The first phase of the Yelm Loop, a 1 mile section that bypasses only the Yelm High School and does not even connect to Yelm’s 1st Street, is scheduled to have a ground-breaking Monday, April 12th at 9am.

WSDOT personnel, state elected officials, local community members and the public are invited to be on-hand just off Mud Run Road and Yelm Highway for the ground-breaking ceremony.

The City of Yelm worked with WSDOT to divide the Bypass into 2 phases, with the longer 3+ mile Phase 2 Wal-Mart section of the road not scheduled for funding until the 2021-2023 biennium.

While the ground-breaking will be hailed as a major achievement, this was only accomplished by the city requesting the remaining right-of-way & engineering funding from Phase 2 be moved to construction funding on Phase 1, leaving the Phase 2 Wal-mart section without funding. With a state legislature annually dealing with huge budget deficits they must eradicate, how is this responsible to add anymore funding for this road at this time?

Tell me, who is going to drive out of their way up Killion Rd to a new 1-mile Bypass of the High School once Phase 1 of the bypass has its ribbon-cutting?