A look back at some of the stories that appeared on the pages of The Marysville Globe in 2007.
January
Jan. 11
As the year began, the Marysville School District was contemplating what happens when you drop a stone in pond. Generally, the ripples travel outwards, possibly affecting the entire pond.
The district plans to drop a 500-student elementary school in the center of its 73-square-mile service area. That elementary school is, of course, the new Grove Elementary that still is under construction. January marked the beginning of efforts to redraw district boundaries and decide what students will go to what school.
The Grove site sits at Grove Street and 67th Avenue and will absorb most of its student body from the nearby Pinewood and Allen Creek schools, officials said. Made up of administrators, teachers and parents, a 57-member committee was assigned the task of revamping school boundaries.
Board member Cindy Erickson made it clear the committee and school leaders were dealing with more than just numbers.
We will be making some parents upset, Erickson said.

Jan. 17
Vandalism made the news for the first of what proved to be numerous times early in 2007. Hoodlums were busy on Third Street, where several merchants had windows broken and tagged with extensive graffiti. The vandalism prompted several merchants to mount overnight stakeouts to catch the perpetrators.
Some examples of the vandalism included bricks thrown through the windows of the Finders Keepers antique mall. Nothing was stolen. The A to Zinc nutrition store was one of several shops attacked with graffiti. Perpetrators even got onto the roof of Third Street Interiors and painted the upper walls of the building.

Jan. 24
The vandalism problem didnt just disappear. A weekend spree saw damage to Ebey Waterfront Park and numerous businesses. Those involved destroyed more than 200 feet of split rail fencing that guarded some wetlands, along with an irrigation system and a half dozen new trees.
At several Marysville businesses, planters were overturned. A phone booth was nearly twisted off its base at the corner of State Avenue and Second Street.
All in all, Ebey Park suffered about $2,500 in damage. According to reports from the city, Marysvilles other parks were being hit about once a week.

Jan. 31
This time the vandals took aim at Marysvilles schools. Police said more than six district buildings were hit with graffiti over the weekend. Officials estimated damage to Marysville-Pilchuck High School at more than $5,000. Another hard hit school was Allen Creek Elementary, where windows were busted out. Profanity and drug slogans were painted on the walls of the building.
When school opened after the weekend, teachers expressed disgust about youngsters lining up for classes next to a wall carrying the message Smoke Pot in five-foot high letters.

February
Feb. 7
Whiskey Ridge residents were fighting mad over plans to route a new east-west connector through property owned by more than 30 families.
In the area of SR 9 and Soper Hill Road, many folks who found themselves annexed by the city didnt want that annexation in the first place and werent happy about the master plan under development by City Council. About 70 residents showed up at a Council meeting to protest that plan and express their objections to a planning commission decision to allow higher residential density in the area, up to 6.5 units per acre in some spots.

Feb. 14
Marysville chose a new police chief, Rick Smith, a veteran precinct commander of the Vancouver, Wash., Police Department.
Smith was brought in to replace former Chief Robert Carden who left the city to take a position in California. Smiths hire completed the second search for a new chief, after the city failed to come to terms with a finalist in the fall of 2006.
As commander of Vancouvers east precinct, Smith has about 80 sworn officers under his command and previously led that departments SWAT team. Prior to going to Vancouver, Smith spent six years with the Los Angles County Sheriffs Office.
Smith went on the job here in March. He named redoing the departments command structure as one of his top priorities.

Feb. 21
The site once proposed as home for a new NASCAR track became part of Marysville thanks to action taken by City Council on Feb. 12.
The move brought a big woo-hoo from Chief Administrative Officer Mary Swenson.
Closing the so-called Smokey Point gap was intended to allow the city to begin attracting development into the 687-acre area west of the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tracks and south of the Arlington city limits.
Marysville hopes to bring in light industrial and manufacturing plants. Mayor Dennis Kendall described the area as ground zero of a new round of economic development for the city.

Feb. 28
A developer got an earful from area residents when he unveiled plans for a 73-home development in Lakewood.
Developer Laurey Tobiason was finalizing plans for The Firs at Twin Lakes on a 10-acre tract of land just east of Crystal Tree Village and west of Costco. The Seattle developer emphasized that his project has only about half the density allowed under Marysville zoning rules, but residents of the adjacent Crystal Tree mobile home park said the new homes would put too many more cars on already congested streets.

