YELM 2008 BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING TONIGHT
“A Public Hearing will be held for the 2008 Budget at the November 27, 2007 Council Meeting tonight. The Public Hearing is expected to be continued to the December 11, 2007 Council Meeting,” quoting the City of Yelm website.

[Ed. Note: Does anyone care? Will anyone attend besides city staffers, the NVN, the Yelm Community Blog & a few others?]

YELM GETS MONEY FOR ROAD PROJECT
“Three local cities (Lacey, Tenino & Yelm) received funding for road projects from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board…

A grant for $550,000 was given to Yelm to widen the road and build sidewalks on Coates Avenue N.W. This project provides an extension of a downtown bypass route, removing local traffic from the state highway. The grant brings the total board investment in the Stevens Drive corridor to more than $2 million,” quoting The Olympian.

YELM MAYOR CALLS PEOPLE WHO COMMENT ON TRAFFIC ISSUES HERE “ANTI-GROWTH;”
COUNTY OFFICIALS CALL YELM’S UNBRIDLED GROWTH “IRRESPONSIBLE”


Mayor Ron Harding Photo from City of Yelm website

Yelm Mayor Ron Harding said in his monthly column in the Nisqually Valley News on November 23, 2007
titled “Stopping Growth is No Solution”
“Anti-growth critics are quick to use traffic issues, water and the environment as means to try to prevent growth within our city.
Setting limits to city improvements is not the answer to managing growth effectively and protecting resources. Preventing growth doesn’t eliminate the effects of growth around us.
Stopping growth means foregoing improvements to our community. More importantly, it would halt the rapid improvements taking place for our transportation system.”

[Ed. Note: I have never heard one person say to the city they are anti-growth. There have been many people, myself included, that told the city more modest, controlled growth is the better option, to protect our environment and resources. Further, many have said to take the course of unlimited growth as this Mayor and City Council have done is “irresponsible.” That was not my word, rather the word used by the Thurston County Planning Commission about the City of Yelm approving so much development without providing proper highway infrastructure first to support such explosive vehicular traffic. The Thurston County Planning Commission’s comments were shrugged aside by the City’s Staff Report saying they did not understand the issues here. Hogwash! This is not some uneducated group of people, rather a Planning Commission that deals with issues in the much larger cities of Olympia, Lacey & Tumwater. Their questions and comments reflected a group of engaged and informed people that had more of a grasp of what is going on in Yelm than does some of this city’s officials.]