SR 510, Yelm Loop – Stage 1
Neal Uhlmeyer, Project Engineer, 360-412-3420
www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr510/yelmloop/
Stage 1 of the SR 510 Yelm Loop Project builds a new roadway from Mud Run Road to Cullens Road and reduces congestion in the Yelm area.
TIME/DAYS: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily Monday, April 26 through Friday, April 30
DESCRIPTION: Construction of a new roadway.
LOCATION: Both directions of SR 510, from Mud Run Road to Cullens Road, mileposts 13.28 to 14.18.
EXPECT: Possible short-term closures between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday, April 26 during tree falling operations.

They should probably update that to include April 27th as well as traffic on 510 has been clogged up all morning.

Weekly traffic updates for Thurston County are published at on the wsdot website.

SR 510, Yelm Loop – Stage 1
Neal Uhlmeyer, Project Engineer, 360-412-3420
www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr510/yelmloop/
Stage 1 of the SR 510 Yelm Loop Project builds a new roadway from Mud Run Road to Cullens Road and reduces congestion in the Yelm area.
TIME/DAYS: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily Monday, April 19 through Friday, April 23
DESCRIPTION: Construction of a new roadway.
LOCATION: Both directions of SR 510, from Mud Run Road to Cullens Road, mileposts 13.28 to 14.18.
EXPECT: Crews will intermittently stop traffic for tree falling from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily Tuesday, April 20 through Thursday, April 22. Drivers can expect up to 20-minute delays.

MAINTENANCE

SR 510, Mullen Road, Yelm vicinity
Tom Gibbs, Maintenance Superintendent, 253-983-7550
TIME/DAYS: 8:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday, April 20
DESCRIPTION: Guardrail repair.
LOCATION: Both directions of SR 510 at Mullen Road, milepost 7.5.
EXPECT: Flagger-controlled, one-way alternating traffic.

While this didn’t explain the snarled traffic I had witnessed, Engel emailed me back and explained the traffic was being caused by the ‘Clearing and Grubbing’ or better know as cutting down the tree in their way part of the beginning of the project.

Check back weekly for traffic updates or follow ProtectYelm.org Twitter

Joe Baker, Yelm City Councilman; Mayor Ron Harding; Rep. Jim McCune; Rep. Tom Campbell; Kevin Dayton, WSDOT Region Administrator. Seen here digging Yelm's grave.

Welcome to the SR 510 Yelm Loop.

As of 9:15 am on Tuesday April 20th, Yelm traffic came to a screeching halt as the SR 510 – Yelm Loop Bypass To Nowhere construction went from local officials doing goofy photo opts to bringing traffic in Yelm to a halt.

The project is said to be ‘completed’ in winter of 2010 according to the www.wsdot.wa.gov site.  I use the term completed loosely because the only funding any where near in place is Stage One that only runs to Cullins Road, not even to Canal Rd which could then route some of the traffic around town.

And the new zoning of the land the 1/2 a Bypass will run through? The City of Yelm doesn’t have water to hook up people’s homes that they issued building permits to, much less to start developing all the new exiting commercial and residential zoning along the Bypass.

Pictures of Yelm Bypass traffic below.

In the Special Presentations, after Don Miller responses to roll call with by saying ‘yo’, Mayor Harding appears to be suppressing a ear to ear smirk as he reads a Court of Appeals decision handed down yesterday evening that the Court of Appeals has sided with the City concerning JZ Knight’s Land Use Petition Act (LUPA)1 petition.

The courts document can be found here.

A response is already up on www.jzknight.com, stating ”Our attorneys are reviewing the decision and evaluating options.”

While Harding says that the city has prevailed, he doesn’t really say what that means as far as the disputed Tahoma Terra preliminary subdivision approvals.

We find out a bit later that the City plans to spend $615,223 to drill a well on a ‘proposed city park’ in the Tahoma Terra Master-Planned Community.

The Council voted unanimously to drill the well.

When Council member John Thompson asked City Administrator Shelly Badger asked if this was city land, she responded the city has an agreement to build there and that it is the city’s land.

Yelm Blogger Steve Klein brings up some interesting points.

If the city owns the land then, why would they need an agreement to build there?
A search of County records show no city owned land in the Tahoma Terra phases.
…
- The 2008 Mitigation Plan to which Mrs. Badger speaks was never approved and no longer stands because the City of Yelm withdrew their MDNS on August 14, 2009.

The city said, “You will be notified when the City re-issues a threshold determination in this matter.”

There has been no further determination by the City in this matter.

- The draft Water System Plan (WSP) has no legs because it also has never been approved & so many things have changed since it was publicly released.

- The unfinished phases of Tahoma Terra were supposed to go to auction last week.

And from March 13th Olympian:

“A foreclosure sale is scheduled April 9 for the unfinished phases of the Tahoma Terra master planned community in Yelm.”

That is where is well is located.

CLICK HERE

Scroll to page 30. See well W-2 in red.

- Is the city going to buy some (or did buy some without telling the public) of the Tahoma Terra parcels?

They have been going into Executive Session alot, as they did last night, and hiding behind RCW 42.30.110(1) “to discuss possible real estate acquisition.”

www.protectyelm.org will be pushing its new posts and news out to http://twitter.com/ProtectYelm

Follow us for the most recent updates

Yelm City Council approved placing the Regional Fire District Consolidation measure on the ballot on December 8th, 2009 .

Ballots will be mailed the week of January 18, 2010.

