Between The Lines

For the past month a few Washington state cities have been applying to be part of Google’s upcoming fiber-optic project, but Arlington won’t be joining them.

City of Arlington spokeswoman Kristin Banfield recently confirmed that Arlington did explore that option, but quickly realized that they didn’t meet the minimum population threshold required by the Seattle-based company.

Banfield said Google is looking for an area with between 50,000-500,000 residents. Arlington has about 17,500 residents.

“We sent feelers out to other jurisdictions in Snohomish County for the opportunity, but didn’t get much interest,” Banfield said in an e-mail.

The cities of Seattle and Bellingham have expressed interest in becoming a part of Google’s plan to build a high-speed broadband network that could offer residents speeds of up to one-gigabit-per-second.

Google is accepting applications from municipalities and citizens until March 26. The company plans to announce more details about which entities were selected later this year.

Nobody likes paying more.

But the city of Arlington seemingly has no choice but to raise residents’ sewer rates to pay for a share of its new wastewater treatment plant, which is currently under construction.

The City Council held the first of two public hearings on Monday, March 1. As previously mentioned in The Arlington Times, the city is proposing a $5 increase per month on property owners’ sewer rates starting in April. Those rates would increase again in 2011, 2012 and 2013 by $5 per month each year.

An in-depth article detailing the changes and the public’s overwhelming opposition of the potential increase will be available online and in print after March 9, but I wanted to provide readers with some additional information as they take sides on the issue.

During the March 1 City Council meeting, Arlington Public Works Director Jim Kelly gave a PowerPoint presentation detailing where Arlington would fit in the sewer rate heigherachy.

Rate payers currently pay $48.75 per month. If the increases as proposed go into effect, those residents would pay $53.75 per month in 2010.

Here’s a list of those residential sewer rates would compare to other area cities. Rates shown are per month.

• Snohomish — $83.75
• Duvall — $62.35
• Lake Stevens — $60
• Sultan — $56
• Arlington (proposed) — $53.75
• Sedro-Woolley — $51.25
• Monroe — $50.74
• Arlington (current) — $48.75
• Stanwood — $47.43
• Everett — $42.40
• Mount Vernon — $41.60

But sewer rates alone don’t tell the entire story. Each city also charges residents a sewer connection fee.

Here’s those same cities in that same order, but with their sewer connection fees listed instead of those monthly rates:

• Snohomish — $5,029
• Duvall — $8,952
• Lake Stevens — $6,850
• Sultan — $9,106
• Arlington (proposed) — $8,400
• Sedro-Woolley — $8,926
• Monroe — $5,915
• Arlington (current) — $8,400
• Stanwood — $4,040
• Everett — $1,111
• Mount Vernon — $41.60

Those statistics and a number of other items are included in Kelly’s presentation, which will also take place during the March 15 Council meeting. Here’s the presentation:

Stay tuned to The Arlington Times for more information on any sewer rate increases.

Goats at New Moon farm seem to have an appetite for all things paper.

That includes my notebook, apparently.

While farm owner and operator Ellen Felsenthal was giving me a recent tour of her goat rescue facility, Ziggy seemed to think that my white reporters’ notebook looked an awful lot like goat food.

He snuck up and snatched the pad that I had conveniently stashed in my back pocket, flinging it into a nearby puddle.

“He just thinks anything you put in your pockets is fair game,” Felsenthal said with a laugh.

Luckily for Ziggy, I was able to salvage my notes and turn the tour into a story that will likely appear in next week’s print edition.

For those who don’t know what New Moon is, visit the organization’s Web site for more information. It’s basically a goat rescue organization that takes in injured, neglected or unwanted goats and finds them new homes.

Between 40-50 goats call New Moon home on any given week, not counting Felsenthal’s permanent herd of rescue animals that includes 11 goats, two sheep and two horses.

Another small tidbit of information that didn’t make it into my story dealt with New Moon’s recent spike in popularity.

This holiday season, Felsenthal held her annual Christmas tree feed for goats, during which she gives trees that she’s collected a new home — in her goats’ bellies.

She contacted a number of media outlets — including The Arlington Times — to garner attention. The e-mail to us bounced, she said.

Although nobody “bit,” she was able to follow up with KING 5 after she submitted some photos to the news station that she took of the event.

Felsenthal’s photos were apparently good (she does teach photography at Everett Community College), and KING 5 brought a crew out to do a short follow up story.

Shortly after the story, the Associated Press picked up the story and the story exploded.

“It went viral — we had 150,000 hits on our Web site after that, but it only accounted for $40 in donations,” she said.

But the media exposure did do one thing for New Moon — it got her more goats.
“We got a ton of goats after that,” she said. “It was such a surprise.”

It must have been much more surprising than a notebook being swiped by a hungry goat.

Local school districts could see some major changes in how they receive state funding after a King County judge ruled Feb. 4 that the state is not equipped to pay for public education.

Second-graders at Pioneer Elementary School answer a question posed by librarian Carol Bassett on Thursday, Feb. 4.

I’m going to be working on a story in the upcoming days on specifically what that decision could mean for the Arlington, Marysville and Lakewood school districts, who again face budgetary issues as the 2010-11 school year approaches.

So far, I’ve received comments from Randy Dorn, state superintendent of public instruction, and the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools.

The Arlington and Marysville school districts are members of that network, a group of more than 70 Washington state school districts and organizations that filed a lawsuit stating that the state does not fully fund education.

That lawsuit took place between August and October 2009, and was punctuated by King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick’s decision.

I anticipate hearing soon from school adminstrators and Board members, who, for the most part, have long supported the notion that the state does not fully fund public education.

