Local business owners looking to beautify the exterior of their business through the City of Yelm’s beautification grant program might have to soon look for alternate methods of providing their storefronts with a face lift.
After a discussion during a Yelm City Council study session on Tuesday, Dec. 3, Mayor Joe DePinto and councilors agreed to revisit the parameters surrounding the beautification grant, how the funding is used and for what it can be used.
Councilor Tracey Wood said, as a business owner and as a citizen, that he doesn’t completely agree with the concept of taxpayer money being used to give storefronts facelifts.
“I own a business, and the last thing I’m looking for is the city to give me money to improve my business,” Wood said. “As a citizen, I’m a little surprised honestly. Maybe I’m missing something here.”
Councilor Brian Hess said the City of Yelm had a beautification fund with money set aside to use throughout the city.
“It was done by the City of Yelm. The council at the time, when this was developed, wanted to rein that in and come up with a program in reference to this beautification. This was the route they decided to go at that time,” Hess said.
Wood asked Hess if he knew where that funding originated, and Councilor Terry Kaminski said she asked for money in the city’s budget to begin beautification.
“Things went a little willy-nilly and things went askew, and then eventually it formed into this beautification committee, which is modeled after the one in Olympia. They do the same thing,” Kaminski said.
Wood then asked if the funding is coming from Yelm taxpayers, to which Mayor Joe DePinto confirmed and said the funds are coming from the city’s general fund budget.
“As a citizen, I’m kind of going ‘Wait a minute, you’re spending my money to help other people’s businesses?’” Wood said.
DePinto stated that, as a council member, Wood voted on those items and approved them earlier this year. Wood responded that he’s just asking about the entire beautification grant concept in general.
“I understand beautification, that makes sense. However it just seems like that’s above and beyond what the city should be doing with the funding they’re collecting from the citizens,” Wood said. “It seems to me that we’re giving money to individuals that we’re collecting from the entire community. I wouldn’t even say the majority of the community is reaping the benefits of this.”
Kaminski said that the city just did exactly what Wood was talking about by approving budgets for outside businesses or organizations like the Yelm Senior Center, Bounty for Families, Rebuilding Together Thurston County, Total Sports Development and South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity.
“The money you’re referencing that we gave to other organizations had nothing to do with beautification. That has to do with city development and city improvement,” Wood said.
Crossman argued that concept is the same, in reference to Wood’s comment. Wood said the difference is that the city is spending money to help a large group of people, and beautification funding is going to individual businesses.
“It’s the same thing as adults without children. You pay taxes for schools, but you don’t necessarily use the schools,” DePinto said. “I’d say we’d reap some benefits from this with clean, beautiful streets and beautiful frontage for businesses, too.”
Wood said, as a business owner, it’s his individual responsibility and that if he wants a viable business he’ll spend the money to make sure his business is kept in good condition.
“I’m going to spend the money to make sure my building is painted, make sure my grass is green and my parking lot is clean,” Wood said. “That’s my responsibility as a business owner.”
DePinto stated that the council voted in late 2024 to fund the beautification grant in 2025, and that the council believes in ensuring businesses and nonprofits have the ability and funds needed to beautify their storefronts.
“Some businesses can’t afford to beautify their frontage, and the council has decided that’s an important enough item to go ahead and support with taxpayer money,” DePinto said.
Councilor Joseph Richardson said the beautification grant program is all based on incentives and that funds must come out of the business owner’s pocket before the city provides funding.
“When the job is complete and when things are shown to be different or changed, then we look at it and say they’re worthy of reimbursement. We’re not just giving them money to do whatever they want. Prove to us that you care about this community just as much as we do, and we’d want to say good job and we’ll support it,” Richardson said. “I think it does help benefit the community in a way where, when you have nicer buildings and nicer streets, you have less traffic of transients and homeless and vandalism. I’m just putting that all together. This is a statistic that when you keep things clean, you have less vandalism in your area.”
Hess referred to the council’s original discussion about the beautification grant three years ago, stating that the council at that time discussed if private businesses should be involved or not.
“One of the topics that was brought up is that if it’s a private business, it’s their responsibility. With an organization like the Lions Club, they’re private but they’re also a charitable organization, this could help them out,” Hess said. “That’s what this fund could be used for: to assist in an area that’s utilized by the community in some form that could be used by a nonprofit.”
Yelm Arts Commission member Steve Craig, who attended the Dec. 3 Yelm City Council study session, said during the meeting that towns and cities all throughout Washington are doing what the City of Yelm is doing with the beautification grant.
“They’re promoting arts and they’re promoting beautification. You have to be careful so it doesn’t turn into an infrastructure project like repairing a sidewalk,” Craig said. “The other comment I’d make, you could include in your criteria that the emphasis is going to be on the arts. Beauty is beautification. That would be a suggestion I would float, to emphasize the fact that we want to promote beauty within the city.”
Following Craig’s remarks, Wood said that he isn’t looking to remove the beautification grant process but that he just wants clearer parameters for it. City Clerk Kathy Linnemeyer said beautification grant guidelines were approved as resolutions and that they can be amended.
She added that applications for beautification grants will open in February. Councilors want a study session to discuss and review the beautification grant prior to applications opening up for the grant.
