With the recent full-court-press by the town’s “big-guns” against my comments or anyone else putting the Longmire Park toilets funding priority in perspective, a chord has been struck here.
To wit:
– A citizen speaks to the City Council about priorities related to the park toilets and gets criticized from Council member McGowan, who later apologized.
– Yelm Chamber of Commerce President Glen Cunningham makes a personal slur about me at the Yelm City Council meeting Tuesday, July 13.
– W. McKean wrote a response to my Letter to the Editor in the Nisqually Valley News (NVN) about the park toilets.
Ed. Note: There are spring-activated faucets that do not require any electricity, Mr. McKean, that have been used successfully for decades. By the way, the grant was not free money, rather the toilets grant came from the state, via taxpayers.
– Former NVN reporter & City of Yelm Community and Government Relations Coordinator Cindy Teixeira wrote a letter to the editor of the NVN the newspaper titled “Rhetoric over park toilets is off the mark.”
Ed. Note: Mrs. Teixeira, you were employed by the newspaper and wrote on the Park and then by the city when they asked for the toilets grant.
You say NIMBY & where is the criticism of state legislators?
I say to all government incumbents & candidates alike:
“‘Bringing home the bacon’ in these times means ensuing taxes to pay for the pork in an economy that continues to tank,” quoting one commenter on this Blog.

I spoke here of the $8.7 billion deficit beginning in fiscal year 2013 Washington will face. This fact is not from a blog, rather, the state’s Office of Financial Management.
There are going to be some painful decisions that will be made in our State House that will come home to roost for all Washingtonians. When your taxes go up, each of us will have paid for these toilets & Eatonville’s.
And Mrs. Teixeira, you can’t mix apples and oranges comparing the Rainier Historical Society Building’s funding with park toilets. They got a library kiosk and restored a historically significant structure to community use.
– Mark Belknap, Teixeria’s Roy neighbor’s Letter to the Editor of the newspaper.
– Nisqually Valley News Publisher/Editor Graves Op-Ed last week.

Interesting that Dori Monson on Seattle’s KIRO 97.3 FM radio had an hour program devoted to ridulous spending priorities in King County yesterday, along with KING-5 TV’s Chris Ingalls.
“KING 5’s Chris Ingalls talks LIVE about METRO wasting taxpayer money from sales tax increases passed by voters in 2001 and 2006.”
Monson has also been a vocal critic of Sound Transit spending & has not backed down.
He has also been critical of the spending policies of Gov. Gregoire that has led to this state’s massive deficits. This state’s spending is on a path not too dissimilar to California’s, which is in crisis!
Bottom line: It’s about reigning in wasteful policies amongst all areas of government, as Monson stated yesterday on his show.
The populace doesn’t like it when their piece of their pie is threatened or the lights are cast on the true costs to taxpayers.

To all of you, YES the bathrooms are nice.
We all paid “big-time” in the end!

That this issue has drawn so many personal rebukes about me indicates a chord has been struck.
I love it!
That there is discourse on this is wonderful, for we have never had a Town Hall Forum to have a public discussion on any topic during Mayor Harding’s 2 administrations.
Mrs. Teixeira states in her letter,
“In my next letter to the NVN I will address the needs of the Yelm library and the role of the Friends of the Yelm Library.”

Great!
If Yelm’s Longmire Park toilets letters finally get a conversation going on the future of a Yelm Library Building, then I consider all of the letters aimed at me well-worth-it, for there has been little shown by the city in the 9 years since this issue was penned by city agreement with TRL for Yelm to provide a public facility!