March
March 7
The Puget Sound area Girl Scouts tabbed a Marysville scout to be the voice and face of Operation Cookie Drop, an effort to provide U.S. military service personnel with goodies while, of course, helping the scouts to raise money.
Franseska Franqui Rojas had sold thousands of boxes of cookies each year of her short life.
At age 11, Franqui had been a top seller of cookies for years with her local Troop 401. She also actively was involved in other community outreach efforts. For that reason, she was selected to kick off the month-long cookie drive on KOMO TV 4s afternoon news broadcast. It was awesome, Rojas said after being interviewed on the air by news anchor Mary Nam.

March 14
Plans to delay a new Ebey Slough bridge were scotched according to State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen of Camano Island. Haugen said the Washington State Department of Transportation had a list of projects that could be delayed due to increased costs, but she fought to get the bridge work back in the state budget.
Plans to delay the construction had made news just the week before. The state had planned to fully replace the 80-year-old span and design work was reportedly about 70 percent complete. At the time, officials said delaying the work might have meant no bridge for as long as a decade.

March 21
The Marysville City Council squashed new building applications in the Smokey Point area and hired a consultant to examine how new traffic impact fees could be levied.
The unanimous votes at the March 19 Council session also included a revision of a resolution supporting construction of a four-year university in northern Snohomish County, whether or not that university was associated with another school or not.
The building moratorium was the direct result of a 2003 ordinance that resulted in a project that didnt fit the future manufacturing center planned by the city for that area.

March 28
As the Marysville School District moved forward with the creation of small learning communities, the district announced it had successfully placed 3,309 high school students into the new specialized programs.
Only 10 students did not receive their first or second placement choices, the district reported.

April
April 4
An attempt to require school uniforms at the renamed Totem Middle School effectively was squashed by the Tulalip Tribes. Tribe leaders wanted to see any dress code instituted across the board, not just at one school.
On March 26, parents and staff presented the city school board with examples of uniforms supporters said would be cheaper for parents and increase academic success. Some felt safety would be enhanced as well, since non-students would be easier to spot on the campus, which is surrounded on all four sides by busy streets.

April 11
While it since has garnered lots of publicity and even an award or two, the city chose April to unveil its Healthy Communities Project.
The project is a partnership between the city, Marysville schools, local businesses and nonprofit community leaders. Its aimed at creating a healthier city by reducing obesity and the many chronic illnesses related to being overweight.
Our goal is to create an environment within our community that makes it easier for residents and visitors to be physically active and choose healthy foods, said Mayor Dennis Kendall.

April 18
Boys younger then I was were allowed to spit on me and kick me, said Everett resident Fred Taucher. I was not allowed to defend myself because I was a Jew and we considered filthy and dirty.
A Holocaust survivor, Taucher spoke to sailors and civilians at Naval Station Everett, April 12, about his experiences in Germany during World War II.
Among other unpleasant remembrances, Taucher talked about how Nazi supporters destroyed his fathers tailor shop. Tauchers father eventually was forced into slave labor and was deported to Auschwitz in 1943. After some months in hiding, Taucher himself was caught in a surprise security check and sent in a cattle car to a detention camp at Dachau.
We were shoved together so tight that if you fell down, you would suffocate and never wake up, Taucher said. When we got to Dachau, we stayed in that car with nothing to eat or drink and no sanitation.

April 25
The Marysville School District got a late but presumably welcome start to what is now known as the Options Campus on the Tulalip Tribes Reservation.
The 40-acre site eventually will be home to three schools: Marysville Arts and Technology High School, the Tulalip Heritage School and the 10th Street School. Each will consist of prefabricated modular buildings, constructed at a Smokey Point factory than transported to the school site. The campus also will include a 12,000-square-foot gymnasium.

May
May 2
A late afternoon shooting in downtown sent a 17-year-old boy to an Everett hospital.
The April 28 shooting happened about 5:30 p.m. in the 4600 block of 80th St. NE. The victim was shot in the left arm, sustaining non-life threatening injuries. He was treated and released from an Everett medical facility.
According to police, the victim was shot by someone in a passing car, someone he apparently was acquainted with.

May 9
The city and the Tulalip Tribes marked the opening of a new road on the reservation by signing a new agreement pledging increased cooperation between the two neighbors.
The $6 million extension of Quil Ceda Boulevard was designed to siphon off much of the traffic then clogging 116th Street NE both on the reservation and in Marysville. Members of the tribe Board of Directors and City Council joined forces to symbolically cut the ribbon opening the new roadway.

