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Mt. Marysville: Remnants of demolished, historic hotel remain one year after fire
It's been one year since Hotel Marysville caught fire, and its remnants are still there. The unstable building caused traffic closures on Highway 70, causing daily backups until it was demolished in December.
Many locals have nicknamed the mound of rubble Mt. Marysville. What's left of the hotel is encased in concrete to keep any potential toxic debris under wraps until the city can figure out the best way to haul it off.
Meanwhile, the residents we talked to are just happy the roads are back open.
"The traffic has been better lately. It was really bad getting in here," said Shade Adkins, who visits Marysville to fish.
"When I think of the hotel fire, it's definitely the [traffic] backup in Marysville. Taking a whole hour to get from Plumas Lake to Yuba City was kinda insane," said Marysville resident Brad Foster.
Traffic was a main concern for many residents, business owners, and the City of Marysville after a fire broke out last June, rendering the hotel at risk of collapsing onto the roadway. Once the building was knocked down, roughly five months later, a new concern arose and is still there.
"It's an eyesore. They need to do something with it," Adkins said.
The city estimates haulaway costs for what remains of the hotel to be between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.
"We have done some preliminary testing on the pile itself, and it is looking very promising that we can haul it to a lower-level landfill that will reduce the cost," said Jim Schaad, city manager.
Schaad says they're still doing tests on what's underneath the concrete layer. If it's not too toxic, they'll be able to save roughly one million dollars by not having to take it all to a high-level hazardous waste site.
"There's still a lot of unknowns, though," Schaad said.
One of those unknowns is how the city is going to pay for haul-away costs. The city said that first, they're working with Congressman Doug LaMalfa on securing potential funding. Second, the city will be applying to an environmental protection agency grant in november, which they'll hear back about in the spring.
"If it's safe and it's encapsulated and it's not harming anything, I think we'll just have to be patient about it," Adkins said. "I'm just happy the road is open."
Once "Mt. Marysville" is hauled away, the future of the site remains unclear. But people we spoke with want to see something public-spirited.
"Community-oriented, of course. It's one of the first things you see. It should be something for people outside of Marysville to help them find Marysville, because the hotel did," Foster said.
The city says it plans to work with a private developer to put something in that adds value to the community. However, the city council still needs to come together and deliberate on what use they'd like to see.
