Vol. 1, No. 3 | December 2022 | |
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The last time the city experienced growth pressure similar to the growth we are now experiencing was in its 1910 logging-centric history. At the time, community leaders recognized that not all growth was good growth and, working to assure a strong and family-centered community, engaged its constituents in making critical investments aimed at cultivating a more durable community. Those investments changed the city’s fundamental community image and positively affected how people responded to and invested in the city for years to come.
City leaders today find themselves at a similar crossroads with goals to stimulate community-centric growth through smart investments leveraging land use planning, aggregation and optimization. Quality public infrastructure, such as the state’s $125 million investment in a new I-5 interchange and the city’s new Civic Center, are key elements to enhance and sustain our city image and future prosperity.
The re-use of the city’s river-adjacent properties along First Street, ironically where founders invested so many years ago, represents an important city development strategy today. With the assemblage of more than 30 acres of unique riverfront sites, the city has begun outreach to private investment for their redevelopment. Once redeveloped, this waterfront area will become a welcoming beacon, benefiting the community for the next hundred years of our city’s long life.
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Terrie Battuello
Economic Development and Real Property Manager
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You're invited! Please join us for an open house at the newly opened Marysville Civic Center. See the public spaces and take a video tour of Police and Jail. Special guests from the Marysville Historical Society will be on hand to discuss the historic water tower in Comeford Park and our city's history.
Civic Center parking lots are located at 7th & Delta and 5th & Delta.
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Resource spotlight:
Sno-Isle Libraries
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The Sno-Isle Libraries offer many free resources that can be particularly beneficial to local businesses and entrepreneurs.
Online business resources include:
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LinkedIn Learning offers an expansive digital library of video courses to learn a new skills across various industries. You can choose from hundreds of subjects in business, creative, technology or certifications.
- Evaluate the market with in-depth trade and industry information, including quarterly industry reports, through ABI/Inform.
- Grow your customer base with customer and competitor information, find customers who might be interested in your product or service through Reference Solutions from Data Axle
Using library on-site services, business owners and entrepreneurs can:
Some resources support non-profit organizations, such as the grant directory research tool through Candid. These non-profit resources are only accessible in the Marysville and Freeland libraries.
The most significant resources at Sno-Isle Libraries are the librarians themselves. “Our librarians are amazing and they are willing to walk through these resources with business owners," said Katie Leone, Sno-Isle Libraries Marketing and Communications Manager. "Our Sno-Isle Libraries are dedicated to helping businesses and entrepreneurs.”
The only thing needed to access any of these resources is a library card.
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Workshop Opportunity:
How to Become a Facebook Master
Learn how to post great content, leverage advertising and call features, develop schedules and routines, and more with Matt Cali, owner of Super Charge Marketing.
Attendees will learn:
- How people see content on Facebook.
- The connection between Facebook pages and profiles.
- Facebook content strategies and other best practices.
- The basics of Facebook advertising.
The virtual workshop, hosted by SCORE Greater Seattle, is on Dec. 13, 1 p.m.
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Funding Opportunity:
Dept. of Commerce Building Electrification Program
The Building Electrification Program provides funding for multifamily residential and commercial building owners and tenants to deploy and demonstrate grid-enabled, high-efficiency, all-electric buildings that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the path to zero-energy. This includes shifting from fossil fuels to high-efficiency electric equipment and systems, control systems that enable grid integration or demand control, and on-site renewable generation and efficiency measures.
Applications will be accepted until Jan. 9, 2023, at 4 p.m. For-profit companies, non-profit organizations and individual owners of commercial/multifamily residential buildings are among those eligible to apply.
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Funding Opportunity:
Dept. of Commerce Broadband Infrastructure Grant
The Washington State Broadband Office (WSBO) is funding broadband projects through ARPA Capital Funding that directly enable work, education and health monitoring, including remote options. Projects must focus on households and businesses without access to broadband and those with connections that do not provide minimally acceptable speeds.
Applications will be accepted until Jan. 17, 2023, at midnight. Eligible applicants include units of local government, non-profit organizations and multiparty entities (combination of public and private entity members, led by a public entity).