May 16
A 2002 graduate of Marysville-Pilchuck High School, Ali Taylor talked to the schools Class of 2007 about how drugs and alcohol contributed to the death of her best friend, another Marysville-Pilchuck graduate, Rachel Burkheimer. At 18, Burkheimer was shot and killed by an estranged boyfriend. Taylor s visit was timed to coincide with graduation, and she spoke about how she sat in the same school bleachers and listened to what seemed at the time to be the same, old tired message about drug and alcohol use.
Rachel made these choices and now shes not with us, Taylor said.

May 23
East Sunnyside and Whiskey Ridge area residents along with their attorney won round one over a proposed new road some residents claim would ruin their properties and take away valuable acreage. City Council passed an overall planning and zoning scheme for the area, but remanded the road designs to the city Planning Commission. In a four-page letter, an attorney representing several local residents argued the citys initial plans violated the states Growth Management Act.

May 30
Marysville Medieval School was the place to be that week, as the entire seventh grade turned out to demonstrate what life was like in the Middle Ages. The school football field was morphed into a medieval village complete with knights in armor, jousting tournaments and catapults flinging stuff high into the air.

June
June 6
As they ceremoniously broke ground on the new Grove Elementary School, district leaders pledged to keep the promises made to voters during the successful 2006 bond campaign.
The $118 million, 54,000-square-foot building is being paid for with the first bond issue to pass in the city in 16 years. To save cash, the main two-story building will have two one-story wings consisting of prefabricated modular spaces designed to blend in and appear as if they were traditionally constructed.

June 13
Marysville-Pilchuck High School graduated some 650 seniors, while the second class of Marysville Arts and Technology High School was triple the size of its first round of graduates. The specialty school now in its third year, handed out 49 diplomas in 2007 as opposed to 14 in 2006.
In the meantime, Marysville Alternative High School changed its name to Marysville Mountain View High midway through last year, meaning the 24 graduates of the class of 2007 were the first to receive diplomas bearing the schools new moniker.

June 20
In an effort to ease traffic congestion in Lakewood, officials brought back a right-hand turn lane onto southbound I-5 from 172nd Street NE.
The change was in response to the traffic that arrived in the area with the opening of new Costco and Target stores, along with restaurants such as Taco Bell and Red Robin, all part of the Lakewood Crossing shopping plaza. Nearby residents, especially those in Crystal Tree Village, had complained long and loud to the city about the new traffic problems.

June 27
The Marysville Municipal Court moved into bigger and better quarters in response to an increasing number of cases from Arlington, Lake Stevens and Marysville.
Sitting just south of City Hall on State Street, the new courthouse provides about 10 times the space of the courts former home, basically the meeting space for City Council inside City Hall. The court also added a part-time commissioner to help deal with the added case load, which jumped from approximately 3,690 in 2003 to over 10,700 in 2005.

July
July 4

Marysville resident Mara Price said she was reading the paper when something just sort of caught her eye.
I saw this furry leg, she said.
The furry leg belonged to a small black bear that was nosing through Prices bird feeders at her home north of Getchell Hill. Price said shes seen plenty of deer, raccoons, opossums and skunks in the area, but hadnt noticed any previous signs of bears.
Fish and Wildlife officer Rick Oosterwyk said its common for bears to go after bird feeders and compost piles.
Theyll just go down the line from one house to another, he said.

July 11
It took more than two years, but critics were happy some concrete results finally arrived in regard to the freeway median running through Marysville.
The state had proposed putting in and expanding cable barriers along the sides of I-5. In the end, the Washington State Department of Transportation followed the lead of an independent consultant and announced plans to place 10 miles of concrete barriers along the northbound median at a cost of $27 million. Cable barriers will remain on the southbound side of the freeway, cables put in place to stem what was described as a wave of crossover fatalities on the freeway.

July 18
Led by fullback Mack Strong, several members of the Seattle Seahawks threw some balls and some advice to youngsters attending the Team-Works Sports and Leadership Summer Camp. Joining Strong for the three-day event were receiver D.J. Hackett, Jordan Babineau and Seneca Wallace. The event was hosted by the Muckleshoot, Nez Perce and other tribes from across the country.

