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Generous pay isn’t enough to keep some on the road

By Rolf Boone | The Olympian • Published April 03, 2007

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For 10 years, Albertson rode the vanpool. He calculates that he spent so much time on Interstate 5 that one month out of every year was spent inside a van.

Eventually, he and his wife had their first child, and Beth Albertson got a job at Evergreen in 2001.

“That was all the provocation we needed” to move, Albertson said.

They also got a lesson in home price appreciation. After paying $160,000 for a home north of the University of Washington in the early 1990s, they sold it for $272,000 in 2001.

With this new level of buying power, the Albertsons quickly realized they could buy a home twice as large in Thurston County.

Other South Sound residents also seek the lifestyle changes made by the Spencers and the Albertsons.

James Morton of Tenino continues to be a long-distance commuter, but he hopes to have a shorter commute soon.

For four days each week for 21/2 years, Morton has commuted from Tenino to his job in Everett, a distance of 103 miles. It takes him two hours each way, a total of 16 hours a week.

Morton estimates he puts up to 1,000 miles on his car and spends about $140 on fuel every week.

Why does he spend so much time and money on a commute?

“It got me back into corporate America,” said Morton, formerly a business consultant, but now a director of operations for an ­Everett-based restaurant equipment manufacturer.

It’s a job that pays $100,000 a year, and his company pays the mileage for two of the four days he drives to work.

Yet Morton has finally had enough.

“I want to live closer to home,” he said, citing the time he has missed with his family and the daily struggle with traffic. “I couldn’t do this for another year.”

The eventual sale and relocation of his company has given Morton another reason to find employment closer to home.

His first idea is to start a Family Fun Center in either Tumwater or Lacey if he can secure financing. Otherwise, Morton expects to have another job by June.

Rolf Boone covers business for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5403 or by e-mail at rboone@theolympian.com.