Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
Cody Colt, the City of Yelm’s public works director, led a presentation during a Yelm City Council study session meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 7, and highlighted several local projects budgeted as 2025-26 expenses.
The projects included the Longmire intersection, the State Route 507 and Bald Hill roundabout, Rhoton Road reconstruction, Middle Road sidewalk construction, pavement upgrades, Mosman Avenue one-way couplets, and Fuller Footpath.
Colt noted the intersection upgrades at Longmire and 510, near Gee-Gee’s Quilting and the new El Rey Burro location. He believes that the intersection will most likely need to be constructed into a roundabout, but there’s potential for it to become a traffic light.
He also described the State Route 507 / Bald Hill Road roundabout and noted the project is currently in the design phase. Colt reiterated this specific roundabout is a WSDOT project and that Yelm has no expenses with it.
Colt remains cautious with the status of the Morris Road / Bald Hill Road roundabout — which would be constructed near the State Route 507 and Bald Hill Road roundabout. He said it currently appears as if the state of Washington will fund the project, but he’s unsure if that funding will come through given Washington’s financial status.
With the Rhoton Road reconstruction project, Colt noted there’s grant funding for the entire design phase of the plans. Like with the Morris road / Bald Hill road roundabout, Colt remains nervous about receiving federal funding for the project Colt believes that with the completion of the Yelm Loop, Rhoton Road, once reconstructed, will serve as one of the main points of transportation for drivers — making this one of the more important local transportation projects.
Additionally, the Middle Road sidewalk construction remains high on the priority list for the City of Yelm, according to Colt. He said this sidewalk would be developed near Fort Stevens Elementary and would connect to Railway Road.
Colt also highlighted normal pavement upgrades, such as redoing roads, overlay and crack sealing local streets.
The Mosman Avenue one-way couplets project is projected to cost between $12 million and $13 million, though the City of Yelm was only allocated $1.5 million from the federal government. With those funds, Colt said Yelm will connect Mosman Avenue to Fourth Street, and that Fourth Street itself would become a one way road.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s when. Council needs to prioritize what we do on these projects. We’re really hyperfocused on transportation,” Colt said. “The activated alleyway has kind of fallen back because we want to build these projects that are going to move people through the city.
“What do we prioritize? Right now our priorities are on the Morris Road roundabout — we think that’s the most important project,” he continued. “The second is Rhoton Road… The third is doing the Longmire intersection because all of the developments coming in are going to impact that. We want to fix it before it becomes an issue. Those are our three priorities, and Fuller Footpath would be at the end of that.”
Colt also highlighted the Fuller Footpath project, which he claimed designs for the project are complete. Before Yelm can move forward, Colt wanted to gauge how Yelm City Councilors prioritize the listed projects.
“The thing going on with Fuller Footpath right now, is we have the design done, right-of-ways acquired. It’s ready to go to construction,” Colt said. “The problem we’ve ran into is there’s a lot of things in fund 316… I just want to explain there’s a lot of things we have to do out of 316 and there’s only so much funds we have currently. Not to say we won’t have those funds eventually, but there’s only so many funds we have currently.”
He added there are three ways to contribute to fund 316, and they’re through impact fees, real estate excise taxes, and grants.
“We have three ways to get revenue to 316. Impact fees are one way we can get revenue. The only issue with impact fees, they can only be used to pay for projects on the STIP,” Colt said. “Impact fees come from development. When a new home is built, a new business is built, they pay an impact fee based on how many trips they generate.
“Real estate excise tax is our second source of revenue we get to 316,” he continued. “The benefit of real estate excise tax is driven purely by selling houses. New, old, used — whenever a house sells, you’ll see a little line where you have to pay a real estate excise tax. We get a portion of that money and it goes to 316.”
Colt added that Yelm cannot use STIP money for Fuller Footpath, and that real estate excise tax can only be used for new construction. Additionally, Colt noted that new construction can be considered something as simple as paving a road.
“The other thing we have in the fund is grants. We get a lot of grants. It’s awesome. It’s great. The only issue is with the economic times right now, I’m worried about the status of grants we have currently and if those grants will continue to come in or not come in,” Colt said. “Other places are looking for ways to cut money. Part of that is cutting grants they’ve issued. We just want to be really careful with the grants we’ve been promised.”
