Everett City Council Meets Newest Cops, Hears Proposed Changes to Downtown Marriott

The Everett City Council held a special Tuesday meeting today as all city offices will be closed tomorrow to observe Veteran’s Day.

To start the meeting off Everett Police Chief Dan Templeman introduced the two newest members of the Everett Police Department.

Officers Kevin Shay and Mark Smith recently graduated from the State Police Academy and will now begin working with field training officers for the next several months.

Among other items the city council heard about today was a presentation by Touchstone Corporation, the developers of the Courtyard by Marriott currently going up at the corner of Colby and Wall in downtown Everett.

There was no action actually in front of the council today and the presentation was apparently just informational according to City Attorney Jim Iiles when asked by councilmember Roberts why this was in front of city council.

Touchstone wants to make some changes to the look of the building including shortening the height of the elevator shaft, removing little ledges referred to as “eyebrows”, doing the entire exterior of the building in stucco instead of mixed materials and changing the mechanical systems which will mean vents in the exterior of every room.

This project has been embarrassing for the Mayor as there have been 11 extensions of the project since the city and Touchstone started working on this back in 2008. Today representatives said they plan to be open by June of 2016.

What was not said at today’s meeting is whether these changes if not approved by the city would lead to litigation or further delays on the project.