10 Years Ago 1997

Continuous rains and temperatures raising the freezing level to 9,000 feet above sea level brought the Stillaguamish River over its banks Wednesday, March 19. Water flowed over roads in spots from Stanwood, through Silvana, all of the way up to Moose Creek, near Whitehorse Mercantile. Richard Weese at Fayes Cafe reports that they had an inch of water in the cafe. Though the two antique stores in town did not take water, the video store and garage had two and a half feet. Three feet of water entered the fire station, said Weese. The Mercantile and Viking Hall also took water, he said. Weese said that the flood was worse then all there of last years floods, but not as bad as 1990. This was a very dirty flood, he said. There was more silt and gummy stuff than usual. As usual, the community worked together to clean up the mess. The county scrapes gravel and fixes the road, but clean up in the businesses is up to us, Weese said. Up the valley, water was over Oso Loop Road, just past Oso Store already at 8:30 a.m. Later in the day, SR 530 was covered in two places just east of the Cicero Bridge and at East McGovern Road. In the afternoon, cars were parked near Highway 530 at Hillis Road and at the bottom of Trafton Hill, where residents of side roads couldnt return home. Water never did flow over the road north of Lincoln Bridge, as it frequently has in recent years. Elementary school students on Route 12 (Oso) were released from school at 2:05 p.m. and sent home on the high school/middle school run at 2:35. Almost five miles East of Oso, a landslide closed Highway 530 Thursday evening. The slide occurred at approximately 7:20 p.m. and the road was closed until about 10:30, reports Bobby Aylesworth, an Oso resident.

25 Years Ago 1982

An Arlington area fire district border dispute is back in the hands of the Snohomish County Boundary Review Board. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge John F. Wilson reversed the boards earlier decision that allowed Fire District 25 (Oso) to annex a portion of Fire District 21 (Arlington Heights, Trafton). The court was acting on an appeal by Fire District 21. Judge Wilson remanded the case back to the boundary review board for a re-hearing. The court ruling comes almost a year after the boundary review board officially signed its decision. The two fire districts disagree over the annexation of one square mile of land into District 25 from District 21. The land is located in the Cicero area, west of the Stillaguamish River, where about 35 persons live. Two actions by boundary review board members caused Judge Wilson to overturn the boards decision. One board action violated the Appearance of Fairness Doctrine. Board member Gene Gunther missed the public hearing on the issue because of an illness, but listened to the tape recording of the meeting and reviewed all the exhibits before participating in the oral decision. Judge Wilson ruled the board members making a decision on a matter before the board must actually be present for the presentation of testimony, as opposed to listening to the tape recordings and reviewing the exhibits at a time different then the public hearing. The out-of-hearing viewing and conversations, as well as the participation in the decision by the absent member, violated the Appearance of Fairness Doctrine and those actions cannot be authorized. Judge Wilson believed no willful violation of the Appearance of Fairness Doctrine occurred. The violation is based upon a misunderstanding of the rule by the board members. Also, the collection of evidence outside the hearing room by board members was improper. Board members C.H. Holmes and W.C. Romberger stated that they drove to the area in question and preformed timing/driving test to gauge fire district response time and Rombeger also spoke with an insurance agent regarding the reduction, if any, of rates should the merger occur. Judge Wilson stated in his conclusion of the case that the board is not an investigative agency in the sense that it can go outside of the public hearing process and obtain evidence on its own. If it chooses to do so, it must give ample notice to both sides of the controversy and allow a representative of both sides to be present. Therefore, the viewing by the two board members and the conversations with an insurance agent were improper. Fire District 25 received a petition from 60 percent of the Cicero site residents for annexation in the fall of 1980. The fire district passed a resolution approving the annexation October 11, 1980, but Fire district 21 passed a resolution against the move 10 days later. This brought the issue before the boundary review board. The board approved the annexation after listening to both sides of the debates at a public hearing. The board concluded that about 83 percent of the qualified registered electors in the area requested the change from Fire District 21 to Fire District 25 and will benefit from better medical aid and fire protection. Some residents would acquire insurance rate savings because of the shorter distance to District 25.

50 Years Ago 1957

The Nelvin Larson farm was identified by 39 entries as last weeks mystery farm, with Mr. Bert Obergs name being drawn as the winner of a five dollar cash prize from Arlington Sand & Gravel Co. Arlington was a bustling timber town when Nelvin Larson left his fathers Silvana farm for a job in the woods. English, Ebey and Blodell Donovan were logging the area. Was Arlington a wild and woolly spot come payday? Pretty tame not much different than today, said Larson, whos 22 years in the woods spanned the hey-day of railroad and steam donkey logging. His last 13 years of logging was done as a hook tender for Sound Timber, winding up in the Whitehorse area. Larson said his only serious injury in logging was loss of a few teeth from a flying limb, a good record in that hazardous occupation. In 1942, Larson decided to retire, so he purchased the Severt Engeseth dairy from Mrs. Sena Engeseth. Severt, as we mentioned last week, was a colorful figure in pioneer days, who made his fortune in the Yukon gold rush later to return to his native Norway and then back again to Arlington. Mr. Larson reports that he soon discovered he had bought himself a job, and after 12 years of retirement, he has developed his farm into a fine, modern dairy, where he milks 23 head, mostly Guernsey. His total vacation time in these past 12 years has been one week off, when he and his wife visited cousins in Vancouver. He couldnt really relax, though, he said, even with a neighbor tending his herd. Its not like having an eye on things, said Larson, who has learned to avoid the pitfalls of the dairy business by carefully tending his herd. Larson added a new milk house and modern block silo four years ago. He plows and re-seeds a quarter of his 38 acres each year, seeding oats, alike clover, timothy grass, read clover and Ladino for pasture. A fine, natural sub-irrigation and extensive ditching solves his drainage and irrigation problems. A feature of the farm is a fine stand of cherry trees near the house. Larson said they, and their friends, use what they can and the birds feed on the rest.