City officials halted talks of opening an education and innovation center (EIC) in Yelm last April despite three years of discussion about the project since October of 2020.
Eight months after discussions of creating an EIC in Yelm stopped, Mayor Joe DePinto and Yelm City Council members reintroduced the topic at the Jan. 2 council meeting and discussed if they should move forward with the project.
Inquiries for the project initially began in 2020, and the city found stakeholders for a potential EIC building, including Yelm’s Timberland Library, Yelm Community Schools, South Puget Sound Community College and Yelm’s Historical Museum. The building itself would provide space for the project’s stakeholders.
DePinto, at the end of the discussion on Jan. 2, said the city would move forward with the project on the terms of it being fully funded.
“I hope we are able to find grant funding, and if there is, I’d like to move forward with it,” DePinto said.
Councilor Brian Hess stated halting the EIC project wasn’t because of a vote or council action, but due to a comment at a meeting in April 2023.
“A comment was made that we’re not interested anymore, and it stopped,” Hess said. “I appreciate this being brought up, and the reason I wanted it brought back up is because it went on the back burner. We had no official action other than the mayor saying to stop. There’s a lot of things, where if we stayed on top of this, costs would be a lot lower if we continued moving forward with it. We already have a land location where we want to do it. We had a design, and it came down to getting better funding.”
Hess added that after researching options, he found the city could apply for a grant to help pay for an EIC building. He views it as an opportunity to have a new location for the library, as well as a safe and secure location for the Yelm Historical Museum.
DePinto, responding to Hess, said it appeared at the time that the council did not want to move forward with the EIC in 2023 but didn’t make a formal vote.
“When costs were discussed, it was a lot. At that time, the YMCA wasn’t something being seriously considered,” DePinto said. “This was not to do with the Y, but this was at the time the council approved the design because it was grant funded. We said if they wanted to engage the community and show some designs to feel free, but the council at that time did not have support moving forward,” DePinto said. “If you want to ask for a formal vote to stop this and have a more vigorous discussion on that too, whether or not council wants to move forward with that design, I’m happy to do so too.”
Councilor Terry Kaminski said a driving factor in this project was South Puget Sound Community College’s desire to bring high school classrooms to Yelm. She said this might have changed with SPSCC now offering classes at YHS.
“I think it’s a worthwhile project. It’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of money. Even if it sits on the back burner, moving forward slowly, I think it’s a valid discussion,” Kaminski said. “If we can get grants and bonds and funding for the YMCA, which we won’t own, why can’t we get something like this and have a city-owned building that houses all these amazing things for the public?”
DePinto said that ownership of the YMCA is still “a discussion to be had” and that an actual conversation related to the YMCA will occur in the coming weeks.
Councilor Hess said the EIC building would provide more use than just for the school. He said community-based classes could also be hosted at that building, including a course related to gardening.
“Part of utilizing the revenue of the taxpayers is we’re getting a spot that helps provide for the community,” Hess said. “The library alone, with all it could provide, could help out a great deal (of people) with a bigger space, a better place for a computer center.”
Councilor Tracey Wood said he appreciates the ideas councilors have presented but struggles to see how it’s the government’s responsibility to implement this.
“These are fantastic ideas, but I don’t think it’s everybody’s responsibility to pay for all of this stuff. It falls to me under the same categories as school loan forgiveness. To me, that makes no sense either,” Wood said. “The community helps create the community, not us spending the community’s money on things to help out certain folks. A majority of folks that are paying for that aren’t going to get the full value of it. It’s clearly there for a lot of the community, but I don’t feel it’s for the majority.”
