Marysville leaders can’t be trusted

Published 1:52 pm Friday, January 18, 2008

Regarding the selection process for a UW North, I cannot say which site has more benefit.

However, the big question in my mind is “who to trust.” The proponents of the Marysville site seem intent on seeking cause to bash the Everett site under consideration due to traffic, crime and 4.1 acres owned by Sound Transit.

However, regarding the proposal for the Marysville site, I do have the following observations about the Marysville leadership, particularly statements made by Marysville Chief Administrator Mary Swenson. The NBBJ report contends that the site would require 3 to 5 feet of fill due to a high water table. Swenson says “That couldn’t be further from the truth.” This land is some of the same ground that Marysville was proposing for a NASCAR track a while back. The aquifer and water table were an issue then, and the issue has not gone away, although Swenson seems to think it has. The key is that it involves “extra expense.”

My home is at the same elevation as the land in question, and I can attest that the new subdivision to my north involved bringing in tandum dump truck loads of fill. The hauling of fill lasted nearly all summer and into the fall. I know, every truck went past my home.

So, although I have no reason to protest having a campus to my north and west, I find it difficult to know who to trust in these matters. However, I do know who “not” to trust. I find it difficult to trust the Marysville administrators, since it seems that the “truth” is always a “stretch” for them.

James W. Nice