The editorial staff at The Marysville Globe-The Arlington Times announces its picks as the biggest new stories for 2014 in the Marysville, Arlington communities.
1. (tie) ARLINGTON – The unbelievable happened March 22. The side of a hill collapsed at Oso, between Arlington and Darrington, washing away homes like they were pebbles in a river.
Forty-three people died in the disaster.
Many heroes, first-responders and volunteers, helped save the lives of many.
“The folks from Darrington, Oso and Arlington never stopped being active partners in the search,” Sheriff Ty Trenary said.
President Obama surveyed the area and spoke about helping the victims. Humanitarian and monetary aid was provided. Highway 530 was closed for months, but has now been rebuilt.
1. (tie) MARYSVILLE – A freshman boy at Marysville-Pilchuck High School killed four friends before turning the gun on himself in the cafeteria Oct. 24.
Those who died included Gia Soriano, Zoe Galasso, Shaylee Chuckulnaskit and Andrew Fryberg. Nate Hatch was shot but survived.
The community immediately went into mourning, with a vigil packing The Grove Church that night. School was closed for a week so students, faculty and staff could mourn.
Counselors were brought in to help the community grieve.
Support from around the nation came in. The Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Storm helped boost the spirits of M-P athletic teams. Leaders in other communities hit by such tragedies came to town to lend their support.
2. MARYSVILLE – Police Sgt. Jim Maples was shot when Hans Hansen, 43, of Granite Falls went on a three-city shooting spree Oct. 15 with an automatic weapon.
After shooting up Granite Falls and Lake Stevens, then shooting at Marysville police, Hansen drove his pickup at Maples. The sergeant grabbed his rifle, positioned himself behind his police car and felt bullets striking all around him.
As the truck got closer, Maples felt severe pain in his lower leg and dropped to the ground. Officers arrived to help the sergeant, placing a tourniquet on his leg. Maples, who has been with the department for 19 years, was rushed to Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, where he was treated and released.
Hansen was shot in the head by Marysville police. He has since recovered and been charged.
3. ARLINGTON – “The World’s Friendliest Casino” at Angels of the Winds north of Arlington now has “The World’s Friendliest Hotel.”
The $27 million hotel opened for business Dec. 15.
Cost of the 125 rooms over five floors ranges from $114 to $279 a night.
The hotel offers a meeting room for up to 16 people. There is also a workout room. A pool will be added in the spring or summer.
The casino added 57 employees to staff the hotel.
4. MARYSVILLE – Rhyan Vasquez embarrassed Marysville police by escaping from the jail Sept. 22. Even more embarrassing, no one noticed until his attorney came to see him 44 hours later.
Jail Cmdr. Wendy Wade said inmates are supposed to be counted four times a day. Wade said some changes already have been made, such as the door where Vasquez escaped out of is now locked all the time.
Vasquez was part of a group that was taken from the cell area to a visitation area for a bible study. A chaplain leads the studies for about an hour.
Vasquez was able to back out of an unsecured door used by employees, surveillance footage shows.
Vasquez then had to go downstairs to the first floor of the Public Safety Building and walk out a back door.
The 19-year-old was recaptured within days.
This is the first time in 25 years that anyone has escaped from the jail.
5. ARLINGTON – For 9 1/2 years, Byron Wright’s family held out hope that he was still alive. But he wasn’t. He was killed almost 10 years before by his wife, Michele Donohue, in their rural home in the hills between Arlington and Marysville. In the heat of an argument, Donohue stabbed Wright multiple times in the head and neck. Despite his pleas she let him bleed to death. With an axe and knife she cut him up in her kitchen. She then buried the dismembered body under 36 yards of dirt.
She divorced him in absentia and received almost everything Wright owned. She got married in 2005 to Joel Donohue and told him about the killing, saying Wright was abusive. The new husband was worried about the body’s location so he recruited two friends to help relocate the body, re-bury it and cover it with concrete so a “ground penetrating radar” couldn’t detect it. A large “blue tote” filled with concrete concealed Wright’s torso and head, with two smaller bags containing the limbs.
Years later Wright’s family was told by Donohue that he had run off with another woman. But the truth came to light when Michael Huselein, one of the friends who helped re-bury Wright’s body, unwittingly told a jail informant in December 2013 about the killing.
