Marysville breaks ground on new civic center

Marysville officials hope to bring their city staff into a civic center that will serve as the new city hall for the town, among numerous other functions.

Staff members and elected officials gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking for the $47.6 million project on Jan. 13.

“It is important to acknowledge the real significance of the milestone we’re witnessing here today,” said Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring.

“We mark the beginning of the construction of Marysville new civic center. In about two years we will be back here and we’ll be celebrating the opening of a modern energy-efficient facility,” he said.

The new center will be near Comeford Park and is expected to house city hall offices, City Council chambers, the police department, the jail, the municipal court, public works offices, community development offices and other city staff.

Returning to the park area will also bring city hall back to its historical roots.

“Longtime residents will recall that Marysville City Hall was located just across the street [at Comeford Park] in what is now the Ken Baxter Community Center,” said Nehring.

“That building also hosted our police department and a very small jail,” he said.

Eventually city offices scattered throughout the city instead.

“We outgrew that facility many years ago and now our city departments are located in many buildings all across the downtown,” said Nehring.

“That is not the most customer-friendly way to run a city, nor is it the most efficient way to run a city for city employees,” he said.

City staff hope the new civic center will be more convenient for residents who don’t have to move between multiple buildings and for staff who have easier access to different city departments.

A new civic center has been in talks for a while at the city.

“For many years city leaders have envisioned bringing departments back together under one roof,” said Nehring.

With a growing city staff those plans became more necessary and the project began to be worked on.

“There was discussion for decades about this project. But as things go, you talk about and think about it and then all of a sudden the bulk of the work occurs in a hurry-up fashion,” said Gloria Hirashima, Marysville’s chief administrative officer.

“Over the last three years we have had a lot of people who worked to make this a reality,” she said.

Nehring and Hirashima thanked staff members and contractors who plan to make the new civic center a reality.

“The leadership of the mayor and the council has been absolutely critical and necessary to get this project done. We really appreciate their leadership,” said Hrashima.

The voters of Marysville were also recognized.

“We should thank the Marysville voters first,” said Nehring. “They passed a bond that is funding the majority of the police and jail portion of the project.”

The other parts of the civic center are being paid for by selling off assets the city will no longer use and from the city’s capital reserve account.

“Because we’re consolidating under a new building we’ll have a number of old buildings that we will be able to sell off,” said Nehring.

Construction is scheduled to begin this month and the city hopes the civic center will be open sometime in early 2022.

More information and updates on the project are available at marysvillewa.gov/973.