Six Thurston County elected officials, including the Yelm and Tenino mayors, delivered their state of the community addresses on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at Saint Martin’s University’s Norman Worthington Conference Center. Each speaker, representing a different area within the county, provided an update about infrastructure, economic growth and upcoming projects within their respective area.
Thurston County District 3 Commissioner Tye Menser and mayors from Yelm, Tenino, Tumwater, Olympia and Lacey presented.
Tye Menser, Thurston County Commissioner District 3
Menser described 2023 as an amazing year for Thurston County, adding commissioners are excited for what’s to come this year. He said the County will be working on racial equity, welcoming a new county manager, launching a capital project to expand court space on the hilltop campus and launching an overhaul of the County’s comprehensive plan.
Menser said he’s proud to be the incoming County Commissioner chairman, taking over for former Chair Carolina Mejia.
“I hope I can keep Thurston County moving forward over the next couple of years as it has under her leadership. My task in that regard will be tall. I’m not sure any of the other jurisdictions can say they remade the entire foundational legislative structure of their process in 2023, but Thurston County did,” Menser said regarding the county commission’s expansion from three to five members in 2023.
“We spent a lot of time working through these changes and we will continue to do so in 2024. For a former government honor student nerd like me, I loved this, but changes can be hard, and we make mistakes along the way, and that will be a part of the process.”
Menser said a difficult challenge for the county in 2023 was developing the 2024 biennial budget. He said the county experienced rising costs, flat revenue and unsettled employee contracts.
“That created a budget gap in the general fund, and modest cuts were required to the programs funded by the general fund, 75% of which goes to the various pieces of the law and justice system,” Menser said.
He added that voter approval of Proposition 1 to create extra funding for the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office and public safety was important because the department did not have the funding to address the current staffing shortage without it.
With its passage, however, Menser “sees good things ahead” for public safety.
2023 was a big year for land-use decisions in Thurston County, Menser said. The County submitted a shoreline master plan, a comprehensive planning document, to guide development along Thurston County’s 555 miles of shoreline, last year. This was approved for submittal to the Department of Ecology in December, but was ultimately due in 2013. Aside from the shoreline master plan, Menser said Thurston County found a solution for dealing with pocket gophers.
“After five years of complaining about pocket gophers and five years of promising that a solution was right on the horizon, since early 2023, we’ve had a solution with our habitat conservation plan,” Menser said. “Every project has a path forward. We’ve approved 145 pocket gopher-related projects since April. We’re very excited about what this means for economic development in our county.”
Joe DePinto, Yelm Mayor
DePinto, who took office in January 2022, highlighted Yelm’s centennial anniversary in December of 2024. Yelm was incorporated in 1924 to allow for the construction of a water system to fight fires after a series of conflagrations haunted the area in 1908, 1914 and 1924.
“The last (fire) destroyed most of Yelm’s downtown. Fast forward to the ’90s, Yelm built the first reclaimed water Class A facility and distribution system in Washington state,” DePinto said. “Fast forward again to the present — we’re renovating that same plant, which not only modernizes it, but it allows us to provide enough capacity for the next 20-ish years. It makes it easy and affordable with capacity upgrades for the foreseeable future.”
DePinto described the renovations as one of Yelm’s largest projects ever, costing around $37 million. The project is estimated to be complete in March of 2025, DePinto said.
Yelm isn’t focused on just one project. City staff are working on “about a dozen” projects, all in different stages, including Yelm’s first dog park. DePinto anticipates the dog park opening “in the next few months.”
DePinto said he is “thrilled” about the ongoing efforts to bring a YMCA with a swimming pool to Yelm. He emphasized that multiple organizations could possibly call the Yelm YMCA branch building home, including a library and the Yelm Historical Museum.
He said one of the biggest problems for Yelm and the Thurston County region is traffic. Only around 11,000 residents live within city limits, but 50,000 people travel on Yelm’s streets every day, DePinto said.
“I’m very excited for the construction to start in the final phase of our decades-long Yelm Loop project, which, in conjunction with the four roundabouts being constructed, will drastically reduce the traffic here in Yelm,” DePinto said. “Traffic is one of the top priorities for my community, and my administration is doing everything we can to accelerate all of the transportation projects in Yelm.”
DePinto is also pleased with the city’s financial standing.
“Our economic growth continues in Yelm, which is evident from strong revenue streams… but especially with our sales tax revenue, which increased 7% last year,” DePinto said. “In our general fund, revenues came in at 8% higher than projected, while expenditures came in at 92% of the budget, which resulted in healthy increases in our reserves.”
Yelm saw a vast increase in city-hosted and coordinated events in 2023 because of the efforts of Communications and Recreation Coordinator Line Roy.
“Line Roy has helped grow the recreational and community events from just two events, Prairie Days and Christmas in the Park, to 49 events held last year. She’s been doing great, and she’s been planning more for our centennial this year,” DePinto said. “We truly have a lot of good, talented folks working for the people of Yelm.”
David Watterson,
Tenino Mayor
Newly elected mayor of Tenino, Watterson made his first public address as mayor at the state of the community event and proclaimed his excitement for the next four years.
“I’m very optimistic about the City of Tenino and its future,” Watterson said. “Even though we’re a small community, we have a lot going on. I think we have 15 employees total, and some of the projects we’ve been doing — it’s amazing that our small staff is able to do a lot of these things.”
