Council Position 2 candidates agree proposed events center would enhance downtown

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, September 4, 2001

By Theresa Goffredo

Herald Writer

EVERETT — At least the three candidates for Everett City Council Position 2 agree on one thing: the special events center and hockey arena proposed for downtown will have a positive impact on the city’s future.

However, one candidate, Mark G. Olson, wants to work to ensure the center won’t be the city’s white elephant — a project no longer desired or something from which little profit is derived.

Olson is competing in the three-way council race with Thelma Jean Hansen to unseat incumbent David Simpson. The two top vote-getters in the Sept. 18 primary advance to the general election Nov. 6. Each council seat is a four-year term paying $18,000 a year.

Olson called the events center a welcome addition to downtown, but said he hopes the project won’t put the city’s finances at risk.

"We are going to use our bonding authority to get this thing launched, and there’s always the possibility that the project could go south on you," Olson said. "As long as those concerns can be met, the events center is a good thing."

A lawyer with 13 years trial experience, Olson said the council spot is just a natural progression from the post he’s held as a city planning commissioner since 1999.

"I just had significant experience with zoning and land-use issues and the planning process, and over the next few years the city is going to be faced with significant challenges in how we use our shorelines," Olson said

Olson, 46, also believes in "high-quality economic development" — the kind that will keep a family of four fed, housed and clothed with only one member of the household working.

"I want really good jobs so people won’t have to hop on the freeway and drive. And I see Everett at the point of being really able to attract that kind of development," Olson said.

Candidate Hansen, who is not related to Everett Mayor Ed Hansen, said she hates to see Everett’s old downtown change but believes the city needs the special events center as an economic boost.

"And I see where it would pay for itself and would increase the downtown activities," said the 54-year-old, who is semi-retired and self-employed. "If we don’t change, the downtown will shrivel up."

Hansen served from 1997 to 1998 and wants more. "You get a hold of a tiger, and something you want to change, and you can’t let go of it," Hansen said.

Some areas where Hansen said she plans to make changes are to create a better balance between multiple-family dwellings and single-family homes, expand satellite educational opportunities in Everett and work toward building a police precinct in the city’s south end.

"It’s an issue that been around for a long time and needs to materialize," Hansen said of a south precinct.

Incumbent Simpson also supports good economic development. Elected in 1997 and now council president, Simpson said he’s helped to ensure downtown has remained economically vital by convincing Snohomish County not to move its offices from downtown to Paine Field.

A Boeing customer engineer, Simpson also believes the special events center will be good economically and culturally for Everett.

"We want to move from being a shingle mill town to a well-ship builder town, to a city of smokestacks to a city of Boeing from a city of Navy, and now the arena will give us a shot in the arm to identify us as a growing city," Simpson said.

"There will be two skating rinks, for citizens and for the hockey franchise, so from an economic standpoint the events center is a good project," Simpson said.

If elected, Simpson, 45, said he will continue to work to improve public safety, to ensure that as high-rise buildings are built in Everett the fire department has the equipment to do its job, and to pursue a new police precinct in Everett’s south end.

You can call Herald Writer Theresa Goffredo at 425-339-3097

or send e-mail to goffredo@heraldnet.com.