.com
Reporter
newsline 253-833-0218
a u b u r n˜
Sports | Trojans’ Faleagafulu overcomes Lupus to play on [9]
Friday, January 3, 2014
2013 PERSONS OF THE YEAR
WOMEN’S MAYORAL MOVEMENT Backus makes history, poised to make her mark as City’s first female mayor
Staff reports
By ROBERT WHALE
The City of Auburn has sold two key blocks on Division Street adjacent to the Sound Transit station to Teutsch Partners LLC for nearly $1.75 million. Teutsch, one of the leading mixed-use developers in the Pacific Northwest, has said it intends to develop the properties with mixed-use residential and retail, thus completing the sixblock downtown catalyst area. Lewis Construction on the blocks inside the City’s downtown redevelopment district should begin in the fall of 2014. “Our City Council began (its) visioning process for our downtown 10 years ago,” said Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis. “This final sale helps that vision to revitalize our downtown come to fruition.”
rwhale@auburn-reporter.com
From her earliest days, Nancy Backus threw herself into community-based activities, from grade-school bowl-a-thons and junior high school bike-a-thons to high school DECA. In time, Backus’ native inclination blossomed into a full-blown passion for politics, leading her to accept Jeanne Barber’s old seat on the Auburn City Council in 2004 and from there to win two successive terms on the council in her own right. As she’ll tell you, however, love for politics does not mean love for politicians. What Backus never has been, never will be, she says, is a politician of the backslapping, glad-handing stripe, more in love with titles, honorifics and the perks of office than with getting things done for people. “Politician denotes something negative now for most people, and in most people’s minds, when you call someone a politician, it’s not necessarily a compliment,” Backus said. [ more BACKUS page 7 ]
Pacific Mayor Leanne Guier, left, shares a laugh with Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus at Guier’s office this week. Guier has helped her City recover from mistakes made by the prior administration. Backus, Auburn’s first female mayor in its 120-year history, succeeds Pete Lewis. SHAWN SKAGER, Auburn Reporter
Guier guides Pacific’s recovery By SHAWN SKAGER sskager@auburn-reporter.com
Leanne Guier remembers the low point. It came more than a year ago when Guier – then the Pacific City Council president – and the rest of the council struggled to
City closes sale of 2 key blocks downtown
keep the City afloat after losing its insurance because of the mismanagement of former mayor Cy Sun. While holding out hope that a last-minute insurance deal could save Pacific, Guier braced for the worst-case scenarios, among
DON’T SITGET FIT City of Auburn Parks, Arts & Recreation Classes & Leagues
!
them a possible annexation by Auburn and disincorporation of the City altogether. “I remember basically being on the verge of tears, wondering if the City was still going to exist,” Guier said. “Dec. 26, 2012 was when we found out we were actually going to have insurance still. Two months prior to that I’m having meetings as council president with the mayor of Auburn and
[ more BLOCKS page 3 ]
Boy dies, two others injured in car crash A 5-year-old boy died Monday morning after a one-car accident on Highway 164 east of Auburn in the early morning hours of Sunday, Dec. 29. The driver, a 21-year-old Pacific man, is in ICU at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. [ more crash page 4 ]
[ more guier page 4 ]
Wellness | Fitness | Sports | and More!
945082
Register now: www.auburnwa.gov/play | 253-931-3043