Residents urge pause on Ryan House demolition, raise deed and preservation questions

Multiple residents used the public-comment period at the March 3 Sumner City Council meeting to press the council on the Ryan House, demolition timelines and related property concerns.

Resident Randall Adams said the city attorney had previously told the public a second deed was invalid and that a later city attorney recorded an excise affidavit in 1996; Adams argued the city should explain why it believes it still has ownership rights given decades without a library on the parcel. He also asked whether the city would pursue revisions to a demolition decision in response to a letter from the State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and cited consulting firm WJE’s assessment and Sumner Connect materials as disputed or incomplete representations of the building’s condition.

Nick Bierman, speaking for a group he identified as the St. Bridal House Group, said the demolition notice had been posted that day and urged the council to work with his group on alternatives. Bierman said the group is actively seeking solutions and noted a public comment period is open through March 18; he invited the city and other community members to meet with the group to develop viable options.

Resident Tina Burnett said she was frustrated with the city’s earlier instruction that the group needed $2.2 million in cash to save the house, which she said constrained the nonprofit’s fundraising options. Burnett said her organization had legal counsel review pledge mechanisms and that the city’s timeline had not given advocates adequate opportunity to finalize pledges; she asked the city to stop or delay demolition while the group pursues pledged commitments. Burnett also raised a separate neighborhood concern about an abandoned house next door whose overgrown vegetation and apparent vacancy she said pose a safety and nuisance problem; she said she reported it July 1 and has seen no remedy.

Merilee Hill Anderson, representing the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District, used her time to thank city staff and council members for meeting with students and to invite council members to the district’s community summit; her remarks were not about the Ryan House specifically.

No formal council action on the Ryan House was recorded at the meeting. City staff previously noted a public comment period is open through March 18; commenters asked the city to consider pledges, clarify the deed record and correspondence with state historic preservation authorities, and address neighborhood abandoned-property complaints.