Regarding plans for a new Snohomish County courthouse in Everett: A recent letter suggested that the Mission Building be removed for the new courthouse instead of the county executive’s preferred option costing at least $168 million and probably much more.
I’d like to offer another option. Leave the buildings in Everett intact, including the historic Mission Building, where Everett stole the county seat in the middle of the night from the city of Snohomish in the late 1800s.
The county owns dozens of undeveloped acres on Cathcart Way just off of Highway 9 in Clearview. At one time it was planned to locate the county Sheriff’s south precinct headquarters at that site. Here are some pluses for this suggestion:
1. The center of gravity for the county population has shifted from Everett to the southwest cities and southwest urban growth areas.
2. Highway 9 is slated to become a major north-south throughway connecting Woodinville north to Arlington. That means it would be easier for Darrington, Arlington, Marysville, Lake Stevens, Monroe, Snohomish, and the southwest cities of Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Bothell and Mill Creek residents to travel, rather than fighting congested I-5 on the way to downtown Everett with little convenient parking.
3. The current 1968 courthouse could be renovated and leased to other governmental and non-profit organizations. (It would be ideal for the city of Everett to rent space there.)
4. For accused felons during their trial, a small, secure holding jail could be build on-site, instead of transporting them daily to and from the main jail in Everett.
6. The total net cost for this proposed new facility in Clearview would surely be less than $100 million and would save the citizens a big increase in their property tax bill.
Morgan Davis
Snohomish
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