This week’s watchwords
Tips out after 3-2 loss Silvertips fall to Portland in a season-ending playoff thriller,
FISHIN’: The season starts Saturday on most lakes in the state, and many have been stocked with trout for your angling pleasure .
JENNER: Anticipation is high for Diane
Page C1
Sawyer’s “20/20” interview with former Olympic decathalon champ (and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” dad) Bruce Jenner . He’s expected to explain his decision to transition to a woman . The show airs Friday at 9 p .m . on ABC .
LEGISLATURE: State lawmakers are
supposed to wrap up the 105-day session by Sunday — but not without a budget agreement, so stay tuned . MONDAY, 04.20.2015
●
EVERETT, WASHINGTON
●
WWW.HERALDNET.COM
●
75¢ (HIGHER IN OUTLYING AREAS)
Stranded workers struggle MicroGreen closed its doors without warning, and one employee says it still owes them about $20,000. By Dan Catchpole Herald Writer
ARLINGTON employees of
— Former MicroGreen
Polymers are trying to figure out what comes after the cleantech startup company suddenly closed its doors earlier this month.
About 30 of the company’s former workforce of 163 attended a two-hour session last week about job-search resources and unemployment insurance. The event was hosted by Workforce Snohomish. Most lingered at the Arlington Boys & Girls Club to talk
and comfort each other. Some said they were still in shock at how quickly the company came undone. A state agency says MicroGreen did not follow federal rules that require advance notice See MICROGREEN, Page A2
No luck selling historic building
Bursting at the seams
The Longfellow facility is owned by the Everett School District, which pays $78,000 a year to keep the electricity, heat and security functioning.
There are enough students in Lake Stevens for another elementary
By Chris Winters
The district is working on a long-term facilities plan to keep up with the area’s growing number of students. Officials created a Facilities Advisory Committee last year to look at current enrollment, projections through 2020, school capacity and space needs. The group — made up of
EVERETT — The Everett School District is still trying to sell the historic Longfellow building. Since the century-old building went on the market in December, Everett Public Schools has received just one letter of interest for the building, from a startup group called The HandUp Project, which sought to build a living center and life skills program for homeless adults. “They did not really demonstrate that they had the financial capacity to purchase or to upgrade this building,” said Mike Gunn, the district’s executive director of facilities and operations. “Nor did they have the experience in upgrading or managing a facility of this size.” The district had estimated the building and its 8.1 acre lot are worth between $2.2 million and $3.9 million, but that it would cost $7.8 million to renovate it and bring it up to code. Right now the district only uses the building for some storage, and lets the police and fire departments conduct training exercises inside it. But even in that capacity, keeping the electricity and heat on and the security system operational, the building costs the district $78,000 per year, Gunn said. Robert Smiley, the founder and chief executive of the HandUp Project, said the district’s assessment of the group’s qualifications was inaccurate, and thinks there might be resistance from the city to building a residence for the homeless in the current political environment. “We think it’s something else other than the financial issue that’s the problem,” Smiley said. Smiley also believes there is
See SCHOOLS, Page A2
See SELLING, Page A2
LAKE STEVENS — In a crowded cafeteria, more than 100 first-grade students chatter excitedly as they eat their lunches. Recess is next, 15 minutes of afternoon freedom before they start the second half of the school day.
There’s not enough room in the cafeteria for the two kindergarten classes that share the same lunch time. They eat on the stage, where tables are set up and taken down each day. That space also serves as a physical education classroom, music room, after-school activity area, occasional staff meeting room and a church on Sundays.
76% OFF
Go to HeraldNetDailyDeal.com to purchase today’s deal from
Buller Technologies!
the buzz
Herald Writer
VOL . 115, NO . 68 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO .
INSIDE
Business . . . .A10 Classified . . . . B5
Comics . . . . . . B2 Crossword . . . B2
Staff at Sunnycrest Elementary School on 99th Avenue Northeast have gotten good at using their space efficiently and creatively, Principal Timothy Haines said. The school has 203 more students than it was designed to hold. It’s one of the Lake Stevens School District’s most crowded elementaries, all six of which are over capacity.
Bumper to bumper Next time, take the boat: Thanks in large part to the nightmares of the U.S. 2 trestle, Lake Stevens rated No. 8 on a personal finance website’s list of the worst commutes in the Puget Sound region (Street Smarts, Page A3). No. 1 on the worst list was Dear Abby . . . . B3 Horoscope . . . B7
Vashon Island, where commute times are long because most 9-to-5 folks ride a ferry to and from jobs on the mainland. Obviously, the list didn’t take into account the fact that freeways don’t offer rest rooms, a snack bar that sells beer and wine, and a pretty view from the upper deck. Geeks on the couch: Astro-
Lottery . . . . . .A2 Obituaries . . . .A8
Opinion . . . . .A11 Short Takes . . . B4
physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of “Cosmos” fame launches a science-themed talk show Monday night on the National Geographic Channel (Short Takes, Page B4). Tyson says he doesn’t intend to use the series as a forum to debunk scientific misconceptions. So much for The Buzz’s hope of watching Jerry Springer-style brawls Sports . . . . . . . C1 Your Photos . . B1
with climate change deniers. Happy holiday: Today, April 20, is 4-20 day, which is an unofficial holiday for recreational marijuana users (Page A9). It may be unofficial now, but future Sen. Willie Nelson, D-Hawaii, will have something to say about that.
— Mark Carlson, Herald staff
Cheery 69/49, C6
DAILY
DAN BATES / THE HERALD
Sunnycrest Elementary School fourth-graders Kayla Atkinson (left) Rylie Schoolcraft and Aimee Guthrie enjoy one another’s company early last week while helping attend to kindergarten students who are eating their lunches on the stage while older students rotate lunch periods in the larger gymnasium at left.
By Kari Bray
Herald Writer
6
42963 33333
9