The judge’s decision comes in wake of some of the most tumultuous times school districts officials have faced.

Arlington School District Superintendent Kristine McDuffy announced in late January that the district could be facing a $2.4 million in budget cuts if Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget become approved.

The Marysville School District is currently soliciting a $78 million bond to build three schools. It’s also seeking a $21 million school support replacement levy to support operations within the district. Both ballot measures will be tough sells to property owners.

I haven’t heard whether the Marysville or the Lakewood districts are facing a huge budget crisis this year. I’m sure that will start to become clearer as administrators and Board members form their budgets.

Business owners and managers have told me that they have conflicted feelings when it comes to a new Walmart being constructed in Smokey Point.

I just got done writing a story on how some of those businesses are viewing the superstore, and I was surprised to see that most were fairly optimistic about the 154,000-square-foot store going up near 172nd Street NE.

One of the superstore’s biggest proponents that I interviewed were Anita Black, owner of the Glass Cottage, and Bill Tackitt, owner of Aces Casino and 14 Buzz Inns (including one in Smokey Point).

I would think small business owners would be more scared and pessimistic about the Walmart taking away business, but that wasn’t the case at all.

“There’s not as much competition with the Walmart as you might have in other places,” Black said. “I don’t see our stained glass being in competition. I know that in certain circumstances businesses near Walmart are affected by it, but where they’re putting it here will have less impact on the area around it.”

Black went on to say that people tend to be afraid of chains, but added that the city has addressed a lot of those concerns.

“I try to go with change and not fight it,” Black said. “It’s going to happen. I’m hoping that it will be a good thing for the city of Arlington.”

Tackitt told me point blank that if the Walmart was not going in, paired with a recent tax reduction the City Council gave him, his Aces Casino would probably have gone out of business.

“If it wasn’t for (the Council), I don’t believe (Aces) would have been open right now,” he said.

Check out the Feb. 3 edition of The Arlington Times for a full story on the Walmart.

My previous story on the store coming in to Walmart is available here.

It’s official — Walmart is coming to Arlington.

I just got confirmation that the superstore will begin construction on Monday, Jan. 25. According to Kristin Banfield, city of Arlington spokeswoman, the store will be completed by Sept. 20.

It is scheduled to open in by the end of October, Banfield said.

The new Walmart will be constructed on SR 531 (172nd Street NE) near  Arlington Municipal Airport.

I’m sure more details will come in the following days.

UPDATE:
Here are a few previously posted stories on the controversial Walmart:

Wal-Mart delays Mville and Arlington stores

Walmart submit’s revised plan to city’s Design Review Board

Lawsuit dropped; Wal-Mart moves ahead with new stores

Merchants speak out as Wal-Mart comes closer to moving into Smokey Point

The Olympic Theatre has been a downtown Arlington staple for the past 70 years.

Who would have thought running a small-time theater this day and age would be so much work?

That was my first reaction when I interviewed Norma Pappas, owner of downtown Arlington’s Olympic Theater.

The 70-year-old theater, purchased by Pappas and her father in 1977, has been operated by Pappas for the past 33 years.

Not only did I learn about the process of obtaining a film and showing it, I learned that there are a lot of long days.

Here are a few facts that stood out to me:

• Pappas told me that she works close to 75 hours per week, despite having five part-time workers helping out throughout the week.
• Movies literally have to be taped together in order to be shown on the big screen. An average movie has six reels, which must be spliced together perfectly in order to ensure the movie looks good on screen.
• Not only does Pappas splice the movies together, she also assembles the preview reel, which changes from week-to-week.
• The Olympic Theatre has a resident 5-year-old cat named — can you guess? — Indiana Jones. “He had to have a movie theater name,” Pappas said.

Click here to visit the theater’s Web site or check out it’s recently created Facebook group.

Stay tuned to The Arlington Times Web site for a full story on Olympic Theatre, along with a photo slideshow.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed to me that they are indeed investigating a copper wire theft that allegedly took place in rural Arlington some time between Dec. 22 and 29.

But Rebecca Hover, the department’s spokeswoman, said Monday, Jan. 11, that she did not have any additional details on the theft.

Authorities are continuing to investigate case, and residents with any information are being encourage to call 425-388-3845.

The Bonneville Power Administration issued a press release Dec. 30 about the theft, in which more than 30 feet of copper wire was stolen from a substation at the 17400 block of Burn Road.

The original story on the case can be found here.

Heather Logan, assistant administrator for Cascade Valley Hospital, tests the communications equipment at the new hospital building Jan. 5.

I just got done writing a story about Cascade Valley Hospital opening its newly remodeled building on Jan. 25.

Although the story won’t be available until our next print edition comes out Jan. 13, I wanted to share some extraneous facts about the building’s construction that Heather Logan, assistant administrator for the hospital, provided to me via e-mail after our interview Jan. 5.

• Crews used about 50 trucks per day for an entire month to do excavation on the site.

• Approximately 80-100 workers were on site throughout the construction phase. Logan said that as of Jan. 5, the building was about 97 percent complete.

• More than 1,600 cubic yards of concrete were used on the building, and crews utilized 160 tons of structural steel.

• The largest piece of glass installed in the building is 7-feet by 9-feet.

• 17,500 concrete blocks were used in the project.

• Here’s a little-known fact: In one of the commissioned pieces of art, a mural titled “Cascades Valley” by Harry Engstrom, Engstrom painted himself and his father hunting on one of the cliff sides. Engstrom is the boy who is kicking rocks off the cliff.

The hospital will hold an open house Jan. 24 for the public to attend.

For more information on the hospital, visit its Web site.