SULTAN'S FUTURE VISION: What is YOUR choice?

DO YOU WANT THIS?

SBR crest: for many months, mud and potholes reigned supreme, and sediment from bare-earth road flowed freely in Wagley Creek.

Do you want a"Wal-Mart friendly" wall-to-wall, rooftop-to-rooftop
slum with cheap retail? A city where new home construction projects require "force-fitting" -- such as the requirement to scalp down the crest of the Sultan Basin Rd. for the purpose of squeezing in 16 more homes on a private road so the developer can make more profit? Where such a project is left untended for many months, creating a muddy, pothole-ridden mess which flows into Wagley Creek, an ESA-rated Type 3 stream already on the verge of destruction? Where no code enforcement exists? Where a city cannot handle what is currently on its To Do list, much less what's waiting in the wings? Where a City plans for the quick buck and short-term future rather than long-term fiscal security? (Read a Tolson statement re importance of openness in govt. and maintaining current infrastructure and services before expanding too fast. (Here's the full Transcription of Tolson's Aug. 23, 2003 interview (with L. Storm), in Word. Although Mayor Tolson has attempted to do much of what he promised, and been semi-successful, within the last 18 months he's fallen preySMS (Sultan Mayor Syndrome), a disease that eventually renders its victim helpless to say "No," and terminating in a delusional reality that short-term money and (free) "contributions and donations" from residential developers will pay off long-term debt.)

Even after paving, sediment from unpaved crest of SBR ran down both sides of curb into Wagley, with narry a city inspector in sight.

OR THIS?

Or do you want the vision offered by Mayor Tolson, sold during his 2003 mayor campaign? A vision akin to Sultan residents' version, made clear countless times previously, during countless visioning workshops, comprehensive plans, etc.

Mayor Tolson's recent disclosure of a seemingly "done deal" (a 600-residential unit proposal called "Sultan Market" with a smattering of retail) -- which has seen neither council nor public involvement or input for the year during which the city was working with the developer and has as many strings as Howdy Doody -- seems reflective of the story below. The story details a Wal-Mart in Chelan given full approval in violation of that city's code. Tolson's proposed "Sultan Market" project requires land zoned for mixed use, a code which does not yet exist.

You know what "They" say: Deal in private....repent in public.

Playing fast & loose with deals in private must (eventually) face public scrutiny. And legal accountability.

A link to just one example: : "Chelan judge remands permits for Wal-Mart"

Controversial Chelan Wal-Mart Opens

Copy & past the following link into your browser if the link provided above does not work: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=walmart19m&date=20070119&query=Wal-Mart+Chelan

AN EXCERPT from this article, which certainly should sound familiar to Sultanites:

"Chelan County Superior Court Judge Lesley A. Allan on Thursday remanded building permits used to erect the 161,000-square-foot structure in the scenic tourist town by the lake. She also ordered the city of Chelan to take steps within 10 days to address her finding that the permits are not valid. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart insists that the grand opening is on....At issue is the town's zoning code, which opponents contend limits buildings erected on the site of the Supercenter to 50,000 square feet. Now the city must decide how to deal with the store, which last month secured a temporary occupancy permit to allow employees to finish construction and stock the shelves. About 250 employees work at the store, which would usher in a new era of big-box retailing in this quiet town of mostly independent, family-run businesses."

 

 

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Transcription Excerpts (From L. Storm's interview of Mayoral Candidate Ben Tolson, August 23, 2003):

Re maintaining what the City has before reaching too far out:
"We need to take care of what's existing within our city, update that, make it safe. Those decisions have to be made soon. Otherwise, we are really going to find ourselves in a great negative financial hole. And we do need to take advantage of it. We have almost the completion of the water/sewer going east, in those areas. Development out there is going to facilitate, I think, a good possibility of growth for business, but yet with that we have to have the responsibility to make the decisions that affect us all as a community. We just can't say, "Okay, bring in all these businesses. Let them have it [the facilities]," and go for it and not realize the impact that's going to be down here on this little sewage treatment plant."
RE Openness in goverment and public participation:
Storm's question: What's the top priority goal you'd like to accomplish during your term if elected?Tolson's Answer: "Top priority goal, one, to open up the city in regards to information to the community....we've got to have a clear understanding across the board so that there isn't this -- suspicious attitude that's floating out there, not only on council or within the employees of the city, but within the public in general."
RE Sultan's Police Force:
"We need to reinvest in our public service. We've gone from 13 officers on our police form down to seven. We've lost our school resource officer. That came about as a result of lost external grant monies that were not filed for because the person who needed to file for them was unable to because they were on leave. There's certain things that took place, there are some monies available to reinstate that. But we're operating in such a timeframe where if we don't have officers in place, we're not only going to be in a place where we don't have coverage for emergencies, but that's going to place the general public, as well as the officers, at risk. We need to do that. We need to make sure that we have a police force that is able to take care of the needs that are before us as a growing community. We are beyond where we were expected to be in growth and yet we have reduced our police force by 40%. And we have to pay for it. We gotta figure out how to. And we have to make those choices."
 

Tolson's Vision (In the 8/23/03 interview):

"I would see Highway 2 bypassing the downtown section of Sultan. I would see a greater degree of investment within the businesses that would exist, so it would then become more of a village kind of a setting. Where you would have a center of town where it's not a combat to get on the next street, 'cause you got cars lined up from here past Gold Bar trying to get through and you can't get anyplace. You may wish to edit this, because I'll be grandiose in my plans here -- "

Storm: It's all right. It's your fantasy.

"This concept of a theme, such as what Leavenworth have done, they began 30 years ago. But you can see what has happened over that timeframe. They are a self-sufficient economic juggernaut. What can we do? We're on the way to Leavenworth, how can we have people stop, and yet desire to be involved? It'd be great if we could move the railroad tracks on the other side of the river. I don't know if that's even feasibly possible, and yet at the same time using - the Sultan of history was shaped not by cowboys and Indian situations. Logging played a predominant part of Sultan as a community, as did the railroad. Stevens, who helped design the pass, left here and went to do the Panama Canal. That's where he went. We have a great railroad history here in Sultan. And so with that, why not make contact with the railroad company, Burlington Northern, and say, "Where do you have a railroad museum?" An interactive information place for kids to come. And I'm talking on a grander scale than the idea for traveler's park, on 8, 10, 15 acres in that regard, where you would actually have a round-about, where you would railroad engines, where you would have people come to it, an information center -- make it a destination point for people. And yet at the same time we have what's declared to be the Number One Steelhead river in the state. The Skykomish River is considered to be the best fishing river in the state for Steelhead. And we do very little to take advantage of that notoriety, whether from the publications that are out there from the old Chamber of Commerce, or even signage. I've tried to think of things from the perception of a diamond or a jewel that we have here, or the thought of "touch the sky." Take advantage of the shuttle relationship that we have with Stevens Pass for skiing, build on that. Those people that come here to go skiing and leave their cars at a parking area to come back to, do a lot of shopping here in town. They consume a lot of donuts from the donut place over here. It's infamous for that. Let's create some of those businesses that support that and encourage that."