Enumclaw Mayor Jan Molinaro had much to say during last week’s State of the City address, updating residents on everything that’s happened in the city the past year and what is hoped to be accomplished in 2022.
The April 7 speech, which was televised on Enumclaw City Television (ECTV) for in-city Comcast customers (and viewable on the city’s website), held messages both of praise for the local reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, but also a word of warning for the city’s financial future.
“We as a community, in what appears to be the beginning of the end of COVID. Mandates have been lifted, [and] more of society is beginning to look and feel like 2019 as we move past a very difficult two years,” Molinaro opened. “The city of Enumclaw… weathered the COVID experience fairly well compared to other cities in our region. This can be attributed to a partnership from the beginning, including our citizens, businesses, city council, and city staff. The magnitude of the effects of COVID were too large for any one person or entity to handle, and it was through the efforts of these groups mentioned that Enumclaw continues to move in a positive direction.”
But not all is rainbows and sunshine, and with COVID appearing to subside, the city must turn its full attention to other issues plaguing municipalities across the nation.
“As I stated in last year’s State of the City, our view is that the future revenue trend line could show some moderation in its growth… and inflation is something that we need to monitor, as this can create increased cost in many areas of our budgets would need to be adjusted,” Molinaro said, stressing that while the city is in good financial health, “My view for future revenue is that it will turn sluggish, as inflation continues to affect home and business budgets… As Enumclaw continues moving through 2022 and look toward 2023, I expect to encounter some headwinds for the city and its budget.”
With that said, here’s a short list of what the mayor considered the most impactful accomplishments of the past year, and what residents can look forward to in the next.
ADMINISTRATION ACHIEVEMENTS
One of the first achievements Molinaro toted focused around his city’s youth — specifically, that the city provided funding to the local Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation nonprofit to bring two additional mental health counselors into the Enumclaw School District.
The need was discovered in a 2018 Middle School Needs Assessment for both Enumclaw and White River School District middle schools, finding that many local students reported depression and anxiety — and that was before the pandemic struck, greatly exacerbating these emotions and feelings.
Enumclaw provided $40,000 to the program, which was supplemented by $10,000 each from the city of Black Diamond, Mutual of Enumclaw, and the Milgard Family Ruth Foundation, as well as individual donations, which included a GiveBig campaign that resulted in another $10,000 in funds, for a total of about $120,000.
The Enumclaw City Council also passed an ordinance giving a temporary property tax exemption to multi-family (apartment) developers who provide affordable housing.
If a developer reserved 20 percent of its units for individuals and families that earn 80 percent or less of the area-wide median income for the county (just over $100,000), those developers don’t have to pay property taxes for the next 12 years.
Molinaro said this “important city code” incentivizing multi-family development is “something our city has not had or seen since the mid-1990s.”
Administration and council also secured some much-anticipated agreements and leases for parking close to downtown.
An agreement has finally been struck with the Thunder Dome Car Museum to develop a parking lot in the empty field behind the Enumclaw library, with construction looking to begin this spring.
And, control of the library parking lots adjacent to Railroad and between Myrtle & Marshall is reverting back to city control so improvements can be made.
“The area at the Marshall entrance will be modified to connect to the new parking lot and the row of poplar trees will be removed at the same time,” City Administrator Chris Search wrote in a later email interview.
Other accomplishments include:
• Receiving a total of $3.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to assist the city and other local entities weather the pandemic. About $150,000 of these funds went to local businesses and nonprofits.
• Being named a WellCity by the Association of Washington Cities of the 11th year in a row, saving the city 2 percent (or about $25,000) in medial insurance premiums.
• Signed an inter-local agreement with the Enumclaw Fire Department fire marshall, who can now inspect local businesses on an annual basis for fire safety hazards.
• Saw the successful retirements of former Police Chief Bob Huebler, Public Works Director Jeff Lincoln, Finance Director Stephanie Dice, and Senior Center Director Jobyna Nickum.
INFORMATION SERVICES
Working in the background to make sure the city runs smoothly, Enumclaw’s Information Services department tackled several projects to increase city safety while ending the year under budget.
First, IS installed new cameras in the Enumclaw jail, public work buildings, and the municipal pool to increase overall security across the city.
The team is also in the middle of securing a body camera contract for the police force.
Finally, they identified and disconnected several defunct or duplicate phone lines, saving the city $6,000 a year.
Molinaro added IS ended the year by coming in more than $388,000 under budget.
“With all the electronic updates and purchases to replace items within the city, information services has spent wisely and continues to get projects done,” he said.
POLICE ACCOLADES
The biggest achievement the local police force saw was managing both tie 2021 police reforms put through the state legislature, and then the re-reforms made in 2022.
“The city’s police department was faced with many new changes that needed to be reviewed and implemented… policies and practices were changed to reflect legislative updates in police reform, and trained our police staff in such changes,” Molinaro said.
But “most importantly, our Enumclaw Police Department awarded two Life Saving Awards to officers (Steve) Howerton and (Trevor) Pourchot,” the mayor continued. “They arrived at the scene of a medical emergency and quickly determined what the situation was and how to respond. Immediate and decisive actions by these officers, including CPR efforts, enabled advanced life support medic units to stabilize and transport the patient to the hospital… where a full recovery occurred.”
Howerton has since retired from the department.
PARKS AND REC PROJECTS
Many of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department’s achievements this last year, of course, were for maintaining, upgrading, and — in one case — creating parks around Enumclaw.
Molinaro also made sure to give a shoutout to Camp Commotion, a Rec department summer camp for younger kids, for providing activities for upwards of 40 children, as well as continue through the fall to help with at-home school.
