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<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge)   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Saturday, July 5, 2008 Addition of 19,000 residents to Marysville may wait By Bill Sheets Herald Writer MARYSVILLE -- Joel Childers said his neighborhood near Meadow Creek Park is a nice place to live, except for one little problem. "We have our share of stupid kids that come into our park at night," he said. They break bottles, spray graffiti and throw things in the creek, he said. Childers, 59, doesn't blame the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, which patrols the unincorporated area east of 51st Avenue NE along 138th Place NE. Still, if the neighborhood were part of Marysville, Childers believes it might get more attention from city police. "It just seems like the county police are spread a little thin. They have the whole county to deal with," he said. Childers could get his wish. But not as quickly as once planned. Marysville is planning to bring in the many neighborhoods that abut its borders. The city wants to take advantage of a state law that allows cities to keep one-tenth of a cent more per dollar in sales tax for every 10,000 residents added to the city at one time. The city would get the money every year for 10 years. The law expires in 2010. The communities that surround Marysville are home to about 19,000 people, while the city's current population is about 36,000. The new figure of 55,000 would move Marysville from the third-largest city in Snohomish County to the second, ahead of Edmonds at 40,560 and behind Everett's 101,800. Marysville also would leapfrog from the 26th-largest city in the state to the 15th, according to estimates from the state Office of Financial Management. The area to be added is almost entirely residential, stretching from Grove Street on the south nearly to 152nd Street NE to the north. It includes Marysville-Pilchuck High School and four elementary schools. The city's strategy has been to annex commercial areas first, for the sales tax revenue, and to add residential areas bit by bit later on. Residential neighborhoods cost more tax money to serve than they produce. When the state created its tax incentive, though, the city decided to act. The city had planned to annex the neighborhoods by early 2009. Officials decided to wait until 2010 to see if those unincorporated areas can grow to 20,000 people so the city can get the extra bucks from the state, Mayor Dennis Kendall said. If the city adds between 10,000 and 20,000 residents, it will receive about $780,000 per year, finance director Sandy Langdon said. If it adds 20,000 or more, it will get nearly $1.6 million. The city would need that amount to break even if it provides full service to the new areas, Langdon said. It's possible the city could add only 10,000 at first and wait on the remainder, but Kendall would like to go ahead and do it all at once -- even if it means taking a loss at first. "We're eventually going to have to take it and if we don't get that one-tenth of a percent now, we're not going to get it later," Kendall said. "We'll just have to bite the bullet." The city is still crunching the numbers and if the costs of serving all 19,000 people drastically outweigh the benefits, the city could reconsider, the mayor said. "I'm not going to annex them and not be able to provide the service," he said. The city won't have an election. State law allows a city to add any area that has more than 60 percent of its edges touching city limits. In this case, about 76 percent of the targeted areas' edges border Marysville, planner Gloria Hirashima said. "It's fairly expensive to run an election," Kendall said. "This way we're able to take that money and use it for services out there." There's no organized opposition to the plan, and the city has heard few complaints, the mayor said. "At least in the last five years we've been talking all along that we wanted to annex that," he said. The city plans some outreach through fliers to be handed out at summer festivals and, later, at hearings. For the residents, city and county taxes fluctuate every year and will be close to a wash, Hirashima said. Most of the unincorporated areas, however, are already served by the city for water, sewer and garbage, and the city levies a 50 percent surcharge on ratepayers for providing that service to those areas. The charge would be removed for those residents when they come into the city. Lower bills would be nice, resident Natalia Bryant said, but she doubts being in the city would make much of a difference in her life. "I haven't thought about it, being in the city or out of the city," said Bryant, 36, who lives near 100th Street NE. "I don't really see that it's going to make that much of a difference." Bob Welch, 65, who owns an office building at 105th Street NE and State Avenue, said he'd like to be in the city for several reasons. It's partly for police protection and lower utility bills. Also, because Marysville provides utilities to his area, Welch has to go through the city to make any improvement to his property. "Right now we have no voice in the voting of the city, and everything they do affects us," he said. Erlayne Opel, who lives in a condominium complex between 88th Avenue NE and Grove Street, is disappointed she's not in the city by now. She and her neighbors, 675 people in all, paid a $500 fee and petitioned to join the city more than three years ago. The request was held up by a dispute between the city and Snohomish County over how to split the $40 million cost of widening 88th, most of which is now in unincorporated territory. The city and the county are still talking but are making progress, Hirashima said. While the utility break would be nice, Opel said, "our concern is the police issue." As of now, the Marysville Police Department plans to add 12 uniformed patrol officers to its current total of 54 if all of the area is added to the city, police Lt. Darin Rasmussen said. "A lot of people think they're in Marysville now," said Rasmussen, adding that a lot of people call the Marysville Police Department for help. While Opel said they've had few problems in their neighborhood. "It only takes one," she said. "You just want to feel safe." Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.

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