Between 20 and 30 dead bodies in the ground at Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services could either be moved or end up surrounded by parking lots and loading docks, a department official said Monday.

"To me that does not seem like an appropriate thing to do," said Harold Cook, Administrator for the State Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services.

The bodies are in the way of construction on a new state Department of Agriculture administration building, which could include office space and laboratory facilities.

Just how the bodies will be treated is a matter of concern that health services officials hope to address at public meetings today and Wednesday at the Sierra Regional Center, 605 S. 21st St.

"We need input from the community: what the public might want to see changed and how the public might want to see these regulations implemented," Cook said.

Cook said that he had already fielded many calls as of Monday morning concerning a proposal to cremate the remains before moving them.

"It (could) provide for me to cremate some of the remains," Cook said. "I have had lots of comments already that that is an awful thing to do. If the public meeting says …. to not cremate the bodies, I will take that and utilize it in the final thing I do. I have no idea what to expect."

The first meeting is today from 8 to 10 a.m. and will be an open workshop where people can voice their opinions on the proposal to move the bodies to the main gravesite.

The second meeting will be a public hearing held at 3 p.m. at which Cook will discuss administrative responsibilities and proposals to move the bodies pertaining to the Nevada Administrative Code.

Cook is the deciding authority on how the bodies will be moved.

The 20 to 30 bodies are only some of the hundreds of people who have been buried on the land since the state hospital's beginnings in 1882. The land served as a pauper's gravesite as well as former patients.

"Most of the people we are talking about were patients of what was at that time the state hospital and they were buried there because supposedly there was no other place to bury them," Cook said. "It was also the pauper's cemetery. Other people from the community could bury their dead there if they had no other place."

Eleven of the number buried have been identified; however, many remain nameless.

The following individuals buried at the cemetery have been positively identified:

• Annie Simmons

• Tony Thomas

• Robert Peaney

• Antonio Yubar

• Herbert S. Kingsmil

• Hugh Blair

• Paul Pablo

• Antonio Medina

• Sam Elrod

• Charles R. Simmons

• Francisco Guido

• Steve Baycovich

• Nellie Dixon

• Sarah Dondero

• Swan Peterson

• Hyrum Hill

• Joe Tacchino

• Joseph Connor

• George Deskos

• Harry Archondas

• Alfred John Jungberg

• Otto Ling

The graveyard is currently surrounded by the agriculture building and the hospital to the west, another Department of Agriculture building to the north, the Sierra Regional Center to the south and a residential neighborhood to the east.