July 25
He said, Live life to the fullest, and Put the pedal to the medal, said Terry OToole, grandfather of Marine Lance Cpl. Shawn Starkovich. By God, thats what he did.
Starkovich was killed July 17 in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. In July, the cause of his death still was under investigation, according to the Marine Corps.
The 20-year-old attended Marysville-Pilchuck High School, but graduated early from Arlington High. He signed up for the Marines prior to his 18th birthday.

August
Aug. 1
The city began its bid to bring home a branch campus of the University of Washington, promoting approximately 300 acres in the Lakewood area, just southwest of the railroad tracks near the Lakewood Crossing shopping plaza and Gissberg Twin Lakes Park.
Marysville was, of course, one of several cities to put proposals on the table. But city leaders quickly began pushing a Marysville site as being the nearest to the proposed schools target population in Snohomish, Island and Skagit counties.
We all know that the college needs to be in the north end of the county, said Mayor Dennis Kendall.
City spokesman Doug Buell noted that a study done for the states Higher Education Coordinating Board identified north Everett and Marysville as the top two potential sites for the campus. But Buell also noted the Marysville site has plenty of room for future campus expansion as opposed to the somewhat cramped Everett locations.
Aug. 8
Even as they committed to a 2010 opening for a new 1,600-student high school in the Getchell Hill area, school district officials admitted the price tag on the project had jumped from $79 million to at least $96 million. If the project runs beyond the estimated time line by just a year, the final cost moves to at least $108 million. School officials blamed the price increases on rampant inflation, which led to construction material and labor estimates rising by as much as 20 percent.
The district is using the proceeds of a $118 million bond package passed by voters in 2006 to pay for the new high school and several other projects.

Aug. 15
Due to a continuing budget crunch, city school officials slashed funding for on-campus policing operations.
In past years, the district had three sworn officers supplementing the systems own security force. A Snohomish County deputy patrols Marysville-Pilchuck High School, while two local officers kept their eyes on four other schools. The budget cut removed the officer patrolling the districts junior high schools.
Its important because we have such a high rate of juvenile crime, said Marysville Police Commander Robb Lamoureux. Thats going to have a huge impact.

Aug. 22
About 150 people showed up for the first of several Town Hall style meetings sponsored by the selection committee charged with making a recommendation on a new home for a branch campus of the University of Washington.
At the time, some 73 potential sites were on the table, including six in Arlington, three in Marysville and five in Everett. The selection committee said important criteria included access to transportation and cost effectiveness in terms of construction. This first meeting was held at Stanwood High School in Stanwood and that city also was pushing a location for the campus. Still, Marysville seemed well-represented at the meeting, with several speakers promoting sites here. At the very least, public comment seemed to lean toward placing the college north of Everett.

Aug. 29
More than seven decades of history went on the block when the Hunters Corner grocery store and gas station was sold to the Marysville School District.
The store was a local legacy dating back to the days when Whiskey Ridge earned its nickname and Hunters Corner former owners Shannon and Melinda Ramey had on display in the store the still their grandfather used to make moonshine.
The store closed for good Sept. 14. Still, at 72 years, the grocery store was not quite the oldest business in Marysville. That honor actually goes to two still-existing stores, Oosterwyks Bakery and Carrs Hardware, which each clock in at about 84 years old. The former grocery site will be part of the Getchell Hill high school campus.

September
Sept. 5
The states site selection committee sliced from 76 to nine the number of potential locations for a proposed branch campus of the University of Washington. Of those, six were in Marysville.
Marysville Mayor Dennis Kendall said he liked the citys odds. Based on the states criteria to serve the growing populations in Snohomish County with a site that would minimize commute times, Kendall bragged he knew the city he leads would make the cut.

Sept. 12
Police caught a pair of bandits that had hit at least two Lakewood espresso and coffee stands over a span of two weeks.
The suspects were not immediately identified by police, but officers arrested a Stanwood man who officials said matched a sketch of one of the robbers.
The robberies took place at Cabooso Espresso and Espresso A to Z. The first was hit four times, the later only once. Each time, a man approached the stands on foot and demanded money by implying or showing a weapon and then fled on foot, according to police reports. Prosecutors believe the suspects wife helped in the robberies by driving a get away car.
At the same time, Marysville police still were investigating a shooting at a city home in which a 16-year-old boy was shot in the neck by his 17-year-old brother. Officials said the incident may have been an accident, but still were checking into the circumstances. According to police, the weapon used was a MAC 10, a large semi-automatic handgun that can be configured to be fully automatic.
Anytime you have a gun of this type, were concerned, said Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith.