The mayor also mentioned the new fitness court, located just before the Cooper Lane/Warner Avenue East intersection that leads into the Suntop Farms housing development.
“It was a joint development with the city, the National Fitness Campaign contributed $30,000 towards the equipment, and Watterson Excavating donated the grading and site prep,” Molinaro said. “It is partnerships like this that allow for projects to get completed at lower cost, saving money to be used elsewhere in the city’s budget.”
The city is also preparing to expand the Boise Creek 6 Plex baseball fields by buying an adjacent abandoned property.
“The property at 244th Ave SE and SE 468th St was purchased for $65,000 and the city then demolished the dilapidated house and abandoned the septic system,” Searcy wrote. “This will allow for a second entrance to the parking lot and improved circulation. There is not a schedule or budget yet for this work.”
Finally, in addition to a pickleball court going into McFarland Park, upgrades to the disc golf course at Farmer’s Park, and new playgrounds being installed at Montgomery Park, Enumclaw is about to receive a $1.2 million grant from King County (to match with another $1.2 million ponied up by the city) to start some pool renovations.
“This phase should not affect programs at the pool,” Molinaro said. “The bulk of the work is going to be on the outside of the swimming pool area.”
Last year, Enumclaw’s Public Works was able to tackle several road projects, Molinaro said, from replacing 200 road panels and 60 sidewalk panels to a major Roosevelt Avenue overlay and the installment of a roundabout at the Semanski Street and Warner Avenue intersection by the high school.
The department also finished up automating its residential and commercial water meters, meaning no one has to drive around to record meters anymore. This was par of $1.3 million in various capital improvements made in 2021.
Additionally, the city was able to inspect and clean 70 percent of its sewer mainline system inspected and cleaned, during which Public Works identified a 3,200-foot section of main needing to be replaced.
“The… sewer main lies east of 410 parallel with the Foothills Trail between Roosevelt Ave and Warner Ave,” Searcy wrote. “It is expected to go out to bid later this month and was budgeted for construction in 2022 at a cost of $1.4 million.”
Molinaro also lauded Public Work’s ability to provide affordable natural gas services to city residents.
“One of the major achievements of this utility has consistently been able to do for the community who use our natural gas is that out supply is hedged at 70 percent of the average usage all through the winter of 2025/2026,” he said. “This supply purchasing strategy has continued to keep [rates] below the average; overall savings is estimated at approximately $1 million at today’s gas rates, and that savings is passed on to the customer.”
Hedging is basically buying natural gas in bulk in future contracts to keep prices down; Enumclaw is one of two cities in the entire state that runs its own natural gas utility.
The department was able to secure an $800,000 grant to cover a portion of the Boise Creek restoration project, which will rechannel the water from going around the course to a more direct route along the forest edge.
“This should, once completed, assist in the preventing of flooding that occasionally occurs at the golf course and to have the creek redirected, that will assist in the natural habitat of salmon,” Molinaro said.
Searcy wrote that the project needs to secure additional grant funding and obtain permits from the Army Corps of Engineers before starting construction, which is expected now to start in 2023 and cost about $2.2 million.
Finally, Public Works completed an assessment of the local Senior Center, which either needs major repairs or — what appears the city council would prefer — a brand-new building.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Even through the pandemic, Enumclaw continued to see some growth.
“Last year they processed 1,878 permits, which is up 32 percent from last year. It’s a significant jump,” Molinaro said. “Just as significant is the fees and revenues to the city… it was reduced by 83 percent, mainly due to the valuation of the projects submitted year over year.”
463 of those permits were building permits, up from the 455 last year, but down from the 513 permits Community Development saw in 2018.
The department also saw 370 business licenses come through this year — basically on par with last year, but there’s been a general decrease in these licenses since 2018, when Enumclaw saw 508 submitted.
Community Development has also been working on getting the 100-year old City Hall designated a King County historical landmark, which will help provide county money for maintaining and repairing the building. A state grant has also been given to the city for this purpose.
FINANCIAL FEATS
It appears the city is in good financial health, given tax revenue is on the rise.
“The city’s sales tax receipts from 2021 were significantly above the forecasted amount, reflecting a 10.8 percent increase,” Molinaro said, adding that there was also a 12.9 percent increase in property tax revenue, meaning overall, “the increase to the city through these two revenue streams is up a healthy 12.1 percent.”
The area’s assessed value has also increased to about $2.2 billion, about $345 million more than the previous year, and the assessed value of new construction is around $65 million, “representing the continued increase since the recession,” Molinaro continued.
He also noted that the city’s worked hard to keep utility rates low.
“Only two utilities needed a rate increases in 2021, as well as 2022,” the mayor said.
This includes a 5 percent increase in solid waste fees and a 2 percent increase in natural gas prices.
Residents can expect another 7 percent increase in solid waste and a 15.4 percent in storm water utility costs in 2022.
Finally, “reserves are over and above the required 12 percent, which is in city ordinance,” Molinaro said, which given his gloomy financial forecast for the future, should provide a buffer for the city if the economy slows.
FUTURE PROJECTS
One future project Molinaro wanted to focus on was the creation of a monument honoring first responders, to be installed in front of city hall.
“The First Responder Monument has plans for 3 glass benches with underneath lighting with colors, red, white and blue signifying not only the colors for the U.S. flag, but also the colors for each of the first responders depicted on the plaque,” Molinaro wrote in a later interview. “It is budgeted for $80,000 (vast majority is the cost of three glass benches) though we do have some local businesses that will be donating time and material to the project which should assist in reducing the overall cost.”