The video below is posted on www.setrfa.com

From their website

In the late 1990’s Yelm and the surrounding communities began to see steady growth. Increased population and development in urban and rural settings resulted in greater demands on area fire districts; Yelm Fire District #2, which included City of Yelm residents, and Thurston County Fire District #4 (Rainier). The City of Yelm has no city fire department and has been contracting with the Yelm Fire District #2 for the provision of fire and emergency medical services for many years. Fire service and emergency medical services, which were provided by predominately volunteer fire departments, struggled to keep pace with the increase in emergency calls.

Changes in the laws governing firefighter health and safety and increased difficulties in recruitment and retention of qualified volunteers required a more consistent staffing plan. This led to the hiring of three (3) career firefighters by Yelm Fire District #2 in February 2002.

In 2001, Thurston County Fire District #4 (Rainier), contracted with Yelm Fire District #2 to improve emergency response capabilities. The two (2) districts share personnel, equipment, and apparatus as a condition of the contract. This arrangement improved service and administrative efficiency in both districts. The combination of districts is called “S.E. Thurston Fire & EMS” and includes City of Yelm residents regarding emergency responses. Each fire district maintains its own Board of Fire Commissioners, which meet together on a monthly basis. City of Yelm citizens are unable to vote on or participate in fire department issues under this arrangement.

In 2008, the districts signed an Interlocal Agreement. With this agreement the two (2) Boards of Fire Commissioners, Yelm and Rainier, agreed to operate jointly and to pursue the formation of a Regional Fire Protection Authority (RFA) in conjunction with the City of Yelm.

The RFA Planning Committee was established and is comprised of three (3) fire commissioners from Thurston County Fire District #4, three (3) fire commissioners from Yelm Fire District #2, and three (3) appointed Yelm City Council members.

The challenges and needs of all citizens in the S.E. Thurston Fire & EMS area were assessed and addressed by the RFA Planning Committee through a series of meetings. This plan is the result.

The city issued a building permit for the home despite a development condition that prohibited it. Now, to uphold a second condition, the city refuses to issue an occupancy permit to the Smiths because of water use issues.

It seems a lot of the blame is being placed on the developer Steve Chamberlain and Dan Lee, the builder, despite the fact it was the city that issued the permit in the first place.

A commenter adds

This is the same developer, City Dev. Dir., Mayor & City Council that has the City of Yelm in alot of hot water:

- Chamberlain was one of the developers of the now-defaulted 5,000 home Thurston Highlands that left the city holding the bag in hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes & contractual fees for services rendered. The city never obtained a contract with Highlands developers to get reimbursed for their pro-rata share of a Water Study on developers land.

- Thurston County Superior Court ruled against the city’s policy of issuing permits to developers without proving water availability until the building permit stage, rather than prior to plat approval, in a suit against Chamberlains Tahome Terra.

- The City may be overpumping their Ecology-allocated annual water limit & has spent $200,000 in legal fees attempting to acquire the McMonigle Water rights, in which Chamberlain was involved, now being acquired through eminent domain.

The city never admits their mistakes!

Eminent domain is the inherent power of the state and local municipalities to seize a citizen’s private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen’s rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner’s consent. The property is taken either for government use or by delegation to third parties who will devote it to public or civic use or, in some cases, economic development. (from Wikipedia).

Steve Klein broke this story and gives an excellent time line of the City’s struggles with its Water Plan on Yelm.com is a post titled CITY OF YELM SEEKS TO CONDEMN CITIZEN’S WATER RIGHTS.

The post on her website states:

The City of Yelm is trying to substitute a Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance (MDNS) for an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) regarding their proposed five-fold increase in water withdrawal quantities. By doing this, City officials are sidestepping their obligation to get the opinions of the public and independent professionals about the environmental impacts of such an action.

Your well water level could drop 23 feet and leave you dry

When this happens, when you least expect it, who’s going to pay you the $15,000 it takes to drill you a new well and replace your pumping equipment? Are you going to enjoy the surprise of having no water?

You have until this Friday, May 22nd to send your comments into officials for an appeal.

It also includes a downloadable PDF and contact info for sending in comments.

The PDF is much like the full color print ad in the Olympian today (in the A section).

The deadline for public appeal is Friday May 22nd.

Below is the map from www.jzknight.com, showing the area affected by the proposed drawdown.

As a result of over a thorough 2-month investigation, I have published today
a detailed report outlining what I assert is the negligence of City of Yelm officials
in handling the official business of the city and in keeping this knowledge from public view.

“THURSTON HIGHLANDS IN DEFAULT -

AN OPPORTUNITY TO REMAKE OUR COMMUNITY IN OUR MIDST”
http://yelm.com/2009/05/thurston-highlands-in-default.html

My report includes public documents that support every facet of my investigation
and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions. I will be publishing a follow-up
part of this report with more details in a future entry.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you for your interest.
Most sincerely.
–
Steve Klein
Host, Yelm Community Blog

Welcome To Yelm

Klein provides links to PDFs of public documents supporting his claims and assertions.

He outlines four key questions.
1. Why is the City of Yelm proceeding with the Water System Plan when the whole premise of the Plan is no longer valid, since the city’s water system expansion is based on serving Master Planned Communities (MPC), the largest one being in default?
2. Why did the City of Yelm, who knew this firm was in default, not tell the public?
3. Why did the City of Yelm not tell their constituents the status of this default or the amount the city was owed by Thurston Highlands, LLC?
4. Why has the City of Yelm done little or nothing to get taxpayer dollars reimbursed?

It will be interesting to see if any large media outlets (Olympian? King 5?) pick this up as a story of city officials mishandling taxpayer’s money should be a hot topic in the current economy.