We appreciate Darren Doty.

No one has done more for the Marysville Strawberry Festival than he and his family the past eight years. He has been president of Maryfest for two years, and he and his wife, Shelly, have built the float every year. Darren has been the float’s driver at most of the parades all over the Northwest. Their daughters have served on the junior and senior royalties – both becoming queen and winning thousands of dollars in scholarships.

Darren has done an amazing job the past few years especially, when, through no fault of his own, Maryfest started to implode. Bickering within the ranks led to a mass exodus of Maryfest members for various reasons.

This year only a handful of board members and volunteers amazingly, somehow, pulled off the festival. This newspaper asked for volunteers to step up and help put on the event. That didn’t happen. We also called for Maryfest to come to a truce with volunteers previously involved to make sure the event would go on. That did not happen either.

When Darren and others came to power in Maryfest, they said they wanted to make it more professional and less dysfunctional. But that is not working; support for the Maryfest organization is dwindling.

So, no matter how much we appreciate the work Darren has done, he is not getting support in the community. He just has been unable to keep volunteers onboard to make the event the success it needs to be for this city. We are worried about the future of Maryfest, which has been putting on the event for decades.

For whatever reason, the Tulalip Tribes did not contribute $50,000 to the festival, like it normally does, this year. Mayor Jon Nehring said at his Coffee Klatch Thursday that the city could withhold hotel-motel tax money if Maryfest doesn’t get its act in order. The city also provides many in-kind contributions from police, public works, parks, etc., for the annual festival. Those could be in jeopardy, along with permits needed to put on the festival. This all came to a head Tuesday night. The newspaper was asked to help count election ballots as an unbiased observer. But only a few Maryfest members showed up, and none wanted to serve as an officer. So what would the election be?

In walked 25 people who said they wanted to put their differences aside, become paid Maryfest members and volunteers, and be part of an election. This was eerily similar to what happened last year, except this time they brought an attorney. Darren asked them all to leave, citing Maryfest bylaws. He said it was a members-only meeting. The attorney threatened legal action, something Maryfest can’t afford. Its finances were so bad this year its royalty wasn’t even allowed to go to some of the parades. That in itself is cause for alarm because just a few years ago Maryfest had well-over $250,000 in its coffers.

After clearing the room, Darren talked with his few board members, then later addressed the entire group, saying Maryfest needed to talk to its attorney.

That is when we decided Darren needs to step down for the good of the Marysville Strawberry Festival.

With Maryfest’s forces dwindling, there was no good reason not to accept the new members. Bylaws are made to be changed according to the needs of the organization. Apparently there is bad blood between many there that night, but that has to be put aside for the good of the community.

As we said earlier, we like Darren. We think he’s done a great job. But if people aren’t willing to work for or with him, he is no longer being an effective leader. This is extremely sad for us. But if this doesn’t happen, we see Maryfest dying and another organization developing that would end up getting funding from the city and the tribes. What makes that look even more likely is a City Council and tribal council member were both among the group challenging Darren that night.