Don’t raze Getchell’s history, heart

I am so filled with outrage by the Wednesday story about the Getchell Fire Station (“Getchell farmhouse stands in the path of progress”) that it took me only the time to cut and paste your e-mail address to write this letter. My family has been a part of the Getchell community for more than half a century and has witnessed the changes to this rural area as progress and growth has occurred.

Across the street from the fire station is the old farm once owned by Mr. Weed. When progress swept over the farm, a historical building was removed in days and replaced eventually by a house. In fact, there is an entire development of 5-acre tracts! Some may even be for sale. All along Getchell (that would be 84th Street NE to those who really aren’t “from here”) and 99th Avenue NE, where the firehouse currently sits, there are many options for fire district officials to choose from. Remember, folks, we are in a housing slump — doesn’t this mean there are all kinds of great places they can demolish without wiping out our own history in the process?

This is nothing less than pushing good folks around.

Of course it is the easiest choice to tear down the farmhouse across the street. The fire district already bought (was it a hostile takeover, too?) the neighboring house located directly across the street. It’s kind of odd, too — that house looks like it has not had activity in it since the purchase. Are these guys wasting that space or what? I’m sure it took a lot of those pancake breakfasts and spaghetti feeds to pay for that house on the corner.

History is not just important. It is the very heart of who we, the community, are and where we come from. How many people actually know that the nice paved trail they walk on just west of the fire station was actually a railroad right of way, with working trains and everything, and that there was a mill located where those unsightly power lines are? Many men from the area worked there. How many know that there was a hotel that provided rooms for passersby and such? It is still standing. In fact, it would seem that it may be in danger, too.

Getchell is not just a road. Its past began when Lake Stevens was a place where the wealthy had summer cottages and Monte Cristo was a destination on the train route. People actually stayed in the hotel at Big Four (Ice Caves); it too now is just a whisper of what was.

Don’t let these people do this. They have options. There is plenty of land within their little area that they can purchase without altering their response times.

Another thought occurs to me. Why can’t they build up? What’s wrong with razing the little house on the corner and building a two- or three-story station to accommodate all these needs? Ever hear of a fire pole?!

These people are using their power to push the average guy around. People need to push back. After all, isn’t this “our” firehouse? Have a say. Write letters to anybody you think might has some power to push back. Remember, right now it might just be those people you don’t know who were in The Herald on Wednesday, but maybe tomorrow it will be you. Don’t crumble to the bully. There is power in numbers. Please don’t let another piece of our history fall.

Brenda (Mastrude) Ballard

Arlington