Tag: Marysville Washington

Marysville awarded $200,000 EPA grant for Ebey waterfront marina land cleanup

 

Marysville waterfrontPhoto from City of Marysville
Marysville waterfront
Photo from City of Marysville

City of Marysville, Wa

May 20, 2013

MARYSVILLE – The City of Marysville is one of eight communities in the Pacific Northwest recently awarded a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to assess, clean up and revitalize regional brownfield properties.

The EPA allocated $2.6 million from the federal agency’s Brownfields

 

Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup (ARC) Grants program. EPA Region 10 covers Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and 271 Native Tribes.

 

Marysville will receive a $200,000 Brownfields grant to assist with Ebey waterfront marina land cleanup. The cleanup grant would be used to remediate contaminated ground City-owned marina property at 1326 First St. just west of Ebey Waterfront Park. The marina property contains waterfront chemicals and pollutants common to timber industry and marine operations that have existed since the late 1800s. Grant funds also will be used to conduct groundwater monitoring and support community involvement activities.

“Brownfields grant dollars are a key component of realizing our goals of downtown and waterfront revitalization,” Mayor Jon Nehring says. “This grant is an important tool to helping us redevelop the marina property and bring jobs and economic development back to our waterfront.”

The grants help revitalize former industrial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use.

The EPA previously awarded the city with a Brownfields grant in May 2009 to clean up the Crown Pacific/Interfor mill site at 60 State Ave. on the waterfront just east of State Avenue.

Third time was the charm for City Engineering Services Manager Shawn Smith, who applied for the grant. The grant will officially be issued on Oct. 1, but hiring a consultant to develop a cleanup plan that meets approval of the state Department of Ecology and the EPA means that it could be 2015 before actual work starts.

Smith said the grant can be used to clean up the entire property, including the upland and in-water portions of the site.

Long-term plans as identified in the city’s 2009 Downtown Master Plan would see Ebey waterfront redeveloped with trails, apartments or condominiums and some commercial development. No specific plans have been decided for the marina site, Smith says.

156th St. overcrossing officially dedicated

From left, Brandon Dully of Guy F. Atkinson Construction, Marysville City Council member Rob Toyer, Sally Hintz with the office of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring, City Council members Steve Muller, Michael Stevens and Donna Wright, and former Mayor Dennis Kendall officially dedicate the 1-5 overcrossing at 156th Street in north Marysville on Jan. 28. Photo by Kirk Boxleitner.
From left, Brandon Dully of Guy F. Atkinson Construction, Marysville City Council member Rob Toyer, Sally Hintz with the office of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring, City Council members Steve Muller, Michael Stevens and Donna Wright, and former Mayor Dennis Kendall officially dedicate the 1-5 overcrossing at 156th Street in north Marysville on Jan. 28. Photo by Kirk Boxleitner.

By Kirk Boxleitner, Marysville Globe Reporter,  http://www.marysvilleglobe.com

MARYSVILLE — Three months after it opened, and two weeks after it was closed for final tweaks, the 1-5 overcrossing at 156th Street in north Marysville was officially dedicated on Jan. 28.

“As we were setting this date, we joked that the one thing we could be absolutely certain of was that it would be snowing, sleeting, hailing or raining today,” said Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring, as he and his fellow dedication ceremony attendees shivered under tents while rain poured down on the temporarily closed road.

Nehring extended credit for the overcrossing not only to the Marysville City Council and former Mayor Dennis Kendall, as well as contractors Guy F. Atkinson Construction, but also to the city’s partners in funding, from the Tulalip Tribes to the members of the public/private Local Improvement District.

“It’s a testament to what can be done even when state and federal dollars are drying up,” Nehring said, even as he acknowledged that, “Yes, this is designed to become a full interchange, so I hope we’ll be able to apply for federal grants and have senators [Maria] Cantwell and [Patty] Murray, as well as Rep. [Rick] Larsen, see our degree of need.”

Nehring touted the overcrossing as key not only to easing traffic congestion on the I-5 interchange at 172nd Street, but also for further paving the way for a dedicated manufacturing and light industrial center in north Marysville where a great deal of infrastructure has already been established to support such a venture.

“Last November, the manager of the Costco in Lakewood was calling me up and asking to make sure this overcrossing would open on time,” Nehring said. “Sure enough, it was finished in time for ‘Black Friday’ shopping right after Thanksgiving. It just needed to be closed these past two weeks for a few final touches to be added.”

Brandon Dully of Atkinson Construction shared a laugh with Nehring under the tent about the day’s downpour.

“This is just a normal Marysville day for us,” Dully said. “Most of our jobs north of Everett are in weather like this, but we’re up to the challenge.”

Dully proudly touted Atkinson’s safety record on the site by pointing out that only “two very minor accidents” occurred during the project.

“One of the best parts of this job is that we were able to support local labor by giving jobs to guys just down the road,” Dully said. “Just let us know when we need to put on- and off-ramps on this thing, and we’ll be back.”

Nehring concluded the ceremony by crediting the decision to go with an overcrossing to a committee made up of area residents and various governmental organizations.

“Marysville didn’t just dream this up in a vacuum all by ourselves,” Nehring said. “We were committed to the best alternative possible.”