Shauna Stewart of Experience Olympia and Beyond
receives check from YBA Treasurer Bill Hashim.
Photo credit: Sarah Moore, Experience Olympia and Beyond,
used with permission.

This story is reprinted here with permission from the Yelm Business Assn. (YBA).

– Yelm Business Assn. (YBA) donated balance of funds to Experience Olympia and Beyond
On December 5, 2017, the Yelm Business Assn. (YBA) Board of Directors officially announced they voted to dissolve the organization. Quoting the YBA Media Release, “While there was broad community support for the work of the YBA, the challenges of getting members to join the board or volunteer on the various committees has brought a halt to the YBA Strategic Plan and other programs.”

“The YBA Board of Directors has voted to disseminate the balance of funds to Experience Olympia and Beyond, specifically earmarked towards promoting tourism in Yelm.” The YBA Board’s intent with their donation was to benefit Yelm the most and felt Experience Olympia & Beyond was best in attracting outsiders here, with their mission to improve the local economies and communities of Thurston County through tourism promotion.

The YBA Executive Board comprised of Executive Director Dan Crowe, President Cynthia Schmier, Treasurer Bill Hashim and Secretary Steve Klein presented to Experience Olympia & Beyond executives CEO Shauna Stuart, Marketing and Communications Director Moira Davin, and Marketing Coordinator Sarah Moore at RE/MAX Country offices in Yelm, January 22, 2018.

YBA Secretary Steve Klein noted to everyone present that YBA board members knew they made the best choice, especially after later hearing about accomplishments and various awards Experience Olympia & Beyond received. Recently they contributed to Olympia being named one of the Top 29 Best Small Cities in National Geographic, designated Most Caffeinated and Greenest. They won a Silver Davey for their website, an international award recognizing small agencies for their creative and unique work.

Experience Olympia & Beyond CEO Shauna Stewart added she was thrilled when she heard the news of the $1,086 being sent from the YBA. With the funds, her team will create content to be promoted relating to Yelm, i.e. day and night trip packages to places in and around Yelm, which would include local attractions such as the Deschutes Falls Park. They will post entries on their various social media sites, including a dedicated Yelm page, about things to do and see in Yelm. Additional plans for the funds include promoting Yelm’s various summer events including UFO Fest, Jazz Fest and Prairie Days.

– This story was also featured in the Nisqually Valley News.
“Defunct Yelm Business Association Donates Funds”
“Remaining Balance of $1,086 to Go to Experience Olympia and Beyond”
Read more

Photo: Noexcuseradio; Edited: LW/TO


– Michelle Horkings-Brigham’s letter to Yelm area residents, used with permission.
Gov. Jay Inslee was recently quoted in the Nisqually Valley News as saying that the state will continue recreational marijuana licensing operations at “full speed ahead.”

Unfortunately, none of the above has been our experience.

Courtesy: Elect Mary Hall campaign


– Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall kicked-off her re-election campaign last night.
I attended the re-election campaign kick-off for my good friend Mary Hall Thursday evening in Lacey, with a packed-house of many current and former Democratic elected officials in Thurston County and others from the region. In 2014, Hall was the first Democratic Thurston County Auditor elected in 71 years. Her hallmark has been to bring efficiency and transparency to the Thurston County Auditor’s Office. Four years ago Hall ran on a platform of standing-up for and representing all constituents without bias, unlike her opponent and his Deputy (Ron Harding).


– Hall works to break down barriers to voting by advocating for progressive legislation:
* Same Day Voter Registration,
* Automatic Voter Registration
* Pre-registration for 16 and 17 year-olds.
* Washington Voting Rights Act
Read more on her accomplishments.


– Hall’s Op-Ed was featured in The Olympian, January 19, 2018:
“Voting rights bills before Legislature remove barriers to participation”
“Voting rights are in the air this legislative session. From elected leaders to grassroots activists, Washingtonians are working hard to pass exciting policies to bolster our democracy. As auditor for Thurston County, I am proud to lend my support to three innovative bills in particular: Automatic voter registration, same-day registration, and pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds,” by Mary Hall, Thurston County Auditor.
Read more of Hall’s op-ed.


