10 Years Ago 1997

The Island Crossing annexation is facing another two years of legal limbo following an appeal filed last week by the State Boundary Review Board of Snohomish County. A county judges recent decision would have kept the 420-acre annexation into Arlington alive. The BRB filed documents in the state Court of Appeals Division 1 asking for a review of that decision. The central issue is whether the BRB can deny an annexation as a way to limit growth in an urban growth area. The proposed annexation area is south of SR 530 (Island Crossing) to 188th Street NE and east of the freeway to Arlington within the citys urban growth area. The BRB denied the annexation in April 1996, stating the annexation would create an irregular city boundary. The BRB also said Surrounding natural community, buffer wetlands and prime agricultural lands may be compromised or influenced from impacts created on subject properties through development, adding that development control and regulation enforcement would be better served by the county. The city appealed. Nearly a year later, on April 29, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne overturned the BRBs decision. He ruled the BRB could not deny an annexation in an attempt to phase growth in an approved urban growth area, designated as such under the states Growth Management Act. Wynne sent the case back to the BRB for reconsideration. At that point, the BRB had several options. One was to release a different decision using testimony presented at the hearings last year with the restrictions outlined by the Judge. Another option was to make a decision based on new public testimony. At a meeting June 10, 1997, the BRB announced its decision to appeal. The documents were filed in Superior Court, which will get the case moving toward the State Appellate Court. The board feels there are a number of appealable errors in that decision, said Patrick Downs of the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorneys Office who filed the appeal for the BRB. The issue involved the authority of the BRB to phase growth inside an urban growth area by controlling annexations within the area makes the case of interest across the state.

25 Years Ago 1982

Arlington students continue to rank far above the national median in test results released last week by the school district. For three years, the California Achievement tests have been given to all second-through eighth-grade students in the district. For three years these students have maintained a median result five to 23 points above the national standard, said John Thomas, district administrative assistant. In 25 words or less, he told the school board, these test scores are great. Only the current fourth (fifth-grade in 1982-83) has shown itself consistently weak compared to other classes, said Thomas. District Superintendent Richard Post told the board that the battery of tests has been given to Arlington students to determine a gross measure of where we stand. Post said other districts also give the tests, while others give different tests and some give no general achievement tests. The state, he noted, does require that all fourth-graders take the California Achievement Test. The tests, said Post, are also used to identify areas of curriculum weakness (such as capitalization or spelling) where additional teaching emphasis might be placed. Post emphasized, however, that the district isnt interested in using the item analysis of test results to just improve test scores, but to achieve broad improvements to the teaching curriculum.

50 Years Ago 1957

Mrs. Carrell F. Hurn spotted her former home, the Ray Hall farm, on R.5, in Edgecomb, and became a winner in the Mystery Farm contest when her name was drawn from correct entries for a prize from Arts Chevron Service. The step from raising beef cattle and wheat on 240 acres in Kansas to one cow and a garden on their five acre farm here was taken a year ago by the Ray Hall family. Another contrast to their Washington home was the drought, which prevailed,in southeast Kansas, drying up all but two of their wells at its peak. Theirs was a comparatively wet farm, with many around them waterless, having to haul water from the town, Yates Center. It was the threat of worsening drought, which figured in their decision to sell out and come west, although it is the kind of farming they like best. Mr. Halls mother and two sisters are still living in Kansas, but his three brothers, Leo, Dave and Willey are local residents. Leo is the owner of Halls Electric, an electrical contracting and appliance firm in Arlington. Mrs. Halls three brothers Berl, Earl and Carl Willimason and her mother, Mrs. Francis Williamson, are living in this area. Mr. Hall is employed at the Weyerhaeuser mill in Everett. And three of their four children attend Arlington schools. The children are Patsy, 14; Lawrence, 11; Clifford, 7; and Virginia, 1. Mrs. Hall reports that the children were delighted with their new schools, though it was quite a change from their small country school in Kansas, where eight grades attended in the same building.
The Norman Penney farm was featured as the Mystery Farm of two weeks ago, and is one of the most modern, average-size dairies in the area. It is marked by the row of towering poplar tress, and at some season an impressive sawdust pile is built up near the barns, for use as bedding in the loafing shed. Sawdust, hard to get in winter, is stockpiled in summer. Mr. Penney is milking about 30 head of Guernsey and Holstein and shipping to Darigold. His father is manager of the Darigold plant in Everett. Norman graduated from Washington State College in 1949, where he studied agriculture and has since operated his present dairy. Mr. Penney is presently finishing up the silage-gathering season, having put in his own supply, and now working with a neighboring farmer. The Penneys have three children, Michael, 7; Edward, 4; and Susan, 2. The oldest boy attends Arlingtons Lincoln School.