The ugly, the bad and the good are all evident in Marysville this summer.

The ugly has to be all the furniture and stuff people leave out on their sidewalks. Come on people, we are better than that. What an ugly blight on the city. If you can afford new furniture you certainly should be able to afford to take it to the dump. It shouldn’t be up to your fellow taxpayers to foot the bill. The city eventually comes along and removes it, at taxpayer expense, but until that happens the items can sit out there for a long time. It’s embarrassing to the entire neighborhood. Be responsible and take care of it yourself.

The bad has to be the driving in this community. Motorists consistently are going through red lights. At four-way stops and roundabouts they are not following the law. People are speeding like crazy. They are cutting corners too tightly, even if a car is there. They are busting right through stop signs. They are stopping in the middle of intersections, backing up traffic in all directions. They are not allowing folks to take their free right turn. People in general are in too big of a hurry. That’s probably because of bad planning. Think ahead. Consider traffic may be an issue and leave earlier.

We are not a sleepy little town anymore where we can go from one end of the city to the other in five minutes. We have grown. We have traffic. And we need to do a better job of figuring out how to deal with it.

It’s my hope that once school starts up Marysville police will get a little tougher on traffic violations. It’s like our drivers think they won’t get caught. These rule violators need to be held accountable before anything serious happens.

The good has to be passage of the small sales tax increase that will pave the way for a new Civic Campus that will give us all something to be proud of.

Actually the tax, which only amounts to $1 for every $1,000 you spend within the city limits, was approved by voters 54 percent to 46 percent to build a new police station and jail. Those improvements definitely are a need with overcrowding in the jail and for officers in the station. But that’s just the start of the good news.

Since that was approved the City Council also voted to build a new Civic Campus that will consolidate almost all city departments into one facility. Instead of driving all over town to try to get something done, it will be like one-stop shopping. The location will be downtown next to the Spray Park so that area will continue to be spruced up. Remember how trashy it was just a few years ago?

And the best thing is it won’t cost residents any more money. Property and buildings where city departments now are will be sold to pay for the new campus.

One project could be all three – the Everett trestle work. Eventually is will be good. It’s been quite some time since it has been paved. But in the meantime it will be bad. Detours around the work over the three weekends will delay your commute at least 45 minutes. The ugly will be Fourth Street, extending east to 64th Street and Highway 529. On those weekends, traffic all over town will be gridlock. I can’t even imagine how ugly it will be when a train goes through down. Let’s try to be civil. Patience will wear thin. Road rage could be an issue. Please be courteous and realize we are all in this together.