– Learn more about Mary Hall and contribute to her campaign!
Click here

Letter from Gov. Jay Inslee to Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall
Courtesy: Elect Mary Hall campaign


– From Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall:
I received this letter from the Governor today [January 16, 2018]. Same Day Registration and voting access issues are my passion! I’ve worked hard on these ever since elected as Auditor. I’m outright giddy with optimism we’ll see them pass this year.
Read more

Photo credit: Jack Ohman Sacramento Bee Editorial cartoonist


– Editor’s note:
Whatever happened to “drain the swamp?”
Trump takes America back to the past with coal, oil, and nuclear support.
This while wind energy accelerates in Lewis County.
Solar, wind, and other renewables are the future!


– “Editorial: Trump’s solar tariff costs U.S. jobs, threatens California’s clean energy future”
“Donald Trump is launching a major assault on renewable energy in the guise of a free trade policy.

His 30 percent tariff announced Monday [Jan. 22] on solar panel imports from nearly every country around the world deals a major blow to the clean energy industry in the United States. It will cost thousands of jobs here — installation is the big job creator in this industry, not manufacturing — and it will raise costs of solar for California homeowners and utilities.

All so the president can further line the pockets of oil and coal tycoons whose industries pollute the environment and deplete the finite supply of fossil fuels.”

“Say this for Trump: He is consistent. The president yanked the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord last summer, giving us the dubious distinction of being one of only two countries (the other is Syria) rejecting a goal of reducing carbon emissions. He has opened vast new areas to oil, gas and coal extraction, rolled back regulations on power plant emissions and initiated tax reforms that damage solar and wind financing,” quoting The San Jose, CA Mercury News Editorial.
Read more

“At traditional wholesale clubs like Costco and Sam’s Club,
the demographic skews older, with baby boomers and seniors
making up the majority of members,” quoting the WAPO.
Photo credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg


Story highlights
* While are residents want a Costco, the potential for that has dimmed,
* Warehouse retailers slowest to shift their business online,
* Warehouse clubs cut an avg. of 2,500 job per month in 2017,
* Sam Clubs closing 63 stores, including 3 in Puget Sound,
* Online sales expected to continue phenomenal growth among millenials.
Editor’s note: the chances of a warehouse retailer now coming to Yelm are slim.


– “Will millennials kill Costco?”
“Warehouse clubs such as Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club have for decades been an American staple: a place where families can stock up on bulk items, try free samples and spend the better part of a weekend morning meandering through aisles filled with 26-packs of canned salmon and king-size mattresses. But as more of Americans’ buying shifts online, some retail analysts say warehouse clubs may largely be left behind.”

“Warehouse retailers, she added, have been among the slowest to shift their business online, offer home delivery or make other sweeping changes to compete with the likes of Amazon.com. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)”

“There are signs that the sector is falling behind: Warehouse clubs and supercenters cut an average of 2,500 jobs each month in 2017, reversing a longtime trend of steady growth, according to a Post analysis of Labor Department data,” by Abha Bhattarai, The Washington Post (WAPO).
Read more

Yelm’s new Skate Park cameras
Photo credit: City of Yelm Gov’t Facebook


– From the City of Yelm Government Facebook post:
“Additional security cameras have been installed at the skate park to provide the Yelm Police Department with remote access to monitor activities 24-7.”

“The City of Yelm Police Department Facebook post stated, “This will be very helpful in curbing criminal activity in this area.”
Read more


– This blog covered Skate Park vandalism in June 2017.
Read more

Living Water Church’s “Yelm Campus”
Church advertises Yelm Community Center as their campus
Photo credit: Yelm Chamber of Commerce


– To Yelm Community Blog readers:
I am exceptionally proud of the community conversation this blog has engendered for almost 12 years on may issues affecting our community that would not have seen the light of day otherwise. One such topic has been this Blog’s January 22nd entry on the Living Waters Church renting the Yelm Community Center on Sundays throughout the year. This story garnered the attention of Nisqually Valley News (NVN) Publisher/Editor Michael Wagar to where his reporter called me for an interview Tuesday afternoon, immediately followed by a Question of the Week public survey posted on their Facebook page.

