Bothell officials say they still are trying to figure their next course of action after the Snohomish County Boundary Review Board (BRB) essentially killed the city’s attempts to bring an additional 22,000 people into the municipal fold.

Despite some apparent signs of movement in the controversy over who would collect trash from those potential new Bothell residents, the BRB voted 4-1 against approving the city’s annexation of what is commonly known as the NEWBA (North East West Bothell Annexation) area.

The board’s approval was one of several steps needed in order for the annexation to be put to a public vote in the affected neighborhoods.

“The city’s next steps will be to evaluate our options, which we are developing at this time,” said Bothell Public Information Officer Joyce Goedeke.

Community Development Director Bill Wiselogle, who attended the BRB meeting on behalf of the city, was unavailable for comment.

BRB Chief Clerk Marsha Carlsen said the board planned to release a written report on its findings June 9. She added individual board members are not permitted to discuss their findings prior to the release of that document. If the report was released as scheduled, that release occurred after the Reporter’s deadline for this issue.

Carlsen herself declined comment on the board decision. She did state there is no means in place for an administrative appeal of the board’s decision, but the city can attempt to force the issue in Snohomish County Superior Court.

Several NEWBA residents have been leading the charge to have the area added to Bothell. One of those, Gene Grieve, said he naturally is disappointed by the BRB decision.

“My feeling is the county (Snohomish) let us down,” he said. “It’s back to the drawing board.”

Grieve theorized that late-breaking issues over emergency fire service in the NEWBA prompted the board’s decision, not the trash question, which has been simmering for several weeks. In a letter addressed to Carlsen, Bothell City Manager Bob Stowe claimed local officials and Snohomish County Council staffers were making headway on both fronts. But no matter what progress was outlined in the letter, several sources said the BRB never saw it.

Among others, Grieve said when the board met on June 2 to debate and vote on the annexation, they refused to accept new testimony of any kind, including Stowe’s letter.

The board had heard some four hours of testimony from various officials and residents the week prior to the vote.

In his letter, Stowe said city and Snohomish County Council staff had reached agreement on the solid-waste issue. Neither the city nor the county council was able to vote on that agreement prior to the BRB meeting, but Stowe asserted there still had been significant steps forward.

“The staff-level agreement on solid-waste management addresses the single issue cited by the Snohomish County Council as its reason for not supporting the NEWBA,” Stowe wrote.

Even prior to the BRB vote, the county had moved to reject the annexation.

Bothell is in the fairly rare position of having two counties within its borders. The NEWBA is entirely contained in Snohomish County and solid waste from the area currently is handled by Snohomish. Southern Bothell sits in King County, which declared it has a contractual right to control all trash flowing from the city, including the NEWBA if the annexation went forward. According to Snohomish officials, losing the NEWBA waste stream would cost the county $1.9 million, though King County leaders have disputed that figure.

In response to the tug from both sides, Bothell officials had asked Snohomish leaders to hold the city harmless in the case of any legal battle over NEWBA waste collections. In his letter, while Stowe asserted some agreement had been reached between Bothell’s administration and county staffers, he did not spell out what that agreement was.

Stowe went on to reject the contentions put forth last week by representatives of Snohomish fire districts 1 and 7, who argued before the BRB that Bothell’s plan to provide emergency fire and EMS service to the NEWBA was inadequate.

“They presented an emotional story about the loss of jobs, loss of service to the proposed annexation area and a potential loss of life as a result of Bothell servicing the area,” Stowe said. “We simply don’t accept their arguments.”