Marysville residents offer input on downtown, waterfront revitalization

Real-time polling of the nearly four dozen attendees of the April 10 “Marysville University” meeting on revitalizing the city’s downtown and waterfront areas showed that those citizens are concerned with crime prevention, infrastructure, and park and trail improvements, in that order.

MARYSVILLE — Real-time polling of the nearly four dozen attendees of the April 10 “Marysville University” meeting on revitalizing the city’s downtown and waterfront areas showed that those citizens are concerned with crime prevention, infrastructure, and park and trail improvements, in that order.

Interactive “pulse pad” voting allowed 43 percent of attendees to designate crime prevention as their primary priority for those areas in 2013, while 36 percent deemed infrastructure their main concern over the next three years, and 52 percent believe that those concerns — plus improvements to parks, trails and transportation — should all be given equal weight over the next five years.

Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring sees the revitalization of the city’s downtown and waterfront areas as complementary to its goals of economic and quality-of-life improvements, by making the city more attractive to businesses and residents alike. To that end, city of Marysville Community Development Director Gloria Hirashima explained that the city hopes to transform its waterfront into a mixed-use development for homes and stores alike, with pedestrian and bicycle paths that would only be the start of its recreational opportunities.

“Right now, where is the focal point of our town, where people gather?” Hirashima asked her audience. “Once that’s established, it will create a stronger sense of community. People love the water, and we’d like to develop the waterfront for dining, social opportunities and office space. We don’t want to put our eggs in one basket.”

City Public Works Director Kevin Nielsen cited his original hometown of Great Falls, Mont., as an example of how well-linked trails foster gathering hotspots, while Marysville Parks Director Jim Ballew asked attendees to consider what they see as the city’s attractions and identity.

For the complete results of the April 10 survey, log onto http://marysvillewa.gov/downtownsurvey. To add your own thoughts and ideas, log onto http://marysvillewa.gov/CommunityVoice/Ideas?initiativeID=Downtown-and-Waterfront-Beautification-1. The video recording of the April 10 Marysville University meeting on downtown and waterfront revitalization will run at 7 a.m., noon, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. from April 19-30 on Marysville cable access station channels 21 on Comcast and 25 on Frontier.