Originally published Saturday, January 23, 1999

By TERESA TALERICO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Construction of Interstate 5, starting in 1960, put Fife on the map -- whether it wanted to be or not. Bisecting the town, it sliced through the Colonial Gardens farm, putting an end to a Fife institution.

Since then, Fife has struggled to maintain its personality.

"It's hard looking for an identity when you've got Interstate 5 running through the heart of downtown," says Pam Marzano, executive director of the Fife Chamber of Commerce.

City Councilman Joe Rozenski offered a telling example of how the freeway transformed the city.

In 1914, his father bought Fife property for $1,000 an acre, Rozenski said. It retained that value until two years after the freeway opened, when it shot up to $30,000 an acre.

Steven Garrett, a WSU extension agent, said Fife is a classic example of a rural town being transformed by big industry.

"Right now, there isn't much of a voice for farmland in Pierce County," Garrett says. "That's what we're dealing with -- small family farms losing their livelihoods, as well as the loss of a rural community. . . . The (Fife farmers) are very cynical as a group. They see no support for saving farmland in the community."

Alan Bush, a realtor who lives in Fife, remembers when the view from his front door was composed of fields. Today, he looks out on warehouses.

"We bought our house because it was kind of country in the middle of the city," Bush says. "It's a little bit distressing. You look out the window and you see the warehouses, and it's not the prettiest sight. But it was inevitable."

Residents also lament the fact that most city employees don't live in Fife. How can they make caring decisions, they wonder, when they leave the town at 5 p.m.?

"They all make the rules, but they don't live here," says Louie Cerqui, a lifelong resident.

Lately, many residents have staked signs in their front yards with the cryptic message: "It is time for a change." The signs refer to a February election, when residents will vote on whether to change Fife's form of government from a mayor-council to a council-manager system.