An attempt to save Reno's historic Hillside Cemetery may soon be under way after a nonprofit organization was proposed this weekend to take the lead in preservation efforts.

Neighbors of the northern Reno cemetery, including Scott Nebesky, Ernie Nielsen and David Bobzien, pushed the idea for a nonprofit group during a cemetery workshop sponsored by the West University Neighborhood Advisory Board.

With its share of City Pride funds - money given to neighborhood groups by the Reno City Council - the board voted to consider providing some initial funding to start the nonprofit group in May.

If it isn't preserved, proposals have been made that a portion of the cemetery be developed as student housing for the University of Nevada, Reno.

"It's going to take a village to work and solve this problem," said chairwoman Lora Nay. "We can't give up this time."

Opening in 1879, many of Reno's first settlers are among the 1,400 people buried at the Hillside Cemetery off Nevada Street in the neighborhood west of UNR. With its breathtaking views of downtown and Mount Rose, it's easy to imagine the first townsfolk going on picnics, gardening or relaxing here, said Candace Wheeler, who heads the effort to preserve Virginia City's historic cemeteries.

For the last 50 years, however, the cemetery has been desecrated. Many headstones and monuments have been damaged, toppled, scattered elsewhere on the property or stolen.

"Everyone has dropped the ball. The state, the county, the heirs," said Betty Mills, who lived near the cemetery for 35 years. "The people who are paying for it are buried there. They expected to rest in peace and not be disinterred."

But it's still worth saving, said Wheeler, whose foundation has raised nearly $2 million for the Virginia City cemeteries. Putting the cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places would help in fund-raising, she said.

"How many cultural resources shall we mow over?" Wheeler said. "Disinterring dead bodies, at the very least, is bad karma."

At least $1 million would be needed to clean up the cemetery, plant lawns and create an endowment fund, said Ross Bevans of Mountain View Cemetery.

John Lawton, who bought the cemetery for $10,000 in 1996, lobbied for a state law in 2001 that has allowed him to claim ownership of the entire cemetery, including individual plots.

Lawton, who owns Sierra Memorial Gardens, said he will support these new efforts to preserve the cemetery. But he said he won't wait forever. He told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he wants to see something done before the end of the year with the cemetery.

"After 100 years, what's really left?" he said.

Lawton said developers have approached him about ripping up the southern 5 acres - under the supervision of local health officials - for a student housing project. Remains in the cemetery would be relocated and put in child-sized caskets on a monument wall or mausoleum.

But Lawton could expect a long battle with the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, said Nebesky, the colony's planning director. He said the colony believes many of the hundreds of people buried in the pauper's plot are native Americans and would be protected under federal law.

Deputy City Attorney Allen Gibson said people who can prove their relatives were buried there or hold burial plot deeds would have standing in court to challenge the 2001 state law turning those plots over to Lawton.

When there is no endowment fund for perpetual maintenance, the law allows Lawton to create a cemetery authority, remove the remains and use the land for other purposes. As required, he posted his intentions to disinter remains in 2003.

Michael Pennington, Alpha Tau Omega alumni chairman, said the nearby fraternity and its alumni could help, especially in raising money to improve a private road called 10th Street that runs east-to-west through the cemetery.

After hearing complaints of potholes, Lawton said he would have the road graded and rock added in a few weeks.

Maintenance of the cemetery and nearby streets is a near-constant problem. In his first visit to the cemetery last Thursday, Reno city code enforcer Alex Woodley said he issued a number of citations against the cemetery and nearby property owners for junked cars, appliances and rolled-up carpeting.

Now that the out-of-the-way area is on their radar screen, he said his code enforcement officers will be back.

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