Nonprofit nursery to open in Dayton

A new, nonprofit nursery will be sprouting up in Dayton this August to help plant the seeds for financial self-sufficiency for community programs.

The Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties plans to operate Community Roots, a nursery that will use any profits to help fund youth programs in Lyon County.

The nursery will be located at the corner of Highway 50 and Second Avenue in Historic Dayton on land owned by the Sbragia family, according to Bridget Thompson, public relations spokeswoman.

"We hoped this would be another funding stream so we wouldn't have to rely so heavily on the state and federal grants," she said. "And all our money stays in the community and goes back to the community."

The program will offer low-cost plants to private landowners, thereby helping to beautify Dayton, Thompson said. There will also be an incentive program for volunteers, that if volunteers work a certain number of hours at Community Roots, they'll be entitled to free or discounted plants.

The plants the nonprofit nursery sells will be purchased, but the organization is looking for donated items to help get started, such as tents, tables, fencing material, tools and office supplies.

The nursery will sell plants, trees, perennials and eventually, garden decoration items, Thompson said. It will not be open year round, but will be a seasonal business.

"Just open until it gets really cold outside," Thompson said with a laugh.

New sources of funding are important to sustain Healthy Communities' programs, said Thompson.

"When you write grants, you have to have a sustainability program," she said. "The nursery, hopefully, will be part of that program."

Christy McGill, director of the Healthy Communities Coalition, said that state and federal monies at times can become scarce.

"It's a pilot program to see if it is a viable source of funding," she said. "And it's for people who shop in Dayton that want to see the money stay here in Dayton and go to the programs."

McGill listed the group's mentoring program and after-school programs as ones which would directly benefit from a successful nursery.

"Dayton has about a 75 percent growth rate, so it's hard to keep up," she said.

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