Got a timeline from the County of what led Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon to announce a new bottling plant was coming to the City of Everett. It seems the major point the County is making is that they want to bring jobs anywhere within Snohomish County. Here’s the timeline…
1. Snohomish County is actively recruiting new businesses to the area, with the goal of bringing new jobs to Snohomish County. We’re not concerned whether they locate in unincorporated Snohomish County or one of our cities.
2. In this specific case, our Economic Development team has been working on recruiting these investors for almost a year.
3. As soon as plans to locate a facility in Snohomish County started to solidify, Executive Reardon directed Economic Development Director Donna Ambrose to contact the City of Everett to bring it into the loop.
4. Donna Ambrose began working with Lanie McMullin, in the fall of 2010. Between that time and the present, Snohomish County Economic Development was in constant contact with the City of Everett’s economic development team on this project.
5. During this process, we asked the City of Everett for potential locations. The Port of Everett was identified as a key site.
6. When we felt we were near the point of securing this facility in Snohomish County, Executive Reardon and Donna Ambrose invited the investors to fly in to view the area and meet with other community leaders. Meetings were arranged with Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson and his staff and with Port of Everett officials.
7. During those meetings on Jan. 25, 2011, the prospective investors outlined in detail their business model, their infrastructure needs and their plans to locate in Snohomish County.
8. The Port of Everett expressed strong enthusiasm about the project.
9. Snohomish County continued meeting with company officials to provide information and answer questions, and we kept the City of Everett’s economic development team informed of these conversations.
10. Snohomish County was notified on Monday, Feb. 7, 2011, by the prospective investors that Snohomish County had made a successful business case and that Evergreen Bottling had decided to locate in Snohomish County.
So is it really a problem that the Snohomish County Executive has been announcing projects within the City of Everett? (New Farmer’s Market, New Bottling Plant, etc.)
February 11, 2011
Everett Jobs