Prior to Yelm City Councilors voting 5-2 in favor of repealing the Yelm Library Advisory Board and homelessness committee, three Yelm residents, including a former chair on the library board, the current library manager and a police advisory board member, spoke in favor in continuing the connection between the City and Yelm’s Timberland Regional Library (TRL).
Nathaniel Ramos, Yelm TRL manager, said he came to the Yelm City Council meeting on Thursday, June 25, to encourage councilors to not close the Yelm Library Advisory Committee.
“There’s a lot of ways that a partnership between the City and the library is paramount. If, for example, there is a new building at some point, that communication about what that building should entail, how it should look, how we can serve the community, how we can serve the interest of everybody, we need to have that conversation back and forth, not just something between a consultant and a library at the last hour,” Ramos said.
He added that libraries can serve multiple purposes, mentioning in the 1800s some libraries featured bowling alleys in them. As well, he said a library in Tucson currently has a nurse, and his last library system he worked at featured a social worker.
“A public library takes the shape of the community,” Ramos said. “One thing that you guys might not know is that we are at pre-pandemic levels of activity in our public library. Not only that, in this year alone, we are 45% up in printing in comparison to the previous year. Our slowest month this year was busier than our busiest month last year. We are continuously getting more and more people — more and more activities.”
Ramos said Yelm TRL is constantly building programs and that it is “probably punching above [its] weight class for public libraries” in the TRL system.
“I am encouraging you guys to keep that committee, to build it up so we can keep that communication alive so you guys can know about the things we’re doing,” Ramos said.
Steve Klein, who was appointed to the Yelm Library Advisory Board in 2004 as chair and served four years, said this was the first time he felt compelled to attend a Yelm City Council meeting. He said the board was established during Mayor Kathy Wolf’s administration, as the City worked with TRC to move from the “cramped corners” at the old Yelm City Hall building.
“I’m in a unique position to request that we consider until you can get a briefing on how this vital committee is, especially with key library issues facing the city within the next five to seven years,” Klein said. “TRL eventually gave the City an exemption of 10 years in 2002 to operate in a non-public facility, the Prairie Park Complex. Back then, the other 18 jurisdictions in the TRL region were all required to be in public facilities, except Montesano’s, which was in a gifted building that the city operated.”
He said that the Yelm Library Advisory Board was directed to gather information and report to the mayor and Yelm city councilors. Yelm’s librarian served as coordinator, and the board included a Yelm Community Schools teacher, two citizens that resided within city limits and two from outside city limits.
“The purpose was to ensure that constituents who pay taxes for Yelm’s exempt facility would have their interests represented. Yelm’s responsibility was to supply a structure to house the library plus pay their share of the operational and maintenance expenses,” Klein said. “My point is this: Did you inform TRL of your decision to vote tonight to eliminate the library advisory board, who worked with TRL in conjunction with them to support the City’s desire and TRL’s desire to have a library here?”
Allyn Verbal, Yelm resident and member of the Yelm Police Advisory Board, said there hasn’t been enough public comment for the council to make a decision, and that councilors need more information before they can take a vote on the removal.
“I find, having lived here as a voting citizen since 2019, there’s a lot of decisions that get made without enough public input. It’s OK if you put it on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or whatever — but to actually get out there, boots on the ground and talk to people,” Verbal said. “Every time I go to the library, it’s full. Every single time. They do a lot of stuff for the kids, and we’re always looking for outlets for kids.”
She added that she doesn’t know why the committee hasn’t been staffed in over a decade, but says there’s a communication gap that needs to be addressed before a vote should be taken.
“The City may ask for volunteers to sit on the various committees, but not only do you not tell them if they’ve been selected, you don’t even tell them if they haven’t been selected,” Verbal said.
She also commented on the homelessness committee, adding the number of local individuals dealing with homelessness is growing.
“We don’t have any services for the homeless. I don’t know why they come here, but at some point, we need to think about, as a community, how we want that to look when we get to a tipping point,” Verbal said. “We should have some kind of plan in place, whether it’s a committee, I don’t know. But there needs to be at least somebody thinking about building a structure with framework on dealing with the homelessness.”
