Vanney appointed to Arlington City Council

Lifetime Arlington resident Don Vanney has been offered an appointment to the City Council after the resignation of former City Council member Joshua Roundy last month.

Roundy left the City Council due to personal reasons and City Council members put out a search shortly afterward for a replacement.

On Feb. 19, City Council members conducted interviews with seven applicants and offered the appointment to Vanney.

He was scheduled to be sworn in during the Feb. 24 City Council meeting.

Vanney receives the appointment after he ran a campaign for mayor last year that saw a razor-thin margin in favor of incumbent Barbara Tolbert, with Vanney coming only 32 votes short of the seat.

“I think the results of the mayoral election showed there were a lot of citizens here who back me and will be happy with the appointment,” said Vanney.

He said he was happy to take the City Council seat and help his city.

“I had always told my parents that when I retired, that because Arlington had been so good to me in my life, that it would be time to give back to the community,” he said.

Vanney is a graduate of Arlington High School and has also attended Everett Community College and Shoreline Community College.

Vanney’s career has given experience in purchasing, contract negotiations, contract writing and budget management.

Vanney believes the biggest challenge facing the city is increasing population.

“We have to make plans for growth,” said Vanney.

In all likelihood people will be coming to Arlington and the state’s Growth Management Act requires municipalities to plan for projected growth, he noted.

Vanney favors a proactive approach in getting ready for incoming residents and planning how Arlington will grow.

“We’ve got to work out where we can put new homes and where we have developable land,” he said.

“We have to talk to the community to get their input as well. We should get their input as soon as we can,” he said.

Road infrastructure is also a big concern with the growing population.

“We have to meet our transportation requirements and needs,” he said.

“Unfortunately, many of the main arterials surrounding us are state highways, so we really have to get involved at the state level,” to begin upgrading those, said Vanney.

There are Arlington roads that could be improved as well, he said.

“We do have to look internally as well,” he said. “If we’re planning to put more high density apartments in, we’re going to need more lanes of traffic,” in those areas.

Vanney hopes he can be part of making a strong plan for Arlington.

“I want to help plan for the future of this city to support the next 20 to 50 years to make sure we keep our small-town feel,” he said.