Dayton Valley residents pack meeting to demand centrally located bridge

DAYTON - Residents here living south of the Carson River made it clear they don't want to have to travel east to Chaves Road and then west on Highway 50 to the commercial area of central Dayton.

"We want a practical, useful bridge, according to the needs of the community," said longtime resident Winston "Stony" Tennant. "One that will give people access in a manner that does some good."

More than 100 people packed Wednesday night's Dayton Regional Advisory Council meeting at the Dayton Utilities Building to discuss a possible second bridge over the river and an alternate east-west route paralleling Highway 50.

The bridge at Dayton Valley Road is the only way for residents living south of the Carson River to get home.

Tennant said a second bridge must be centrally located. "A bridge at the end of Dayton makes no sense," he said.

Tennant added that a centrally located bridge connecting at Cardelli Road would mean emergency personnel can get to the neighborhoods quicker and would take some local traffic off of Highway 50.

Lyon County Planning Director Rob Loveberg, who is developing a transportation element for the county's master plan, repeatedly emphasized all plans for roads or bridges were conceptual, and nothing has been decided upon.

He said the three bridge locations being considered were Chaves Road, Cardelli Road and the area south of Pine Cone Road.

The DRAC board passed a resolution acknowledging most of the residents in the room didn't want the bridge over Chaves Road. Board member Ralph Ewing voted against the resolution, saying he thought a vote was premature, since many residents north of the river were not in attendance to comment.

Ron Adams, a south Dayton Valley resident, hosted a meeting Jan. 19 that drew 60 people opposed to the Chaves Road bridge possibility.

"The idea of going to Chaves Road to go anywhere is silly unless you are going to Silver Springs or Yerington," said Adams.

County Engineer Dick Faber said a bridge over the Chaves Road area of the river would cost about $2 million to build, as opposed to a $15 million price tag for one at Cardelli Road.

Tennant said there was a cost-benefit ratio to consider in addition to actual cost.

"If we build a bridge that doesn't do us any good, we've spent money for nothing," he said.

Both the bridge and alternate east-west routes will be added to a Highway 50 corridor study being done by the Nevada Department of Transportation, Loveberg said.

He said any arterial roads would have an 80-foot right-of-way and could be either two or four lanes, with enough room for a center turn lane.

The southern road option is to take a route from Lakes Boulevard, across to Dayton Valley Road, then north to the Pine Cone-Flowery area. That conceptual road, between Dayton Valley Road and the Carson River, brought an objection from resident Connie Fleckenstein.

"If you take Lakes across Dayton Valley Road, you will obliterate my house," she said. "I spent 30 years paying for that home."

Loveberg said no plans were definite, and they wouldn't be going through existing homes.

He described a proposed arterial road north of Highway 50 that would go north of the cemetery, water tower and Old Town Dayton, north of existing developments east of Old Town, then around the Sutro development, into the Traditions development.

Loveberg said the Traditions developers were already planning an east-west road, and the conceptual arterial road will connect with that, then cross Six Mile Canyon Road, go through Canyon Estates east to Copper Canyon, then on to Stagecoach.

He said it was important to reduce congestion on Highway 50.

"Our concern is for 50 to continue to be a viable road," he said. "We have to have an alternate road so local traffic does not have to go on 50."

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.