The Monroe Monitor & Valley News -- The Voice of the Sky Valley Since 1899

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PAGE 1
• Developer backs out of city shopping area
• Sultan residents to decide: more taxes or keep library?
• A Heart for Children

PAGE 2
• Around The Valley
• Flashback
• News Briefs
• Monroe churches join forces

PAGE 3
• Editor's Notebook
• Retiring Sultan wrestling coach reflects on 48 years on the mats

PAGE 4
• What's Going On: Many issues for ORV park and Reiter Pit
• Explosion dance team members chosen

PAGE 5
• Letters
• Good Deeds
• Births
• Find It Fast Directory

PAGE 6
• Monroe school bus driver retires after 49 years
• Sultan FFA kids shoot for a great year

PAGE 7
• Police Reports
• Church Directory
• Classified ads
• Legal Notices
• City of Monroe Legal Notices

PAGE 8
• Free YMCA use low in first months
• Monroe FFA going -- and growing -- strong

PAGE 9
• Sultan Lady Turks versus Granite Falls
• Adopt-A-Stream Events

PAGE 10
• Coldwell Banker homes for sale

COUNCILMEMBERS IN MONROE had their teeth set on the blossoming of the North Kelsey area by this summer. Now, that is not going to happen unless someone steps up to replace First Western Development as the property owner and developer or First Western comes back to the table. The city bought some of the land from the county, including the site of a former gravel pit, in order to guide the development of the land. But First Western, after promising to buy and develop it, has backed away, leaving the city with an interest debt approaching a quarter million dollars on the loan it took out to buy the property. After almost two years of planning, First Western walked away over a dispute with Lowes over payment for infrastructure costs. Now, the city may have to find a new developer. The photo above, shows the undeveloped portion of North Kelsey looking southwest. Photos by Ken Robinson

Developer backs out of project

A land deal between the City of Monroe and North Kelsey developer First Western Development has stalled, and the city has put the land back on the market.

“First Western has been very reluctant to sign a bill of sale, so we're considering all our options,” Monroe Mayor Donnetta Walser said. “We can't sit around twiddling our thumbs.” The stall has already cost the city about $150,000.

The city borrowed $16.1 million to buy the land from the county in 2005, the better to control the development of the area.
The note on the
loan was due in
late October.
Because First
Western hadn't
met deadlines
to pay for it,
the city was
forced to get a
six-month
loan extension.

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SAM PINSON of Sultan is excited to check out his own books at the Sultan Library. The library may close if residents decide not to approve a property tax that would pay for continued use of the library, a cost the city said it can no longer bear. Photo by Polly Keary

Sultan's library is 98 years old, and branch manager Jackie Personeus hopes to throw a centennial party in a couple of years.

If the library is still there, that is.

The City of Sultan can no longer afford to pay the Sno-Isle Library District for library services for its citizens, and March 11, Sultan residents will decide if they want to pay for it themselves out of property taxes.

“The key message we've been talking about is that since the Eyman initiatives (including a roll back of car tab fees and a one-percent limit on the amount a city may in-crease its budget annually without a special vote) a lot of towns have done this,” said Sultan City Adminis-trator Deb Knight Wednesday.

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