ARLINGTON — Mayor Margaret Larson is bowing out of that civic role after six years in office, years that endeared her to many citizens who prefer calling her simply “Mayor Margaret.”
An acknowledged people person, Larson has done much more than just make friends. She’s made
progress for the city, economically, in relationships with other towns and with helping to create such an attractive place to live that people keep moving to the community of 17,500.
Although she calls her political decision “one of the toughest I’ve ever made,” she said that at 73 she’s ready for more time with her son and daughter and four grandchildren, plus some traveling.
Counting the three terms as mayor held by her late husband, John Larson, the two have led city development for nearly 19 years, she said. Even before she was drafted as a mayoral candidate in 2003, she was deeply involved in the Arlington community, including working for 36 years with the Arlington School District before she retired as finance director.
But much of what she will be remembered for will be her contributions to the city’s economic development, as well as how that economic growth has bolstered other cities in north Snohomish County.
“I’m honored to be part of a city that works so well together,” she said. “No one does all of these things alone and I’m proud that we have developed good working relationships between departments and that we’ve pursued partnerships that have helped us make progress. We’re partnering all the time and it makes things so much better, working together.”
The city can count strong partnerships with the school district, hospital, arts council, youth groups and many area organizations that work to improve the Arlington community.
Partnering is not a new attitude for Larson, whose campaign themes focused on “Bringing Arlington Together.” Other than working together in general, she had the formidable task of contributing to the successful merger of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce with the Smokey Point Chamber and helping the two communities work and grow together.
Among the projects completed while she served as mayor was the $4 million reconstruction of the six-block Olympic Avenue business district in downtown Arlington. The paving and lighting project created a major upheaval for main street businesses, yet the potential upset was smoothed by the city’s successes in maintaining communication with merchants throughout the months of work.
Fire Station 48 was built and so was the Arlington police station behind City Hall. This year, aging Fire Station 46 downtown was replaced. The expansion and lighting of the Bill Quake Memorial Field near the Arlington Boys & Girls Club was completed and widening and build-out of the 172nd Street NE overpass at I-5 eased major traffic congestion in the area at Smokey Point.
Over the years, she’s also spearheaded planning for future economic development. In 2010, she and economic development director Vic Ericson showed off an aerial map of the city, decorated with labels for each major project.
“Today, we can’t use that map for presentations anymore,” she said in a recent interview. “There are so many active projects we can’t get them all on the map.”
Spurred by the downtown Olympic Avenue project and encouragement from the city, many merchants have remodeled, expanded or painted their storefronts in recent years, a move that has helped keep the downtown as a popular place for shopping and dining by residents and visitors. Improvement awards went to the owners of the Stillaguamish Square shopping center, Flowers by George, Co-Op Supply and Arlington Hardware, among others.
Downtown merchants regularly attract people with parades, car shows and street fairs, plus activities linked to the Arlington Fly-In each July that brings up to 50,000 visitors to the airport, including hundreds who visit downtown Arlington and Smokey Point for lodging and shopping during the weeklong event.
A new $8 million Walmart store was opened on 172nd Street NE in late 2010, Cascade Valley Hospital completed a $45 million expansion and upgrade that same year and this year the city finished a multimillion-dollar expansion of its water treatment plant to meet future growth.
Some of the most significant growth in recent years has been at the Arlington Airport, where a wide range of businesses with local and global markets employ more than 2,000 people at businesses such as MicroGreen, a high-tech firm producing new environmentally friendly plastics; Outback Power Systems, a provider of solar power systems for remote parts of the world; and a variety of aviation-related businesses.
Larson has also promoted development of an 89-acre airport business park at the southwest corner of the airfield for aerospace, general commercial, business support, retail, offices, research and development and light manufacturing uses.
The future will demand further long-range planning and partnerships, she believes.
Since 1980, greater Arlington’s population has increased by 450 percent, raising the population to more than 17,500, a number that is expected to double by 2025.
A major challenge ahead is planning and financing an extension of the five-lane stretch of 172nd Street NE between I-5’s Smokey Point interchange and Highway 9. Because that street is also Highway 531, the city is working with the state Department of Transportation on the project.
“It’s really the people who make the difference here,” Larson said. “People care about their community and they’ve given it an identity.”
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