ARLINGTON – When the top three prize-winning cities in the America’s Best Communities competition were announced Wednesday via live video feed to supporters gathered in the Arlington City Council chambers, Arlington-Darrington’s name wasn’t among them.
For the crowd of about 30 residents, business leaders and city staff who attended, the news was met with numb surprise and a smattering of applause for the eventual top prize winner, Huntington, W. Va., which took home $3 million.
Arlington-Darrington had a powerful story to tell of vibrant, resilient communities with people who share a commitment to a better economic future for the Stillaguamish Valley.
Arlington Mayor Barb Tolbert, Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin and former Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel flew to Denver to carry that message to the ABC Grand Prize Ceremony, judges and fellow competitors. While their story wasn’t enough to deliver the happy ending of a competition win and prize money to boost revitalization work, they said that Arlington and Darrington are already winners.
“While we did not win first, second or third in the ABC competition, the Stillaguamish Valley has already won,” Tolbert said in a news release.“The competition gave us visibility so we could be known not just as a community in recovery, but a community moving forward.
“In three years, we have taken the $145,000 investment from ABC in our communities and leveraged it into investments of over $91 million.”
Arlington city spokeswoman Kristin Banfield said much the same after hearing the results from home. “It’s not a loss for us,” she said. “We’re all winners.”
The cities developed the North Stillaguamish Economic Redevelopment Plan, a “living, long-term document” to serve as a blueprint for future infrastructure, industries and employment, community and workforce development, rural innovation and other goals. The plan addressed high-level priorities such as the Arlington-Marysville Manufacturing Industrial Center.
The goals and tactics in that document helped shape the 11 key ABC projects contained in the joint cities’ Community Revitalization Plan that they submitted to the ABC competition on March 29.
Banfield said hundreds of people in Arlington and Darrington worked on the ABC projects.
“We accomplished a lot in this (revitalization plan) document,” Banfield said. “We’re so proud of our teams and how much progress we’ve made. There’s more to go, and there is no stopping us.”
Tolbert pointed out that the journey to full economic sustainability for the Stillaguamish Valley did not start with the ABC competition, nor is it over just because ABC is. “We have a plan, we have the ability, and we are filled with gratitude for the opportunity that the competition has given us,” she said. “Out of ABC, we are entering the next phase of implementation of our broad economic revitalization plan, Stilly Valley Spirit.”
Huntington was one of eight finalists in the contest. The second-place winner was Lake Havasu City, Ariz., which won $2 million, and third-place was Statesboro, Ga., which won $1 million.
About 350 communities entered the competition.