Sept. 19
At the request of the administration, City Council turned up the heat in Marysville s quest to land a branch campus of the University of Washington. Council approved spending up to $100,000 to hire a public relations consultant to help promote the city to the state.
This isnt the time to mess around, this is the time to do it right, said Chief Administrative Officer Mary Swenson.
Mayor Dennis Kendall said the city intended to hire a firm with plenty of experience working with state legislators, who have the ultimate say on where the branch campus eventually lands. The city ended up bringing in Strategies 360 of Seattle and the company still is working with Marysville officials on campus related issues.

Sept. 26
Park neighbors and the city reported that a video surveillance system had greatly reduced the vandalism and graffiti problems that long had plagued the Marysville Skatepark.
In the past, it was common for workers to clean up more than 200 cigarette butts thats about 10 packs worth along with having to cover up graffiti and repair damages to benches, bathrooms and other fixtures.
That all became history, according to park neighbor Craig Wells, who owns a business across the street from the park.
Basically, the punks and the problems are gone, Wells said.
In fact, the cameras worked so well, city Parks and Recreation Director Jim Ballew said he was considering placing cameras at two other city facilities, namely Ebey Waterfront and Jennings Memorial parks.

October
Oct. 3
The state site selection committee once again revised its list of finalists, and Marysville was still in the running for a University of Washington branch campus.
The committee dropped three potential Marysville locations from consideration and began considering three others as one site because all three are contiguous. The contenders sit east of Smokey Point Boulevard, just north of 152nd Street.
Other locations making the cut included two sites in Everett and one each in Lake Stevens and in Snohomish. City backers and others continued to promote the ample room at the Marysville site, as well as the ease of the commute they envisioned for campus students and faculty.

Oct. 10
A dearth of math teachers had some students and parents fuming, as they said homework sat piling up uncorrected and students sat in class watching TV.
Superintendent Larry Nyland said the district simply got caught short handed in terms of math instructors after one long-time teacher abruptly left the schools. A couple of potential new hires backed out of agreements or simply quit, Nyland added, stating there is a marked increase in competition for math and science teachers as districts increase their emphasis on those subjects in order to help students pass state mandated tests.

Oct. 17
The shape of things to come was on display as the Marysville Historical Society gave residents a glimpse of what their future museum might look like.
Society members were all ears as they listened to what people said they want to see in the $2.5 million structure planned for property adjacent to Jennings Memorial Park.
A downtown storefront on Third Street was converted to a cache of memories as treasures from the societys storehouse went on display. The items even included an antique bit of logging equipment society president Ken Cage used to level out a large tree stump prior to the Oct. 11 opening of the exhibit.
Its a place to house yesterday is what I say, said museum trustee Walt Taubeneck.

Oct. 24
Two schools were locked down as police negotiated with a 17-year-old bank robbery suspect holed up in a home in the 10600 block of 52nd Avenue.
Details of the Oct. 17 robbery werent readily available, but the suspect struck the Wells Fargo Bank on State Avenue early in the morning. He fled on a bicycle, which witnesses said he then threw into the back of a green SUV, speeding off with police in pursuit.
According to police, a short time later, construction workers on the job in the area spotted a green Jeep Cherokee pull into a garage on 52nd. They claimed they saw two people in the car before the garage door slammed shut. As a precaution, officials locked down nearby Marysville-Pilchuck High School and Cascade Elementary. The buildings stayed locked down until around 2:30 p.m., even after one suspect surrendered to police around noon.
Following the reports of witnesses, officials apparently believed there still was one more suspect in the home. They kept the building surrounded and the schools in lock down until they were able to obtain a search warrant and enter the suspects home.

Oct. 31
Local landowners lost their battle to block construction of new roadways connecting the Whiskey Ridge and East Sunnyside neighborhoods to SR 9 and SR 92 at the citys southern border.
At a contentious Oct. 22 public hearing, about 75 people spoke against plans for the roads. Most were upset that the new streets will cost them pieces of their property.
Despite the objections, City Council passed the street plan unanimously as part of a larger zoning package. At the time, the affected areas had been annexed to the city for less than a year.

November
Nov. 7
Access, commuter ease, room for expansion and a ready student population were among the points local supporters stressed to three members of the state committee looking to pick a site for a proposed branch campus of the University of Washington.
About 60 people gathered in the auditorium of Marysville-Pilchuck High School for the last of six public hearings held by the site selection committee, the first to be convened in Marysville. Besides the points already mentioned, local backers picked on a potential Everett location as being environmentally contaminated. Mayor Dennis Kendall bragged about the availability of affordable housing and the proximity of local businesses. The Marysville site also received plenty of support from its Arlington neighbors.

