Partnerships vital to Marysville, mayor says

Published 10:19 pm Friday, January 30, 2009

TULALIP — Partnerships with business and other governments have helped the city grow when times were good, and that same way of doing things can come in handy when times are hard, Mayor Dennis Kendall said at his annual “State of the City” address Friday.

“I am a very firm believer in partnerships,” Kendall told more than 100 people at a Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Tulalip Casino.

The city is not overly strapped for cash; tax revenues dropped some in 2008, but the city did not have to lay off any employees. Still, Kendall said the partnership philosophy will be applied to some large projects on Marysville’s plate for 2009 and beyond.

First and foremost, the city is considering enlisting a nonprofit company to build a new city hall for Marysville and then lease it back over time, city administrator Mary Swenson said later. The company profits by serving as the bank for the city, and the city benefits from not having put up the money up front, she said.

“At the end of the day it doesn’t cost the city any more than if you went out in a bonding situation,” Swenson said. “It really kind of condenses it, and it streamlines the process.”

The city is hoping to have the plans in place by the end of the year and to start construction in 2010. For several years the city has rented an office building at 1049 State Ave. for its headquarters, and several other departments are scattered around in different buildings around the city. No site for a new civic campus has been selected, but the city is looking in the downtown-riverfront area. A cost figure has not been developed.

The civic campus is seen as a potential catalyst for a planned, long-term redevelopment of downtown Marysville – “the Marysville makeover,” as Kendall called it Friday.

The city is hoping to attract private investors to help create a more pedestrian-oriented downtown and waterfront with parks, high-rise housing and retail and office space. The planning for that makeover is underway, Kendall said.

Continued pursuit of a University of Washington branch campus for the Smokey Point area is “high on our priority list,” Kendall said. The 369-acre site has been competing with one in Everett, but the plan has stalled at the state level.

The Tulalip Tribes helped lobby the state Legislature when the city was touting the Smokey Point site, Kendall said. The tribes and the city agreed early in 2007 to work together more closely on matters that affect both the city and the tribes.

These include roads, such as 116th Street NE, where the city widened the street east of I-5. The Tribes improved the road and bridge on the west side, and now the two are trying to get outside funds to build a new interchange, Marysville officials said. The price tag is $50 million.

The city has applied for money from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package for three other transportation projects, Kendall said: the widening of State Avenue between 116th Street NE and 136th Street NE, projected cost $2.5 million; extending Ingraham Boulevard from 68th Avenue NE to 74th Drive NE, to serve the planned new Marysville-Getchell High School, cost $4.5 million; and the planned I-5 overpass at 156th Street NE, cost $16 million.

The city has little funding for construction of these projects, city public works director Kevin Nielsen said.

The partnership technique applied to some other recent developments in the city, Kendall said. These include the new Grove Elementary School at 6510 Grove St., which opened in the fall, on a site sold to the school district by the city; and the Healthy Communities program, in which the city and the Snohomish Health District work together on programs and events to promote healthy living.

Another important event coming up for 2009 is the planned addition of about 20,000 people and 2,846 acres to the city, bringing its population from 37,060 to about 57,000. This would earn the city a tax break from the state and make the city the second largest in Snohomish County, behind Everett at a population of 102,300.

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.