The biggest and most serious challenge to eliminating a layer of local government in Erie County has arrived -- and what a turbulent ride it's been.

The past few months have seen the birth of lawn signs, community meetings, tough questions, contrasting analyses and sidewalk confrontations.

With shrinking-government crusader Kevin Gaughan pledging to bring a dissolution referendum to each of the 16 villages in Erie County, many are watching to see how the vote turns out Tuesday as Williamsville and Sloan residents cast the first ballots.

The interest seems disproportionate to the number of people who will actually be affected -- a combined 8,500 villagers who belong to towns with more than 203,000 collective people. Both Sloan and Williamsville residents make up less than 5 percent of their towns' populations.

Yet the sense of village identity is fierce in both places.

"I very much expect a record-setting turnout compared with any other election in Western New York," Gaughan said.

While the leaders of both pro-dissolution and anti-dissolution efforts have worked to opposite aims these past few months, both sides agree on one thing: These votes are personal.

"I've lived here 10 years, and I can't remember an issue that has been so overwhelmingly consuming of the residents," said Amy Alexander, head of the Friends of the Village of Williamsville anti-dissolution group. "In some ways, it's been a really good bonding experience for our community."

Williamsville and Sloan are different on many levels.

Williamsville exudes a certain exclusive and historic prestige. Its homes are in high demand. The village has been described as the jewel of the Town of Amherst, encompassing the Main Street commercial district and picturesque parks.

The village government has 17 full-time employees and 15 part-time employees year-round.

Though it is home to only 5,100 people, you don't need to live there to know about it.

Sloan, meanwhile, embodies a tight-knit, 3,400-person working-class community surrounded by railroads and industrial parks between William Street and Broadway in the Town of Cheektowaga. It's a place you have to hunt to find, and many residents there like it that way.

"Neighbors watch out for neighbors," said Deputy Clerk Karen Gold, whose family has been in Sloan since 1914. "That's what makes a community." The village has a local grocery store and bakery, Camillo's. A couple of hair salons. A popular restaurant and banquet hall, Kiebzak's, where many weddings and other celebrations are held. Rentals and vacant properties are sprinkled among the single-family homes.

The village government has five full-time employees and 21 part-time employees year-round.

The tiny municipal building was once a library. Around the corner, John A. Piekarski Community Center, which is also the senior center, was once the fire hall and sits next door to Woodrow Wilson Elementary School.

Despite the stark differences between the two villages, the pros and cons to dissolution are very similar:

The village government dissolution vote reflects a choice between the desire to streamline government and end costly, taxpayer-funded multilayered bureaucracy, and the potential risk of having village services, events and community standards diluted or lost within a larger town system.

"I have been surprised by the understandably high emotions and feelings," Gaughan said. "This community conversation has at times been heated, often spirited, but always enlightening."

For many, voter insecurity is fueled by the laws that govern the village dissolution process because they don't require anyone to present a plan in advance of how things would change -- or be preserved -- under a post-dissolution model.

All that contributes to the emotional debate that has been ongoing since Gaughan brought his dissolution proposals to the towns.

Betty Reczek, a 25-year Sloan resident, said the community has already changed, and not for the better.

"I've tried to keep an open mind because this is a big step," she said. "But when I look around, nothing has improved in the 25 years I've been here. It's depreciated ... The government is too big, the taxes are too high, and we're not getting anything back."

Gaughan stated that village residents wouldn't lose services because it hasn't happened at other places where dissolution passed, and no town politician would risk turning off a voting bloc of thousands.

But Gaughan isn't from Williamsville or Sloan, nor is he a deal-maker. So as far as anti-dissolution leaders are concerned, his motives are suspect and deserve hostility. In addition, anti-dissolution residents in both villages have expressed deep-seated mistrust of town leaders.

Similar to Williamsville's "Protect Village Life" signs, many Sloan residents have put up lawn signs reading, "We love Sloan. Leave it alone."

Gaughan's volunteers have countered by putting up signs in both communities lastthis week saying, "YES! Shed the government. Strengthen the village." Many were subsequently removed, especially those placed on public property without permission.

Proponents of dissolution said they're sick of the "scare tactics" and upset by heavy-handed actions that have gotten Gaughan kicked out of meeting spaces in both villages.

"I just think that's horrific," said Williamsville resident Chris Storfer. "My husband said, 'Isn't this America?' Disagree with the guy; that's fine. But this guy has the right to speak."

Speak he will.

Gaughan embarked on a packed schedule of door-to-door visits in Williamsville and Sloan, literature drops, phone calls to voters and meetings that started Saturday and will end late Tuesday.

Opponents have also geared up for the final push.

The Village of Williamsville Citizen Study Group held a final community meeting Sunday, and the Friends of the Village of Williamsville is sending out fliers, reminders and phone calls to the hundreds of registered voters opposed to dissolution.

Citizens Study Group for the Village of Sloan talked with residents at the village's mulch pickup Saturday and is making rounds of calls to get out the anti-dissolution vote.

"I know that people are passionate on both sides and passionate for their own reasons," said Sloan study group organizer Tammy Bayes. Looking ahead to Tuesday's vote, she said, "I think it's going to be a very strong turnout, I really do."

stan@buffnews.com and ncervantes@buffnews.comnull