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Tips for Businesses to Prepare for the Pay Transparency Law, Effective Jan. 1
A recent amendment to Washington law will soon require employers to disclose information about pay and other benefits in job postings. The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2023, will require Washington employers with 15 or more employees to affirmatively disclose in all job postings a wage scale or wage range, as well as all of the benefits and other compensation to be offered.
Read more
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City proclamation: Small Business Saturday
Mayor Jon Nehring declared November 26, 2022, as Small Business Saturday. The U.S. Small Business Administration reports that America's 29 million small businesses represents more than 99 percent of all businesses with employees in this country and are responsible for 63 percent of new jobs created over the past 20 years.
"In the City of Marysville, I encourage all residents to shop locally this holiday season and to support Marysville's small businesses," written by Mayor Nehring in the proclamation.
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Welcome: Premier Mortuary Services | |
On Nov. 10, Mayor Jon Nehring joined City Councilmember Tom King in celebrating the grand opening of Premier Mortuary Services at 1410 7th St. with staff Michele Martin and Mary Jane Harmon. | Premier Mortuary Services offers a wide range of resources to guide families through the aspects of the funeral service, including online memorials, tribute videos and flower orders. Visit their website to learn more. | |
On Nov. 14, Mayor Jon Nehring and City Councilmember Mark James celebrated the grand opening of Reboot Recovery at 221 State Ave. with Executive Director Evan Owens, Regional Operations Center Manager Jillian Robinson, The Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce and several others. | |
Reboot Recovery helps people overcome trauma through faith-based programs, courses and trainings, though they welcome anyone who needs support regardless of their religious background or affiliations. With a nation-wide spread of locations and an international reach, Marysville is the newest Regional Operations Center in Washington. Visit their website to learn more. | |
Through the century with Hilton
City staff talked with Mary Kirkland, owner of Hilton & Company Gifts.
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Your family business has been open in Marysville for over a hundred years. How did it all start?
Kirkland: My great grandfather and four of his brothers came from a place called Bolton, England, around the 1880s. They first went to Lucas, Iowa, to try farming. They were there for a few years but came to Carbonado, Washington, to go back to their roots: coal mining. They did coal mining until one of the brothers died in a coal mining accident. After that, they all scattered across Western Washington. My great grandfather decided to come here to Marysville and went back into farming.
Farming? So then how did the Hilton business come to be?
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Kirkland: We have been open since January 1919 when my great grandfather bought Mansfield Drug at the time. Although he wasn’t a pharmacist, he named the store Hilton Drug Company because he wanted his children who had graduated from pharmacy school to stay in Marysville. My great uncle (right) ran the store until the early 1960s when Clyde Lashua, an intern, bought the pharmacy from him. And as history happens, when I had to look for an internship in 1969, I came to Clyde. I got to do my internship with Clyde, just like he had done his internship for my great uncle. I worked for Clyde for 15 years and never had any desire to own the store until he convinced me otherwise. I bought the store in 1984.
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Why did you switch from a pharmacy to a gift boutique?
Kirkland: I loved pharmacy as a career, but it is a very exacting science. Every day is life and death if you make a mistake. The urgency in it was sometimes really stressful. It was my creativity bent that wanted me to not just retire from pharmacy, but actually do a little transformation. And at the very beginning of the COVID pandemic, I sold the pharmacy department, closed the store for about three months and then reopened it as a gift and clothing boutique: Hilton & Company Gifts.
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How has it been working as Hilton & Company Gifts?
Kirkland: The volume of our customers increases during the fourth quarter, but we also have so many loyal customers that come in year-round. Most of my customers have become my friends, and I cherish that with all of my soul. The relationships that you develop- that's the biggest treasure of a business. Not only customers but also the friends that I've developed on Third Street as co-business people. You learn to know what they like and what they do. People that visit one business might come over and visit yours. We all kind of coexist.
| Not only has your business been open for over a century, but it’s also been on Third Street for that entire time. What do you look forward to in the future of Third Street? | |
Kirkland: I really look forward to the freshness and the new ideas that new business owners might have and do have. I mean, tradition is wonderful- and I'm a traditionalist- but things get kind of stale sometimes. Freshening it up is actually more fun for the businesses and it also makes it more intriguing and inviting to new and younger customers. I think that it's been a challenge, but it's a fun challenge.
| Watch the short video interview: | | | | | | | |
