Published September 2002

‘A season of healing’
Community shares struggles, hopes
year after terrorist attacks

By John Wolcott and Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Staff

One week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, hundreds of Snohomish County residents came together to share grief and offer comfort.

In front of the County Courthouse, they remembered the thousands who died when two terrorist-hijacked airliners plowed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, another crashed into the Pentagon and yet another into a Pennsylvania field as passengers attacked onboard highjackers.

Speaking to the crowd, County Executive Bob Drewel recognized the emotional turmoil left in the wake of the attacks — the feelings of “shock, grief, loss, anger, defiance, revenge and helplessness” experienced by many.

But he also offered words of hope for the future, calling the time ahead “a season of healing and rebuilding.”

And in the year since, there has been healing and rebuilding, Drewel said recently.

“From the community standpoint, my experience in all of the charitable events I’ve been involved this past year is that support and contributions have been at a higher level … to help people that, in most cases, they will never meet,” Drewel said. “At a Red Cross meeting (in August), I found contributions were four times as high as a year ago.”

As for the impact on the county’s economy, Drewel said the county forecasted a “relatively flat” budget for the year, given little choice by events that significantly slowed business activity and resulted in layoffs and cutbacks in the business community.

“Right now, we expect it will probably be another 12 to 18 months (before there is a re-turn to more normal times), and Boeing is predicting it could be two to three years before we come back out of this thing, particularly now that some airlines are announcing bankruptcies and serious reductions in schedules and service,” he said.

Drewel did find reason for optimism in several areas, however, including the move of the parent company of Intermec to Everett from California and the efforts of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council and businesses to attract biotech companies and other industries here.

Also, he noted that bringing sea-trial work on the new USS Shoup to the Port of Everett marks a new opportunity to attract that kind of business. That project alone is bringing nearly $8 million into the community, he said.

“Looking ahead, we already have enrollment going through the roof at Everett and Edmonds community colleges, and our Workforce Development Council is working to deliver trained graduates for our future economy, including Boeing’s Sonic Cruiser or whatever other form the company’s new generation of aircraft may be,” Drewel said.

Like Drewel, many in the business community are looking at a flat budget, but they also are looking ahead on this one-year anniversary of Sept. 11. As Snohomish restaurateur and business leader John Hager put it, “We got set back like everybody else did (with the economy), but we’re not afraid to move these projects forward.”

Here are some of their stories.

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Ask Jim Grant how many days planes were grounded at Paine Field following the terrorist attacks, and he doesn’t even pause before spitting out the number — 38.

For 38 days, Grant’s company, Northway Aviation, couldn’t offer flight instruction, couldn’t rent out its Cessnas — in short, couldn’t generate revenue.

“By day 30 of that closure, you know, we were kind of nervous, but we didn’t lay anybody off while it was going on,” said Grant, who credits his banker, Charlie Chaffin at Bank of America, for helping him when times got tight.

Instead, Northway’s 22 employees began refurbishing the company’s fleet of 15 planes, which now sport red, white and blue paint jobs; refurbished the office; and “had a big plane wash, so everybody could make beer money for the weekends,” Grant said, smiling.

And then there were the barbecues held in front of Northway’s offices — a time for the staff to get together and enjoy being together.

“They’re the most comforting thing we have done since September 11,” Grant said. “We try and barbecue once a week, make it more (like a) family.”

When general aviation planes were allowed back in the air, business didn’t pick right back up for Northway. In fact, business is still down about 20 percent from a year ago, Grant said.

Looking for other ways to generate revenue, the company in July added a Cessna 303 six-seater to its fleet to be used for flying executives who don’t want to spend time traveling to Sea-Tac and waiting in security lines.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” Grant said.

“We have hopes for the future.”

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After a year of uncertainty — in homeland security, on Wall Street and at Boeing — business activity is beginning to pick up at KeyBank, said Carol Wilber-Edwards, vice president of Business Banking in Everett.

But that wasn’t the story last year at this time, when she recorded a slowdown in the demand for business loans following Sept. 11 and then the announcement a week later that Boeing planned to lay off as many as 30,000 employees.

“In terms of economic activity, I think that September 11 really hit our area very hard, because of our proximity to Boeing. Plus, there are so many subcontractors and suppliers in the county,” she said.

In the past year, Wilber-Edwards has talked to a number of businesses related, directly or indirectly, to Boeing that saw their business decline by 30 to 40 percent.

Add to that the gyrations of the stock market, and you have had people looking more closely at their investments — and making more informed and conservative decisions, Wilber-Edwards said.

“People are deciding to go and invest in their business, buying property and building a business for themselves, whereas before, they were investing in equipment and inventory — they want roots, something permanent,” she said.

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This Sept. 11, the Snohomish Garden Club, in partnership with the city and the Snohomish Chamber of Commerce, will dedicate a memorial arbor and plaque to the victims and heroes of that terrorist event. Along the streets of the historic district, American flags will fly, as they have been flying for the past year.

And businesses in this city of 8,494 residents will continue to forge stronger bonds with one another as they do battle with a soft economy, said John Hager, co-owner of Collector’s Choice Restaurant and a leader in the local chamber.

Chamber membership is up, for one thing, and that’s not because there have been that many new businesses popping up.

“They’re coming back home, so to speak,” Hager said. “They realize they need to network and get more exposure for their business within the community.”

In the historic district, where “revenues are flat,” there is even a drive to create a business improvement district, in which assessments are levied on business license holders to fund street and streetscape improvements as well as a cohesive marketing campaign.

“This effort isn’t council driven or chamber driven,” Hager said. “It’s neighbors talking to neighbors.”

And other projects, from the city’s newly finished skate park to the proposed northward extension of the sewer system, bode well for Snohomish’s economic development, he said.

“We got set back like everybody else did (with the economy), but we’re not afraid to move these projects forward,” Hager said.

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It’s summertime, and people are antsy. They want to get away, connect with family, connect with friends — that human tendency hasn’t changed, said Sandy Ward, executive director of the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau.

What has is their mode of travel.

“People have decided to travel a little more differently. They’re taking cars and RVs, and when you ask them now, it’s not because they’re afraid to fly, it’s economics,” Ward said.

That wasn’t the case right after Sept. 11, when planes were grounded and there was a sense of fear.

Today, domestic leisure travel is doing “fairly well,” she said, noting a renewed interest in historic places and America in general. But lodging receipts remain flat, with local hotel/motel tax collections in June down about 4 percent from the same time last year, Ward said, attributing the drop to a decrease in room rates as hotels attempt to attract guests and more travelers opting to camp or stay with friends. Again, it’s economics.

And it’s economics that accounts for a marked decline in business travel, which is not expected to recover until well into 2003, Ward said.

While a weak economy may account for a decline in domestic air travel, Ward said the fear of air travel has persisted as well, particularly affecting international travel into the region.

Citing a drop in visitors to the Boeing Tour Center, the county’s most popular tourism attraction and one of the county barometers for the intensity of international travel, Ward said that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have had a direct impact on that market.

“They are not traveling. They are not coming by air; they’re afraid to come to America.”

But the U.S. border hasn’t bothered Washington’s neighbors to the north, Ward said, with the bureau’s off-season Rooms at Par program attracting many Canadian visitors. The program, which the bureau implemented in partnership with Amtrak, offered lodging rates at par, with $100 Canadian equivalent to $100 U.S., at participating hotels, giving Canadians an incentive to visit the region.

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