Nov. 14
Its still the emotional center of Marysville, said City Councilwoman Carmen Rasmussen.
Speaking at a Nov. 5 Council session, Rasmussen was referring to downtown Marysville. At its Nov. 13 meeting, Council voted to spend $275,000 on a year-long study, trying to find ways to revamp the area. The contract went to Makers Inc., of Seattle. A $75,000 grant will help pay for the work.
Administration officials said the study will look at various issues ranging from parking to infrastructure. They also promised plenty of opportunities for public input.

Nov. 21
Thanks to the recommendation of a state consultant, the city lost round one of the fight to win a branch campus of the University of Washington.
The consultant and the state site selection committee recommended an Everett location to the state legislature, which has the final say on placing any campus. Covering 349 acres in the Smokey Point area, the Marysville site came in second. Still, citing what they say are numerous inaccuracies in the committee report, local officials vowed their efforts regarding the campus are far from over.
I guess Im just frustrated because some of the things were seeing in their report just arent accurate, said Marysville Chief Administrative Officer Mary Swenson.
The biggest issue revolves around how much fill state consultants argue is needed to make the Marysville location feasible. They say because of high ground water, the entire acreage would need to be raised three to five feet. Swenson and others say thats just not the case, that the city already has taken extensive and expensive steps to solve the high water problem.

Nov. 28
By a 4-3 margin, City Council bucked the recommendation of the administration and voted down a proposed 1 percent property tax increase.
The tax would have raised about $73,000 next year, with those dollars earmarked for a community policing program. But several council members said community policing was never the real issue.
The property tax for me is an issue of principle, said Councilman Jon Nehring.
State law allows cities to raise property taxes 1 percent each year without a public vote. Marysville hasnt taken the allowable increase for several years, which made the recent proposal more palatable according to some council members.

December
Dec. 5
Theres snow business like show business and locals sure put on a show and got a show from Mother Nature during the 19th annual Merrysville for the Holidays celebration.
A thorough dusting of the white stuff leveraged the levity and magnified the fun for the thousands of locals who lined State Avenue for the winter classic. Children were bundled up and beaming on the sidewalks as the Parade of Lights went by. If anything, the first real snow fall during the events history put the celebration over the top. The white stuff started coming down just before things got started and quickly covered Comeford Park with a blanket of powder.
I like it better with the snow, said Pinewood Elementary student Kaitlyn Samaniego. It makes it more Christmassy.

Dec. 12
Initially slated to open in September, the Marysville School Districts new Arts and Technology High School officially threw open its doors Dec. 10.
The A&T school is the first portion of the $25 million option school campus to get up and running on the Tulalip Reservation off 27th Avenue NW. Officials said the next two portions should come on line in the next few months, namely the Tulalip Heritage High School and a gymnasium that will be shared by the entire campus.
Even if delayed for a few months, the opening of the A&T building went off without any major hitches, despite some unexpected snow and ice. The only noticeable glitch was an unplanned fire drill. Alarms went off and the building was temporarily evacuated only a few hours after it opened. Officials later said the false alarm was the result of an error by a construction worker testing equipment in another campus building.

Dec. 19
City engineers say motorists will see a big pay off when work is completed on two intersections along a major downtown street.
Right now, crews from three construction companies have torn up the intersections of 47th Avenue NE and Third Street and Fourth Street.
The work originally was slated for last summer, but the city only received two bids and officials considered those too high. With the approval of City Council, the street department rejected the original bids and sent out new ones this fall. According to the city, the move saved Marysville some $300,000 off the final bill of approximately $2 million. The entire project should be done by April.

Dec. 26
Once again, Santa got a big boost from generous Marysville citizens.
More than 1,500 kids had a merrier Christmas thanks to the efforts of hundreds of local volunteers and contributors to Operation Marysville Community Christmas.
Over three days last week, parents of the less fortunate got a chance to help make the holiday a little brighter for their kids at the temporary toy store in downtown Marysville where thousands of donated items were laid out for parents to pick from.
The longstanding tradition continued despite the loss of long-time organizer Lillie Lein, with new leaders reaching out to local schools in Marysville and Lakewood to help staff the operation.