Von Tobel renews call to rename Floyd Lamb park

CARSON CITY -- Assemblywoman Kathy Von Tobel is trying a second time to change the name of Floyd Lamb State Park in Southern Nevada.

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

Lamb could not be reached for comment 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.

Assembly Bill 161, would "take the controversy out" of the issue, she said. It would give people a chance to express their feelings. If it's voted down, that ends all attempts to switch names. Even if approved, she said, the vote is advisory and the Legislature doesn't have to act.

This has become a "hot issue," she said, and she receives numerous phone calls advocating the change. She said the governor and the state parks director have had the authority to change the name but they don't want to touch it.

Two years ago, Von Tobel, R-Las Vegas, introduced a bill to change the name. But it died in the Assembly Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining Committee. This time the measure was referred to the Elections, Procedures and Ethics Committee.

Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, who is on the elections committee, said he has no strong feelings about the bill.

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