One of the reasons I began publishing this blog is to present the facts for the public to discern for themselves. I am no fan of the NVN skewing their stories and the Question of the Week via omission of the facts.
That is not fair to their readers nor this community.
While the newspaper may frame my blog post as a big to-do about nothing and make me the story, I take issue with the NVN’s brevity of facts with their Facebook polling question:

“Living Water Church in Olympia is opening up a satellite branch at the Yelm Community Center, which is owned by the city. The $40,000 contract will tie up the center on Sunday mornings. Some complain that this goes against the principle of using the center for public use. Do you see this as a problem, or a good move by the city to bring in revenue and assist in a church expanding into Yelm?
Some answers will be included in this week’s Nisqually Valley News.”


I reminded the NVN reporter at the conclusion of my interview, there are two main points:
1. The Yelm Community Center is a publicly financed facility that was built with tax payer funded low income public grant monies, and the City of Yelm operates/maintains the building using citizens’ property tax revenue. Mayor Harding and the council voted on this facility’s low income use grant, which stated the community center was intended to be available for use by the Yelm public, meaning not booked by an out-of-town entity weekly.
Further, Yelm has 16 churches that pay property taxes (if they do here), water/sewer/storm-water fees, B & O taxes, and invest in our town with their employees. How do these churches feel that an out-of-town church sets-up a satellite location in our community center, uses the community center address in their marketing, and avoids all of those expenses, except for their weekly rental fee?

2. For an out-of-town church or ANY organization to call the community center their “Yelm Campus” and listing the center’s address on their website as such, is totally inappropriate for our city’s public facility. NVN Facebook commenters have raised the issue about the separation of church and state in this Constitutional Republic of ours.
Good point!
That is a valid concern where a church or ANY entity rents our community center every Sunday all year, when our center was just beginning to be utilized by other events on weekends, i.e. an Art Show, Jazz Fest, and the Farmers Market, who was required to move their 2018 Yelm dates on their return to downtown Yelm to Saturdays because of the city’s Sundays contract with the church. And what if a an out of town company or community college wants to rent the community center as a satellite facility one weekday all year long? See where this can go?


These NVN commenters show a few readers can see through the smokescreen to “get it”
“We, the citizens are paying off a $2.5 million bond for this center. What about the Sunday morning Yelm Farmers Market starting on Memorial Day weekend through summer? That is a true community function, not related to inclusive religion, so should not be pushed aside. It always started at 10am with folks setting up booths there at least an hour or so earlier. Will the community now have to flex around a Church schedule? Who will be responsible for their electric consumption, cleaning, key, insurance, liabilities, abuses? Please post their contract so we can evaluate. What will prohibit City Hall from allowing ANY church [or any entity?]to rent in perpetuity moving forward. Churches should find their own private property and set up a rental situation like all others have in this town. If not, they don’t belong here. Obviously this needs to be taken up with the City Council and Mayor.”

and this:
“I think the community center ought to be a place for the community to gather and enjoy. Not to be used as a revenue source for city hall.”

and:
“It violates seperation (sic) of church and state. Especially since churches are tax exempt, they have no business using tax funded buildings.”


I expect these issues will be raised by the city council for them to weigh-in, as well!

– Thurston County Auditor notes Special Election ballots to be mailed today
Yelm Community Schools Bond is the local issue for the February 13, 2018 election.
Read more

Read more from the Voters Pamphlet, scroll to page 4.

– “What is Governmentium?”
“Governmentium Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neuron, 25 assistant neurons, 88 deputy neurons, and 198 assistant deputy neurons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

“These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete.

“Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neurons and deputy neurons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neurons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.”
Read more


– How inane is this?
Physician had 2 $100 misdemeanors from his teenage years, now set for deportation.
“ICE detains a Polish doctor and green-card holder who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 40 years”
“[Lukasz] Niec, now 43, never fathomed that his legal status in the United States would become an issue. With a renewed green card, and nearly 40 years in the country, his Polish nationality was an afterthought for Niec, his sister told The Washington Post. He doesn’t even speak Polish.

“But on Tuesday morning [Jan. 16], immigration authorities arrested Niec at his home, just after he had sent his 12-year-old stepdaughter off to school Niec also has raised a daughter in the U. S.]. Niec, a physician specializing in internal medicine at Bronson Healthcare Group in Kalamazoo, Mich., has been detained in a county jail ever since, awaiting a bond hearing and possible deportation,” by Samantha Schmidt, The Washington Post.
Read more