Growing community of Dayton trying to keep small town roots

But when Saylor first came to town in 1972, he was just a kid from back East with long hair and a ponytail.

Nobody seemed to mind. In fact, the cowboys, miners and other old-timers in this historic community looked out for the stranger.

"I remember feeling honored being asked to be one of the four guys in the volunteer fire department," Saylor said. "They even let me drive the truck."

Gold was discovered here by prospectors from California. Ever since, people have been coming to Dayton looking for all sorts of things.

Sometimes it's peace and quiet. Other times it's adventure. Most of them end up fitting in.

"I came here because of the characters, to paint their faces in their environment," said Saylor, who's been painting pictures of his neighbors for almost three decades. His art hangs in the State Capitol.

"People have looked out for me as I stumbled along," he said.

Characters are accepted here, guys with nicknames - "Swiss Bill" and Cadillac" - have been part of the landscape, just like the tiny downtown's historic buildings.

"I remember the old yodeler's name, 'Swiss Bill,"' said Julie DeWitt, who arrived in Dayton from Sacramento 16 years ago in a blizzard.

"He'd yodel on his way home from the bar at night. Everybody could hear him at 2 o'clock in the morning. I was wonderful to wake up and hear Swiss Bill."

DeWitt didn't come to Dayton to hear Swiss Bill yodel. That was a bonus.

"This is the first really small town I've lived in," DeWitt said. "It took me just about a year to adjust to a rural, quiet, slower pace."

But that pace, whether DeWitt and others like it or not, is picking up. Subdivisions are sprouting, with more to come, as Dayton evolves into a bedroom community filled with newcomers commuting to jobs in nearby Carson City, the state capital.

"In 10 years, we'll be the size Carson City was 25 to 30 years ago," said Barbara Peck, an 18-year resident and chairperson of the Dayton Regional Advisory Council. "We're at 8,000 (in the area) now. Easily, we'll double that."

Peck doesn't want to see that happen.

"This is never going to be the same community," she said. "I will probably move 10 years down the road."

Dayton has been growing for a decade. Peck predicts the population increase will accelerate if the sewer plant is expanded.

"We are talking about a multi-million dollar project," she said. "It's all because of the growth. Once that's resolved, I predict a huge explosion in population."

Most of Dayton's services come from Lyon County, which is responsible for the sewer.

"The capacity is becoming a concern," said County Manager Stephen Snyder. "With the focus on growth there, we are currently working on that. We are nearing capacity."

Before long, Peck claimed, Dayton will become a city - incorporating and dealing with utilities and other growth-related issues.

"We're going to have to incorporate," she said.

Dayton has a tradition of providing for itself.

When townspeople wanted a library, donations were collected to cover a large share of the bill. One of the latest projects is a swimming pool with an anticipated cost of $280,000. A task force is soliciting money and volunteer labor.

Neighbors "always come through," said Janette Hoffert, volunteer coordinator for Dayton's well-used community center.

"We kind of proved that over the Christmas holidays when we were short of money in the food bank for turkeys. We put it in the newspaper and we had money from heaven," she said.

Another Christmas emergency arose when the town came up 89 short of the 327 presents sought for needy kids.

"We started making phone calls," Hoffert said. "We got donations. We came up with those 89 presents in three hours. That's what we need to preserve."

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