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SMALL CITY SUCCESS: A Q&A with Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow 8 By Josh Cohen, Media Associate The City of Sumner, WA sits in the north end of Pierce County, forming a triangle with Bonney Lake to the southeast and Puyallup to the southwest. Home to almost 9,500 residents, it exemplifies what it means to be a small city with unique challenges and unique advantages in our ever-changing Puget Sound Region. Forterra has worked closely with Sumner on the Orton Junction project, a development plan that would conserve 500 acres of farmland while bringing to town retail stores, residences, a farmers market, medical offices and a coveted YMCA. Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow was elected to office in 2005 and began his second term in 2009. We spoke to Mayor Enslow about the challenges and successes Sumner has seen as a small city, the way Sumner’s working to stay relevant in the region, their status as rhubarb pie capital of the world and more. Let’s start with the most important question. How did you become the rhubarb pie capital of the world? Well, it’s an interesting history that includes a bit of a mystery. For over 100 years, the area around Sumner has been a huge producer of rhubarb. In 1893, Adam Knoblauch shipped the first field rhubarb to Seattle in gunny sacks. His son Henry was the first grower of commercial hot-house rhubarb in the Sumner area, starting about 1914. In the mid-20th century, one of the two rhubarb growers associations actually hired a promoter to travel across the nation to visit state fairs and encourage cooking with rhubarb. We think that somewhere in there, they came up with the “rhubarb pie capital of the world” claim. We can trace it in newspapers as far back as 1946 but don’t know who actually started it. As of 2007, the USDA census shows that 27 percent of the nation’s acres growing rhubarb are still around Sumner. What do you see as the biggest challenges of our region today? Well, there are the obvious answers like employment, transportation, health care and affordable housing. Let me go with something not often discussed: unique identity. Sumner, like many cities in this region, has a proud history and distinct character. How do we preserve those unique identities so that our region is a collection of strong, independent, complete cities instead of just one big unending mass of urban sprawl? As a small city, how do those challenges impact Sumner in ways they might not impact larger cities? How has your city been dealing with those challenges? Being small, we could quickly become irrelevant on the regional scale. No one worries that Seattle will merge with Bellevue, but how many realize that Ballard used to be an independent small community? We deal with it by doing what we can to be strong and relevant so that when it does make sense to partner with other cities we are a valuable, if small, partner. Conceptually, we asserted our independence by bringing back the Rhubarb Pie Capital celebration. It’s cute and fun, but it also distinctly defines us. On a more serious side, we moved forward to build Orton Junction. That one project brings us health care, a gathering place, a farmer’s market and additional retail options that residents are currently seeking in Tacoma or even King County. Critics of the project say our residents should just travel to Parkland for new jobs and to Kent for retail and to Puyallup for health care. I like partnering and visiting our neighbors, but wouldn’t it make more sense to encourage Sumner to bring back health care, retail, recreation and jobs here so that people could access them by walking or biking instead of a long trip in a car? Alternatively, how do you think Sumner can be part of the solution? One example that comes to mind is your embrace of the Sounder rail line and providing parkand-ride parking. Sumner’s vision is to set the standard of excellence for a progressive small town, and that’s how we can be part of the solution. There are lifestyle options here that are old but also popular again. On Main Street, you can still visit the eye doctor, the bank, the pharmacy, City Hall, a few restaurants and great shops within a two-block walk. No car travel required. I love riding my bike the two miles from my house to City Hall, and I’m 70, so if I can do it, anyone can do it. FORTERRA.ORG Mayor Dave Enslow. Photo courtesy of the City of Sumner
Sounder expands that kind of easy access to the entire region. You can live in Sumner and be in downtown Seattle in 39 minutes by train. That’s incredible. There are days when you can’t get from Queen Anne Hill to Downtown in 39 minutes! Sumner’s part in the solution is to provide a community that gives people the option to choose living around this transit. To my knowledge, we are one of the only cities on the rail line that have blocks of beautiful housing within walking distance to the station. We have a town center plan that is all about transit-oriented development and putting even more density around the station. Right now, Sound Transit is also working with our community to improve access to our station. That may mean parking but it may also mean completing our trail system so that people can walk or bike to the station. The public’s part in this is to embrace choices that make transit a viable option in their routine. Choosing transit may not mean driving your car to a station instead of to work: it may mean moving close to the station so you can walk to the train. What programs and projects is Sumner advancing to remain relevant in a fast growing region? I may have already answered this one above, so let me mention one other item that’s important. When many people think about building strong communities, they think about the physical aspects—streets, housing, retail, etc. Yet, perhaps the strongest component to building a strong community is building strong relationships among people. In a small community, it happens naturally. You know who visited your neighbor for lunch yesterday, and you can’t get milk at the store without seeing five people you know. Community efforts are built from the ground up, not the other way around. Orton Junction didn’t start with a developer or even a city-led idea. It started with a group of citizens who met on a Saturday morning five years ago because they knew in their bones that Sumner needed something more. Some wanted more athletics, some wanted more art, some wanted someplace safe for children to hang out on weekends. They met, they debated, they researched, and they came to the city with the idea of bringing a YMCA, which led to the Orton Junction effort. They were able to do this so well because they already knew and respected each other. People are our most valuable resource and relationships are definitely not disposable. I’ve read Sumner is doing some interesting work recycling biosolids from your Waste Water Treatment plant that people can use to fertilize their gardens. That seems like a win-win for the environment and the city. Do you think programs like this could be beneficial to other small cities in the region? This is a good story that gets overlooked. Like any, our wastewater treatment facility produces biosolids from all its processes. Typically, those biosolids get burned at special facilities. We used to truck ours to Tenino, but I think that one closed, so now, it would have to be trucked to Eastern Washington. However, we no longer have to truck ours anywhere thanks to some forward-thinking by our employees. When we redid our facility a few years ago, they insisted on investing in the equipment to produce a class A biosolid that can be used by gardeners. We have a product that exceeds, by far, all the EPA’s standards for such biosolids. People can pick up a truckload or come by a shelter near the facility to shovel whatever they want into their own containers—all for free. We no longer have any left that needs to be trucked anywhere to be burned. Sometimes, people complain that we’re out! Gardeners get a free, all-natural alternative to chemical fertilizers; the City eliminated its transport and fuel costs; and the region gets cleaner air with fewer truck emissions and fewer emissions from burning the biosolids. I think what’s beneficial is that great, progressive ideas can come from so many places. We as communities have to encourage everyone to say, “Hey, I have an idea…” and then be willing to listen. On a regional scale, that means that Sumner or Buckley or Orting may have an idea that’s as progressive as one coming out of Bellingham or Olympia. 9 The Art & Rhubarb Pie Festival in downtown Sumner. Photo courtesy of the City of Sumner FALL 2012
Page 1 and 2: FALL 2012 formerly CASCADE LAND CON
Page 3 and 4: message from the president ////////
Page 5 and 6: OUT ABOUT /////////////////////////
Page 7: 1985. Port Angeles and Sequim have
Page 11 and 12: THE TRUE NATURE OF OUR URBAN FOREST
Page 13 and 14: 17th Annual Conservation Awards Bre
Page 15 and 16: Locally we must let our actions mat
Page 17 and 18: in our backyard ///////////////////
Page 19 and 20: FORTERRA ENTERPRISES BOARD /// chai

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