The Yelm City Council unanimously approved an interlocal agreement between Thurston County and the city to receive funds from the Federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Entitlement Program.
Mayor Joe DePinto said the grant is often referred to as the CDBG grant, and that the City of Yelm has been working with other jurisdictions, including Lacey, Tumwater, Rainier, Bucoda, Tenino and Thurston County in this program for at least a decade.
DePinto added that due to the city of Lacey’s growth in recent years, city officials no longer wish to be included in the CDBG interlocal agreement.
“This is just for block grant funding,” DePinto said. “Last year’s award, which we used some of that for the dog park, was around $1.4 million. That’s given to the county to distribute to the local cities and municipalities.”
He said the funding rotates among municipalities in the agreement. The City of Tumwater will receive the CDBG funding in 2024, while the City of Yelm received the grant money in 2023, and the City of Lacey obtained the money in 2022.
A new cycle for the local CDBG program will begin in 2025, and the City of Lacey wants to “be on their own,” DePinto said. The council’s unanimous vote formalized the CDBG agreement to continue with the remaining municipalities.
Councilor Tracey Wood asked DePinto if Lacey officials had a specific reason as to why the city no longer wanted to be a part of the CDBG interlocal agreement.
“I believe it’s because [the City of Lacey] wants money more frequently,” DePinto said. “With the other jurisdictions, [the money] rotates every three years. That includes their money as well. We pool the money together so we can get bigger projects, more funding for events.
“With them out of it, they get [the funding] annually now, but it’s a smaller amount. [Lacey’s] portion is probably around $600,000 or so,” DePinto added. “All of the other jurisdictions combined is around $700,000 or $800,000.”
DePinto added that an upside to the City of Lacey’s departure from the agreement is that Yelm will begin to receive the CDBG funding more frequently. He clarified that Tumwater will receive the grant money one year, while the other municipalities will be granted it the next year. This is due to the City of Tumwater “providing more into it,” DePinto said.
