In the eleventh hour, the City of Gold Bar Thursday passed a budget over the objections of councilman Robert Amenn. “It was like pulling alligator teeth,” said mayor Crystal Hill the next morning.

Amenn, in his last meeting as a councilman, objected to the city’s omission of a dump truck from the city budget, and also opposed the renewal of a contract for police services with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.

The council had rejected the budget before, but if the budget didn’t pass Thursday, time would run out, forcing the city doors to remain closed beginning Jan. 1 and continuing until a budget was passed.

Hill was prepared to go to court and sue the city to accept the budget. But though the discussion at the final emergency meeting grew heated, the budget passed on a 4-1 vote with Amenn dissenting, as did the sheriff’s contract.

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Andrea Mirsky is angry. She’s 22, her husband is in college, and she has a toddler. Money is always tight for young families, and school is pricey.

But the cost of rent in Monroe is crushing the young family, she said.

“It's hard,” she said. “People in their 20s can’t afford to live here.”

It’s not just people in their 20s that struggle in Monroe, though. A shortage of multi-family housing such as apartments and townhouses, combined with an exploding population, has brought about rising rents, difficult application processes, and prohibitive policies.

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