Retired Glenwood Springs car dealer John Haines’ hope of donating a giant chunk of snow -white marble to the federal government to replace the cracked Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is stalled again.

Haines’ hoped-for donation, which has sat outside the Yule Quarry near Marble since it was cut for the tomb in 2003, didn’t even rate a mention in a 34-page Department of the Army report to Congress this week on replacement and repair options for the deteriorating tomb.

Haines’ donation creates problems for the federal government because it is free and has not gone through a pricey bidding and specification process. A quarry in Vermont has expressed interest in submitting a bid.

This week’s report — the latest in a string of tomb reports done since Arlington officials decided the marble needed replacing 18 years ago — estimates the cost of replacing the tomb’s marble at $2.2 million — $80,000 of that for seeking bids, $90,000 for buying and transporting the marble and the remainder for sculpting.

Haines made the final payment for his $31,000 piece of marble last week. He also has lined up donated transport for the rock on a flag-decorated flatbed truck. He did all that after receiving a letter from an Army major general five years ago thanking him for his “most kind and generous donation.”

“It’s not doable. A citizen can’t just give us any piece of marble and say, ‘This is what we’ll use to replace the tomb,’ ” said Thurman Higginbotham, deputy superintendent of Arlington.

But Haines’ marble isn’t just any marble. It was cut from the same Yule Quarry where the original gold-veined marble for the Tomb of the Unknowns was mined nearly 80 years ago. The marble on the outside of the Lincoln Memorial also came from that quarry. The tomb replacement piece was cut after a nearly five-year search for an unflawed piece that would look like the original.

“It was a very emotional moment when they separated it from the wall and it got the thumbs-up,” said historical filmmaker David Showalter, who filmed the cutting for his “The History of Marble” DVD.

Showalter said the fact that there were veterans working on the cutting made the search more poignant.

The original marble monument sits on a vault containing the remains of an unknown World War I soldier. Remains of unknown World War II and Korean War soldiers are in nearby crypts. The crypt for the Vietnam War sits empty after remains placed there were later identified.

The marble tomb itself, carved with laurel wreaths and Greek figures and also called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, has come to symbolize the sacrifice of all soldiers. And that has raised an emotional debate that has delayed its replacement.

The tomb developed two cracks in the 1930s. Reports were done on the problem in 1967 and 1989. The second report recommended replacement or encasing the tomb in a weatherproof structure.

Since then, two repairs with grout have been attempted, but the cracks have continued to grow. They are now nearly 48 feet long and span each side of the tomb. A third crack has shown up on the base of the monument.

Arlington was ordered to do another study this year after historians and veterans critical of the plan to replace the tomb’s marble protested enough that an amendment was added to the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. That amendment, sponsored by veterans and Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia, whose district includes Arlington, and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, required a detailed report on how Arlington has tried to repair the tomb and how it proposes to replace it.

The new report does not make an outright recommendation but does reiterate that even if the tomb is repaired for now, it will eventually need to be replaced.

Higginbotham said Arlington owes it to the public to make the tomb right again.

“I would rather see us do the right thing so that someday when we have 10,000 people watching the changing of the guard we won’t have a piece of marble fall off,” Higginbotham said.

Arlington can’t take any action for 180 days or without congressional approval. If replacement is the decided course, there will be a lengthy period of drawing up bid specifications and going through more historical study processes.

U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Manassa Democrat and veteran who has worked with Haines over the years to make the donation a reality, will be taking a close look at the report, his spokesman Eric Wortman said.

“We would think the government should seriously consider any donations to the taxpayers,” Wortman said.

Meanwhile, the free, room-sized block of marble gracing a hillside near Marble draws some curious tourists who snap pictures in front of it. Haines said if it can’t be used for the tomb, he has the option to sell it back to the quarry, where it would be cut up and sold for other projects.

“I understand how the government works,” Haines said. “But there comes a point when you just say ‘to hell with it.’ ”

Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com