Residents of Ruston fight Tacoma's attempt to annex part of small town

Beth Torbet wears a button opposing annexation as she works at  Don's Ruston Market and Deli.

“We’ve been here 35 years,” Torbet said as she worked.

She’s one of a growing number of residents of the small town who are fighting Tacoma's attempt to annex a part of Ruston that is home to the newly developed Point Ruston development.

“It’s a land grab of our commercial district. It’s life and death for the town,” said Torbet.

It all comes down to property and business tax revenue and who should get them. On the Tacoma side, construction is nearing completion with condos, apartments and businesses up and running. Just across the street, and across the city limit, Ruston's part of the project is just getting started. Now, Tacoma city officials want to take charge across the divide.

A letter signed by Tacoma's mayor and City Council asks three state legislators to amend state law allowing the city to annex Ruston's portion of the development.

The letter claims annexation is not an attempt to take over all of Ruston "but it does take authority over Point Ruston from Ruston, which has repeatedly refused to negotiate and collaborate to finish the Point Ruston development."

Ruston Town Council Member Deborah Kristovich says that isn't true.

“Why on earth would the small city of Ruston, with less than 1,000 residents, stall the process that will literally keep us alive?” Kristovich asked.

The annexation proposal means changing state annexation law, which requires a vote of the residents being annexed or a formal request from the annexed municipality's town council.
     
State House Rep. Jake Fey, one of the legislators included in Tacoma's letter, supports the change, saying Ruston has left Tacoma and state officials frustrated because of costly delays.

“We’re getting to what, I guess, is the last possible resort here. We’ve been working for years to try to make things different here,” Fey said.

Ruston began life as a company town in 1906, home to a copper smelter that served as the cash engine that financed the city.  But the smelter shut down more than three decades ago. Its iconic smokestack came down in 1993.
      
Kristovich said if the town now loses its stake in Point Ruston, it too will soon be gone.

“It is our survival at stake,” said Kristovich.  “So if we are annexed, we won’t survive as a city.”

KIRO 7 contacted the offices of Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards and CM Construction, the company behind the Point Ruston development, for comment. Those calls were not returned.

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