The Coalition's Creation and Early Success:

The U. S. 2 Safety Coalition (formerly, the Highway 2 Traffic Safety Coalition), was organized in late 1997.

The tragic catalyst for the Coaliton's formation was the head-on fatalities at the Fern Bluff Intersection of U. S. 2 in the fall 1997, the first of which ended the lives of Sultan's Chief of Police Fred Walser's administrative assistant Donna Newquest-Moore and her husband Robert. The second tragedy followed soon after, taking the life of Donna Fisher, the wife of then-Sultan High School wrestling coach, Hal Fisher.

The Coalition was created, and its members committed to obtain funding for safety improvements. It successfully lobbied both the Washington State Legislature and Washington's Congressional Delegation for funding. The early success of charter Coalition members Chief Fred Walser, then-Sultan Councilmember (and Sultan Mayor 2000-2004) C. H. Rowe, Nancy Roesler, local business owner and Monroe resident Rusty Drivstuen and current Sultan Councilman John Seehuus, resulted in the creation of significant safety improvements throughout the Sky Valley -- two-way left turn lanes and left-turn-only queue lanes at at the west Fern Bluff intersection, and in Sultan, Starup and in Gold Bar.

The Coalition continues its early mission today, needed more than ever as fatalities continue to rise, along with gridlock and capacity.

The Coalition's Continuing Achievements:

In the summer of 2003, Coaliton Chairman Fred Walser and his wife Donnetta Walser (Coalition's Vice-Chair and Mayor of Monroe) traveled to Washington D.C. (personally-financed) to make an impassioned plea to Washington's Congressional Delegation. They requested $8 million to fund an Environmental Impact Study for U. S. 2 improvements. During the Walsers' visit, legislators explained that except in extremely rare instances, federal funds cannot be allocated for improvements unless there first exists a viable study and plan for consideration. Their trip re-energized a renewed interest in U. S. 2, that resulted in $1.0 million in fed funds to start a WSDOT Route Development Plan (RDP) to study U. S. 2 and identify and prioritize needed improvements along the 65-mile Snohomish-to-Skykomish U. S. 2 corridor.

Using that federal seed money (transferred to WSDOT's budget), WSDOT and the Coalition began the RDP in October, 2004, which helped to leverage a $100,000 grant from the PSRC (Puget Sound Regional Council) for the RDP.

In 2006 the Coalition worked with strong grass roots backing and a bipartisan team of Washington legislators which included (among others) 39th District Representatives Kirk Pearson and Dan Kristiansen, Snohomish County's 5th District Councilman Dave Somers, and Washington State Representatives John Lovick, Mark Ericks, Ed Murray and Senator Mary Margaret Haugen and many others, This lobbying effort secured another $700,000 in 2006 budget funds for the purpose of completing the RDP. Additionally, mobilized by the efforts of Snohomish County Councilman Dave Somers, the county allocated $1.5 million for future improvements to U. S. 2.

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