While the well has been drying up with the sour economy, Susie Dayton keeps a bright outlook on life daily by remembering something a friend e-mailed to her.

“When God closes one door, another one opens — but the hallway may be hell,” she recited with a chuckle.

Dayton, the former administrative assistant for the Sparks police chief, knows she has the skills to get another job after being let go. It’s just a question of when that chance opens up again and how long Dayton can hang on until then.

Just shy of working with the Sparks Police Department for eight years, Dayton said her position consisted solely of office work from data entry to handling personnel files.

“I loved it,” she said. “It was not necessarily police-driven ... but I think I succeeded.”

She was situated on the second floor of the Sparks Police Department, above the action of the first floor and basement where patrol work took place. As a civilian employee, Dayton answered phone calls from residents and pushed confidential paperwork as needed.

But on Jan. 6, without any advanced warning, her tenure with the department ended.

“I had no idea it was coming,” Dayton said. “The chief of police called me in and, you know, you put two and two together, but I thought I was getting instruction (for other tasks).”

She was concerned when several managers were in the room with solemn demeanors and told her it was her last day.

“They had told me (previously) that my chances of losing my job were slim to none,” she said.

Of the 35 laid off from the city of Sparks on the same day, six were from the SPD. Those six received grocery and gas cards as assistance and even movie cards, which provided a bit of helpful distraction, Dayton said.

But she emphasized that she remains amicable toward the department and her former coworkers and that she has faith that her situation will improve.

“I’m renting and my landlord has helped me rent-wise,” she said. “I’m clipping coupons; I’m very frugal. I’m going without. I was always sensible.”

Her hopes of buying her own home and a car to replace her 7-year-old vehicle have been put on hold. Finding another job is now the priority and it’s a tough task. Dayton recently applied for administrative assistant jobs with the state of Nevada, federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and consulting, engineering and insurance firms.

Dayton previously worked in Tacoma, Wash. at Pierce Transit in a similar job. There, she was responsible for the mitigation and mediation of managerial issues and produced a bi-weekly newsletter explaining company policies for 750 coach operators. The project, she said, made her a competent writer.

When she moved to Reno in 2001, she found an ad in a newspaper about the chief’s administrative assistant position with the SPD and applied along with nearly 60 other candidates. She attributed the good recommendations she received for getting the job, which took an extensive interview process to get.

She knows she has the skills but is waiting for doors to open.

“I started putting in applications immediately, I’ve been to job fairs,” she said. “There’s a job fair next week (at John Ascuaga’s Nugget) for the Legends (at Sparks Marina).”

She said she is most qualified to help in administrative assistant positions, but at 54, said, “I’m no spring chicken. Employers are looking for the youngest and brightest.”

It won’t deter her from advertising herself as qualified and desirable.

“I just have to focus on the opportunities and keep a positive attitude,” Dayton said. “God will provide. I believe that sincerely.”