Police issued a search warrant for Donohue’s property on Feb. 13, 2014. Police broke apart the concrete at 8121 Wade Road and found Wright’s remains.
6. MARYSVILLE – Caldie Rogers resigned after 22 years as president and chief executive officer of the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce.
She has a terminal illness.
In 1992 Rogers started building a bridge over Interstate 5 to join together the Marysville and Tulalip communities.
She has been a leader in the area on a number of key issues, and has won state and national awards. The chamber sponsored a dinner for her and about 100 guests at the Holiday Inn Express Nov. 12, and the Tulalip Resort Casino sponsored one for her and chamber volunteers the previous week. Many tribal leaders credited her with being the mediator to improve relations between the tribes and the city.
7. ARLINGTON – The Arlington Food Pavilion closed suddenly after 55 years in Arlington on Oct. 14, surprising customers and workers alike.
The chain already had closed stores in Mount Vernon, Burlington and Bellingham.
Workers blamed larger chains for taking away business.
Shoppers were saddened not only because they were treated like family there, but also because of a loss of choices, since the Haggen’s also closed.
“The people who work here are wonderful,” said Jim Duffy, who had shopped at the Food Pavilion for 20 years, as long as he’s lived in Arlington. “They always treat the customers well, and we have a really nice shopping experience because of them.”
8. MARYSVILLE — City voters approved a two-tenths of a percent sales-tax measure that paved the way for fixing roads, taking care of unmet transportation needs, and improving pedestrian and bicycle safety and access.
On Jan. 13, the Marysville City Council formed a Transportation Benefit District, a separate and independent public entity allowed by state law for the sole purpose of repairing, building, improving, preserving and funding transportation improvements within the district.
The ballot measure, Proposition 1, initiated a tax that generates roughly $1.6 million per year. Marysville’s sales tax rate increased from 8.6 percent to 8.8 percent.
The sales tax is paid by everyone who shops in Marysville. The increased tax on $100 of taxable goods purchased in the city is 20 cents.
Marysville has numerous road segments, among the 420 lane-miles maintained by the city, that are in failing or near-failing condition.
9. SMOKEY POINT — Only one recreational marijuana retailer has opened in Marysville or Arlington.
In the middle of summer, Brad Kihm and his mother, Lisa, opened the doors to Cascade Kropz at 19129 Smokey Point Blvd.
Marysville has banned such businesses, and Arlington has limited the possibilities of more.
The Kihms took precautions to ensure the safety of their business and customers.
Cascade Krops conducts ID screening in the front lobby and requires patrons to be buzzed into the shopping area.
As per state law, customers must be over 21 and are limited to 1 ounce of usable marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused products, 7 grams of marijuana concentrates or 72 ounces of marijuana-infused liquid.
The Marysville City Council voted unanimously April 28 to continue the city’s moratorium on recreational marijuana processors, producers and retailers.
10. MARYSVILLE – Fireworks are popular for residents of Marysville, but 2015 could be the last year for them.
The City Council has a committee that is looking into an outright ban on fireworks for the Fourth of July.
Council members say complaints against fireworks have increased over the years, as people set them off at times and places where they are not supposed to. Residents commonly shoot off illegal fireworks bought on the Tulalip reservation that are only supposed to be discharged there.
Fire Marshal Tom Maloney said the department has received 90 calls in the past six years around the Fourth. Many other people don’t call because they put fires out themselves.
Police Chief Rick Smith said 28 people were cited for fireworks use on July 3 and 5, compared with 13 cited last year and about three the year before. Another 50 were given warnings, 30 on July 4 alone, when people were suspected of using illegal fireworks but not caught in the act.
Smith also was concerned about the nine fires reportedly caused by fireworks.
11. ARLINGTON – In icon in downtown Marysville has been saved by a local church.
The historic Olympic Theatre and the vacant Best Cafe and Steakhouse next door are getting new life thanks to Lifeway Foursquare Church, which plans to reopen the theater and repurpose the restaurant as a not-for-profit coffeehouse.
The iconic single-screen theater closed in July, after 75 years of operation. Former owner Norma Pappas managed the second-run movie house for 37 years before she decided to sell and retire. Her father, Dick Pappas, bought the theater in 1977. It’s changed hands a few times since opening in 1939, including a stint as an X-rated theater in the 1960s.
