MARYSVILLE — One of the main issues dividing both candidates in this city’s mayor’s race in Tuesday’s election is traffic — and what to do if coal trains start coming through town more frequently.
Mayor Jon Nehring and challenger Kelly Wright are each looking for solutions for drivers who cross train tracks if a proposed coal terminal in Bellingham ends up doubling the number of trains that travel through the city each day.
The problem: Drivers going into town get stuck when trains chug through town. It causes delays and backups. With more trains possibly coming, there are more traffic concerns.
For the mayor, he believes that the solution is already being built with the new Highway 529 bridge. That new bridge runs parallel to the freeway. Nehring wants the state to build on- and offramps from I-5 onto the new bridge. That would give a new route into downtown Marysville that would avoid the tracks, said Nehring, 41.
“It can be accomplished,” he said. “The engineering works; there is regional support. It’s just we have to be careful we pick the solution that can be funded.”
The new bridge across Ebey Slough is scheduled to open next year and will have four lanes, bike lanes and sidewalks. The old bridge has two lanes and a walkway but no bike lanes.
Wright, 48, works for IDS International, a national security consulting firm, believes that getting Marysville commuters over the tracks should be the city’s highest traffic priority, and overpasses could be the answer.
“Generally when I say, ‘overpass over the train tracks,’ people say ‘yes,’” Wright said. “They’re very frustrated … the prospect of 18 more trains through the city is fairly horrifying for them.”
Overpasses over train tracks are not a financially feasible option for the city, Nehring says. City streets would be eliminated or would need to be built up to connect with an overpass. The structure would pose travel problems for commuters in cold weather, Nehring added.
Wright said he feels the city’s spending $3.75 million in June 2010 to buy the former site of the Coca-Cola distribution center is also a contentious discussion topic in the city’s mayoral race.
The city in late September sold 4.61 acres of the site at 47th Avenue NE to Parr Lumber Co. for $2.3 million. Wright said he thinks the city paid more than market value for the property and believes the city could be hard pressed to make up for the rest of the money that was spent. The city has also been unclear about its reason for buying the property, he said.
“They say it’s ideal for the fire department of public safety,” Wright said. “How long are we going to hold it for the fire department? There are no firm plans, that is clear.”
The city did not sell all of the 10.28-acre property that it bought, Nehring said.
“The way (Wright) was framing it sounds like the city lost $1.4 million,” Nehring said. “We sold the building but not all property.”
In Snohomish County, nearly a fifth of registered voters have returned ballots, according to the latest numbers provided by the auditor’s office. In Marysville, 6,660 of the 31,161 ballots mailed out were returned Friday morning.
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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