10 years ago 1996

Facing pressure for the business community and residents alike, the City Council postponed a decision on utility rate increases in hopes of reaching a compromise. The City Council faces demands from three sides: businesses, residents and outside government. Business owners say if their rates are increased too much, they will go out of business. Residents say rates are hard to manage for those with families or fixed incomes. But the money has to come from somewhere, because the cost of complying with unfunded mandates from the state and federal governments continue to rise. Buying water from the city of Everett, along with the cost of testing for a slew of pollutants in the citys sewer lagoon, put unexpected demands on the budget. Its a vicious cycle, and its not going to get any cheaper in Marysville or anywhere else, Council member Ken Baxter said at a public hearing Monday night. Seattle consultant Larry Wade presented revised utility rates to the Council, which factored in some suggested changes to the original proposal, such as: The base bimonthly rate for in-city residential customers changed to $16.50, with a $1.95 surcharge for every 1,000 gallons over 6,000 gallons. For the average city user, who uses 11,000 gallons bimonthly, that makes a water bill of $26.25, up about 34 percent from current rates. For out-of-city users, the base rate is now $24.75 with a $2.95 surcharge for every 1,000 gallons over 6,000. That makes a water bill of $45.40 for the average out-of-city resident who uses about 13,000 gallons bimonthly. This is an increase of about 56 percent. The citys new proposal has an incremental rate increase for businesses, instead of one large increase every five years. This approach will allow businesses to absorb the new expense over time. It also allows the city to annually adjust rates depending on unknown variables like how many users annex to the city, how much water they conserve, and how dry the summers are. Low-water users, such as small families or seniors, may see a decrease in their rates under the new plan. The city currently charges users a base rate for 10,000 gallons, whether they use that much water or not. The proposed rate uses 6,000 gallons as a base. The roughly 1,500 residents who use less than 6,000 gallons will see a small decrease in their rates. Several business owners publicly supported Joe Crawfords alternative proposal. Crawford, chairman of the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce, argued that businesses are bearing a disproportionate share of the utility systems fixed costs. He said these cost should be spread more evenly over the residents, who use about 80 percent of the systems water and produce nearly 90 percent of its wastewater flow. Marysvilles utility system has a total of about 15,500 water hookups and 12,000 sewer hookups. Total annual water and sewer costs for 1996 are up to $7.9 million, and there is more than $18 million scheduled for capital improvement projects from 1997 to 2001. The Council will form a second focus group of city staff, business owners and residents to examine the citys proposal and seek a viable solution. The bottom line, said City Administrator Dave Zabell, is, We need to find an equitable rate for all sectors residential, commercial and industrial.

25 years ago 1981

If youre driving down the street and happen to come across a group of motorcyclists dressed in black leather jackets and gloves, your first response might be to lock your doors and get out of the way of the Hells Angels. Although motorcycle riders oftentimes seem to be given a bad name, beneath those leather jackets and sometimes gruff exteriors is a group of Marysville riders with hearts of gold. The local chapter of ABATE of Washington (A Brotherhood Against Totalitation Enactments) is a service and political organization of Washington citizens dedicated to promoting and preserving the sport and lifestyle of motorcycling. The groups objectives are to promote fair motorcycle legislation, to work to repeal unfair motorcycle legislation, to promote motorcycle safety education programs and to promote motorcycle rider training programs. But in addition to those aims, the local chapter which consists of 120 members does various civic and charitable projects throughout the year. This year and for several years before it, the group has collected canned goods and other goodies to be put in a basket for a needy family at Thanksgiving. An identical project has been planned for Christmas. The project grew from the motorcyclists monthly meetings. Each fourth Monday when the riders met, they would bring a canned good to add to the basket. This years basket, complete with turkey and all the trimmings essential for a Thanksgiving dinner, was presented to a Marysville family by chapter members the day before Thanksgiving. Bill Niblett, the chapters public relations person, said ABATE worked with John Faulkner and the Marysville Police Department in securing a family name. The police department helped coordinate this and helped us find a family, Niblett said. We really appreciate it. In addition to the food baskets the ABATE chapter sponsors a blood donation run every three months at the Sno-Isle Blood Bank, participates in the Toys for Tots run to the state capital at Christmas and participates in charity drives throughout the year. This years toy run will be Dec. 12 with the blood donation and food donation set for Dec. 20.

55 years ago 1951

It is Christmas and he is far from home. Defending your security and that of your family. Will you do something for him this Christmas? Will you promise yourself, right here and now, to make defense your job, too? That may sound like an awfully big part for you to play. But theres really an easy way to do it. Facilities for signing up as a blood donor are located at Don Beamans, the Marysville Co-Op, Jack Bartletts Hardware and the B&M Food Center. Do so right away so that the Red Cross Bloodmobile may be brought to Marysville, and so that life-saving whole blood from this community may save lives that are defending ours. Its easy and painless and important. So that Marysville community people may have the privilege of sending life-giving blood to the battlefronts of Korea where it is sorely needed to restore and save American boys, arrangements are being made by the Marysville Lions Club to register would-be blood donors. A minimum of 150 donors must be signed up to arrange a date for the Red Cross unit to come to Marysville. Lions Club members feel that many more than 150 Marysville community people are willing to help in this small way this vital project. The unit can accommodate 11 donors every 15 minutes and will be available from nine in the morning until eight oclock in the evening. Ralph Whitson, Lions Club president, urges a prompt response to this appeal to help save the lives of those men who are being wounded in our defense.