Lifeway acquired the theater shortly after it closed and then finalized the purchase of the adjoining Best Cafe and Steakhouse. The restaurant shut down about six years ago and the space has been empty since, Pastor Chad Blood said.
The church plans to reopen the theater with the same family friendly, low-cost style Pappas relied on, but first they want to update the equipment and restore the interior.
12. MARYSVILLE – Thousands of youngsters flocked to Comeford Park in Marysville this summer as the city opened its popular Spray Park.
“We wanted to increase the quality and free entertainment in the community,” mayor Jon Nehring said. “And this is a real tangible way of doing it.”
The “sprayground” features an array of spray units that shoot from the ground. But perhaps the most innovated of features is that all watering apparatuses are hand-operated.
“It saves the water by not having it go all over the place,” Nehring said. “It also makes it funner for the kids, knowing that they can come up and activate the water at will.”
The park will open again this summer.
13. ARLINGTON – Interstate 5 bridge work over the Stillaguamish River tied up traffic for months.
Mowat Construction had a window of 120 days to replace the southbound bridge deck, and some of the steel frame underneath.
Mowat actually finished the job early.
The cost of the project was $8.7 million.
14. LAKEWOOD — After first looking at a major remodel, the Lakewood School District has decided to build a new high school for about the same cost.
Voters approved the bond to improve the existing school back in May, but their money will get them a completely new school instead.
Lakewood Superintendent Michael Mack explained that value engineers who toured LHS offered a surprising observation.
“They told us they thought it would be cheaper to build a brand-new building than to remodel the existing building, because the high school is so old and the remodeling that we’ll have to do is already so extensive,” Mack said.
15. MARYSVILLE – The Marysville City Council and city staff roasted longtime city attorney Grant Weed at his last council meeting Dec. 8.
Weed is known for his wit, humor and puns during his 24 years as city attorney.
City Council Member Kamille Norton said, “As city attorney, you have not lost your appeal.”
Weed resigned because he said the city has grown too much to hire outside legal help. It needs its own staff. The city is in the process of hiring a legal department now.
16. ARLINGTON – Arlington Police Chief Nelson Beazley resigned amid reports that the department was not doing a good job.
Bruce Stedman has taken over as Public Safety Director, leading that department, plus the fire department.
Beazley had served in the position for three and a half years.
17. MARYSVILLE – The school district opened a state-of-the-art $10.75 million Transportation Center, with the help of the Lakewood School District and the state, which kicked in $8.16 million.
The district now has a 37,816 square foot shop and office building at 4302 134th St. NE. The local part of the cost, $2.6 million, actually was left over from a bond passed in 2008 to build Marysville Getchell High and Grove Elementary schools. So voters didn’t have to approve any extra funds to build the facility.
Marysville can thank Lakewood for the state funds because a law passed years ago says that districts working together can get 90 percent funding on transportation facilities, as long as other criteria also are met.
The district hopes that other public entities also will come on board and use the center.
18. ARLINGTON – A 25-year-old Arlington man has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend.
Jessica Jones, also 25, of Tulalip died April 9. Daniel Lyle Rinker allegedly shot Jones in the head during an argument April 8. She died the next day at a Seattle hospital.
Police found Jones in a garage in the 6800 block of 188th Street in Arlington.
19. MARYSVILLE — Marysville-Pilchuck graduating senior Chris Franklin walked June 11 in spite of a critical injury sustained weeks prior.
The injury was an accidental gunshot wound entering Chris’ spine, just missing a vital artery.
Franklin was in critical condition and was treated at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
“I saw Chris this morning on his way to graduation rehearsal, he seemed to be in good spirits,” M-P head soccer coach Paul Bartley said June 10. “I’m thankful everything worked out the way it did.”
Not only did Franklin walk at graduation at Comcast Arena in Everett, but he also attended prom days before.
20. ARLINGTON – A rift took place between some City Council members and city staff over salary increases.
Council Members Marilyn Oertle and Debora Nelson spoke against the increases at a council meeting. They wanted staff to provide comparable salaries of cities the same size. They also wanted exact numbers instead of generalizations.
Staff did not give them what they wanted, but the pair still joined with the majority to OK the budget for 2015.
Both said they changed their minds because the mayor and staff said they would study the city’s entire pay structure after the first of the year.
Three council members said in a letter later that the information was available if Oertle would have asked for it.
