Last month the City Council approved the city’s biennial budget for 2015-2016. It was the culmination of a lot of planning and work done by the administration and council during the past several months. Special thanks to the Finance Department for its countless hours preparing the plan. The city’s financial condition continues to strengthen—the result of a recovering economy, growing community and careful financial planning.  The budget maintains financial prudence and discipline, while allowing progress on strategic initiatives important to our community. The two-year budget encourages us to anticipate opportunities and challenges in the years ahead. The longer-term planning will further enhance our financial stability and allow us to better serve our community.

Looking forward

We must make progress on several initiatives. These include: solutions to train traffic, downtown revitalization, street maintenance, replacement and expansion of aging facilities, and promoting public safety and security. We continue to seek outside state and federal funding but recognize many of these challenges will need city resources.

The increased traffic from coal and oil trains have hampered mobility in Marysville. This budget provides funding for the design and permitting of an interchange at SR529 and I-5 to improve traffic flow as well as provide a critical access point unimpaired by trains.  The construction has a price

tag of up to $50 million.

Downtown revitalization and waterfront access has been a community priority for years. The city has continued to assemble properties and pursue cleanup to enable shoreline access and redevelopment on these sites.  We have worked on attracting people into the downtown through civic improvements and development of recreational opportunities. This budget continues this initiative with progress on trails, downtown spaces and property assembly and cleanup.

Street maintenance is a clear priority for citizens. Last April, voters approved a Transportation Benefit District, funded by a .2 percent increase in the sales tax within the city that will be dedicated to street maintenance and improvements. This budget provides additional resources for maintaining our rights of way in order to promote safety, mobility and street image within our community.

Our city facilities are in need of attention.  Most dire is the Public Safety building, built 27 years ago with a community 1/10th our current size.  The building provides space for Police, Fire, Investigations, jail, records and evidence. This budget includes funds to determine future needs of this facility.

Highlights

I want to highlight some of the key initiatives in the 2015/2016 budget that will enable us to advance our goals for economic development, transportation infrastructure and other key service priorities:

•Pavement preservation – $500,000.

-100th Street NE from State Avenue to 48th Drive NE

-67th Avenue NE from 88th Street NE to 100th Street NE

-60th Avenue NE from Grove Street to 93rd Place NE

-Sunnyside Blvd. from 51st Avenue NE to 52nd Street NE; and from 46th Street NE to 71st Avenue NE

-116th Street NE from State Avenue to 47th Drive NE

-128th Street NE from State Avenue to 43rd Avenue NE

-122nd Street NE from State Avenue to 38th Avenue NE

-Beach Avenue from Grove Street to Short Street

•Capital Facility Maintenance Plan – $300,000.

•Downtown revitalization – $150,000 to create a downtown and waterfront area that is a more vibrant, attractive and pedestrian-friendly for visitors and shoppers. The city will continue to improve infrastructure, fixtures, landscaping and signage, as well as support police and code enforcement measures designed to make downtown more beautiful and crime-free.

•Code enforcement/Community cleanup – $30,000 for multiple cleanup activities deployed as part of Clean Sweep Week, a cost-effective, community cleanup event last year that rallied volunteers, merchants and city employees for a once-over spring cleaning.

•Park trails construction – $100,000 for a future extension of Bayview Trail

•Consulting services – $150,000 for analysis of specific city services, including courts and jail, to review current practices for efficiency and cost effectiveness.

•Economic development – $50,000 to expand services and contact to the business community.

•Transportation – $1.4 million to continue the design of an interchange at SR529 and I-5; $7.726 million for improvements along State Avenue, 67th, 88th and various locations throughout the city. These funds, along with the TBD funding of more than $3 million for the biennium, provides for a

substantial boost to address the city’s transportation needs.

Our emphasis on creating a regional manufacturing, light industry job center in the Smokey Point area is a strong long-term endeavor. We signed a joint resolution between Marysville, Arlington and the Tulalip Tribes supporting regional coordination of a manufacturing and industrial center to support The Boeing Co. and manufacturing and supplier expansion in north Snohomish County. The Smokey Point area is master planned with the potential to create thousands of jobs in aerospace, technology and other light industry and manufacturing. In 2015-16 the city will be working to identify industry needs in order to establish a stronger relationship with our business partners.

The completion of key transportation projects in 2014 assisted with improving driver and pedestrian safety while easing some congestion.

Key transportation projects competed in 2014:

•Signalization at 53rd and SR528

•Pavement Preservation/overlays

-108th Street NE from 51st Avenue NE to 67th Avenue NE

-Grove Street from 73rd St. NE to 79th Dr. NE

-State Avenue from 88th Street NE to 92nd Street NE

-44th Avenue NE from Grove Street to 76th Street NE

Transportation remains one of our top priorities, and we continue to maximize local resources to leverage outside funding from state and federal grant sources. Our engineers and project managers have established a track record of acquiring grants and using taxpayer resources efficiently to maintain streets and to construct improvements that will improve travel for Marysville residents and businesses.

Summary

This spending plan seeks to maintain our city’s status as a desirable community in which to live, work and play while maintaining the sound economic foundation our citizens have come to expect. We are committed to prudent fiscal management, effective service delivery, and providing our citizens with the highest quality of life possible.