 | 10:21 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A 2-acre cemetery plot owned by the federal government would be handed over to the residents of the historic mining town of Jarbidge if legislation introduced by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., passes Congress.

The bill, first introduced in March, passed on a voice voted in the House of Representatives Tuesday and now faces a Senate test.

On the House floor Gibbons argued that it is "rational and fair" that the residents of the Elko County community privately own the resting place of their relatives. The tombstones date back nearly a century in the northeastern Nevada town near the Idaho border.

Gibbons' legislation would transfer the cemetery title free of charge from the U.S. Forest Service to Elko County, which would maintain the property. But the Forest Service has opposed the transfer. Officials have said they would sell or trade the land -- a tiny parcel in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest -- in order to compensate U.S. taxpayers.

Gibbons argued that was shameful.

"We could not support a fair market value scheme requiring the families to pay for the graves of their parents and grandparents," Gibbons said in a statement after the House vote. "The battle in the House is over, and the residents of Jarbidge are the big winners."