When the copper smelter closed, it represented 40 percent of the town's assessed valuation. Today the property is valued at a few hundred dollars on the tax rolls, mainly because of the environmental cleanup costs being charged the owners, town officials say. And we've been very good at scrounging. An example is the platform on which the town council meets. And file cabinets are on loan from a city employee.
Bureaucracy is kept to a minimum, and everybody knows who their town council members are.
It's pretty loose. During the closure of the smelter and the tough years that followed, Ruston's resolve to remain an independent small town within an urban area never wavered. We all know our neighbors. An influx of artists along Pearl Street and a few antique stores have accompanied the changes in Ruston and its immediate surrounding neighborhood in north Tacoma. Master carver Jim Smith, who bought a small hardware store on Pearl as a studio 10 years ago, is one of them.