Watterson said Tenino recently introduced a set of “very nice” playground equipment, including a pump track for bikers and skateboarders. The city also made improvements to the restrooms at the Tenino City Park near the pump track.
“One of the big things coming up for this year is we have a chance to acquire 60 more acres for our park. That’s gonna be big for the residents and the city,” Watterson said. “An organization (is) buying the 60 acres from us, and it’s going to be used for trails, hiking, horses and other uses. It’s basically doubling the size of our park.”
Another exciting project in Tenino is the agricultural business park, which was conceived several years ago, Watterson said.
“It’s taken some time to get the funding put together for that, but we’re moving forward,” Watterson said.
“Our first building is almost completed, and it should be open in the next few months. This was mainly conceived to provide agricultural services to small producers where they can come to learn about how they can improve their products. This is going to be exciting for the community and surrounding areas to use that facility.”
One major project taking place in 2024 is the installation of a multi-million dollar solar system battery backup and renewable generator system at Tenino High School.
“This will power our high school in the event of a major outage where we need to house people. We have no place in south Thurston County that has a real facility that we can use to house people if we have a disaster,” Watterson said. “This is a huge project for our city, and I thank PSE (Puget Sound Energy) and [the Department of] Commerce for working with us.”
The project is funded by Puget Sound Energy and the Department of Commerce, Watterson said.
Debbie Sullivan,
Tumwater Mayor
Sullivan began her third year as mayor of Tumwater in 2024 and is notably the city’s first woman to serve in that role. She also hired Lisa Parks, the first woman in Tumwater to serve as city administrator.
“Our community has been healthier and stronger than ever, and we have so many things going on,” Sullivan said. “Our local economy is really strong, and we have a lot of investment in our community infrastructure. Like many others, we’re always recruiting and retaining our great staff.”
She said, in 2023, Tumwater started its 2025 comprehensive update plan and will continue working on the update throughout 2024.
According to Sullivan, one of the projects that residents don’t support is the Capitol Boulevard Corridor Improvements along Trosper Road Southwest from the Interstate 5 overpass to Capitol Boulevard Southwest. She said the project will cause traffic to get worse before it can improve.
Sustainability is also a priority in the city. Sullivan said staff hired a sustainability coordinator, Alyssa Jones Wood, adding she’s been doing an amazing job with the position.
Sullivan added there’s a lot more work to come in Tumwater, and the city will be working with many community partners to find out what the next steps are.
The unemployment rate in Tumwater is low, Sullivan said. According to Federal Reserve Economic Data, Tumwater’s unemployment rate sat at 3.9% as of November 2023. Sullivan said Tumwater is a state-based economy, and with the state “not going back to work,” the city is looking at what to do with a lot of vacant buildings around town. In addition to searching for businesses to fill building vacancies, Sullivan said retail sales in Tumwater are high, and a lot of ongoing construction is taking place within the city.
“We have nearly 450 new businesses in Tumwater, and they are growing. Some of them are online service businesses, and some are brick and mortar businesses,” Sullivan said.
“We had 1,827 permits last year. It’s a good thing we had a staff because they’ve been staying really busy.”
Sullivan said one of the partnerships she’s really excited about is with the Squaxin Tribe, as the two parties signed an agreement in 2023. Tumwater is “mostly” on Squaxin land, but both Chehalis and Nisqually tribes own land within Tumwater city limits.
“We now have a council that has two electeds from the Squaxin Tribe and two electeds from the City of Tumwater. This council will be meeting on a quarterly basis,” Sullivan said. “Maintaining those partnerships is critical and crucial to what we do as a city.”
Andy Ryder, Lacey Mayor
Mayor Andy Ryder, elected in 2014, said there are four areas of emphasis that “highlight the Lacey way.” He designated these four areas as economic development, growth, partnerships, and infrastructure and future planning.
Ryder said that Lacey’s economic growth has experienced multiple years of increased record retail sales and substantial private sector investment and that the City is continuing its focus on supporting and growing local businesses.
“We want to be collaborators and help businesses thrive by offering services where our applicants can meet with the city so they can understand the process, requirements and identify issues before they make a substantial financial investment all at no cost to the customer,” Ryder said. “We foster a culture of problem solving, predictability and consistency to maintain high standards while working in partnerships across the county to achieve our community vision.”
Ryder expects both residential and commercial growth in Lacey. He said a number of new business additions to the city include a Multicare emergency facility, TEC Equipment, 23 Kitchens and more.
“In total, we anticipate 1,800 multi-family and 291 single-family units coming online,” Ryder said. “In 2024, we’ll break ground on a state-of-the-art, $61.5 million police station, which will include a regional training center. We did this all without raising taxes. The center will be a regional asset and will support public safety needs across the south sound communities.”
Lacey’s third area of emphasis, Ryder said, is partnerships with local businesses and organizations.
He said the Lacey City Council has made continuous investments and provided training opportunities for businesses and startups.
The Nisqually Indian Tribe also announced in September of 2023 plans for the upcoming Quiemuth Village and Quiemuth Resort projects near Cabelas on land owned by the tribe. Ryder voiced his support, with council approval, of the project’s proposal in September.
“We’re very happy to support these new endeavors. While it’s still a few years out, this is a project we anticipate will create 4,000 construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs,” Ryder said. “It’s no exaggeration when I say these projects will be game changers for Lacey and our region.”
With the fourth area of emphasis being in infrastructure and future planning, Ryder said the City has over $100 million “on the books” for facility and utility infrastructure projects in the future.
