Stanwood expands City Council to seven

Published 8:57 pm Sunday, July 8, 2007

STANWOOD – More houses. More people. More government.

Stanwood is growing.

The population boom is evident on bustling streets, in new housing developments and now on the City Council.

On Thursday, the council expanded from five to seven members.

Teamsters Union representative Leonard Kelley and Timothy Loney, a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve, became Stanwood’s newest councilmembers.

The council began considering the addition of new members a few months ago because the town was growing and city staff estimated that Stanwood’s population had grown to more than 5,000. In late June, the state Office of Financial Management released new population estimates that pegged Stanwood’s population at 5,200, up from 4,940 in 2006.

State law requires towns with 5,000 or more people to have seven-member councils.

“It’s a big step for Stanwood,” City Clerk Melissa Collins said. “We’re a growing community and going from a five-member council to a seven-member council – that’s pretty huge. I think everybody’s excited.”

The existing City Council chose Kelley and Loney from a pool of seven applicants. The council interviewed all seven and voted on the new members during a public meeting more than a week ago.

Councilmembers are required to attend meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month. They receive $75 per meeting, and $30 for extra meetings they attend, said Collins.

On Thursday, Loney and Kelley took their oaths and became full-fledged members of the council. They are scheduled to remain on the council at least until their seats are up for election in November 2009.

Loney, 44, has spent eleven years as a chaplain in the military, first in the Marines, then the Navy and now the Naval Reserves. In April, he returned to Stanwood from a nine-month tour of duty in Iraq where he was a chaplain with a construction battalion.

The married father of one has lived in Stanwood for about six years and says he’s excited to help Stanwood deal with growth and develop a vision for the future.

“Stanwood’s a great place to live,” said Loney, who hasn’t held public office before. “I’m very much looking forward to both working with the community and seeing where they go, and bringing some of my own energy and enthusiasm into sort of creating that vision and carrying it out into application and seeing it fulfilled.”

Kelley, 50, moved to Stanwood five years ago after falling in love with the community while working as a United Parcel Service delivery driver. The divorced father of two is currently on a leave of absence from UPS and is working as an organizer and business representative for the Teamsters Local 231 in Mount Vernon.

“I’m kind of hoping to make sure that the town grows at a well-managed pace,” he said. “We’ve had problems years ago with horrendous traffic situations and parts of town (with) old businesses where the buildings are now empty … and I think that’s a shame.”