Owning and operating a business and serving the community on Yelm City Council is not always “roses and rainbows.”
Just ask Joshua Crossman, who has run PTL Flooring in the community since 2004 and has been an elected official within the City since 2021.
While beginning his new venture with PTL Flooring in 2004, Crossman said he never envisioned himself serving on Yelm City Council. After developing and growing his business for 15 years, Crossman put his name in the hat to be appointed to council in 2019. Though he wasn’t appointed then, he ran to be elected two years later and ultimately won to become a Yelm city councilor.
While operating PTL Flooring and serving on Yelm City Council, Crossman said there’s been challenges along the way, but he’s proud to serve his community in multiple facets.
“It’s not easy. It’s not all roses and rainbows. Some people think we make a ton of money, but it actually costs us money to be on council. At least for me it does. Our current makeup, the majority of our councilors are business owners. There’s a lot of business owners in Yelm that serve the community a lot. I look at Steele Clayton at Steele Barrel BBQ. He’s always doing stuff in the community and giving. There’s a lot of business owners that give, and there’s other ways I give back to the community as well — but I see this as a service to my community being on council. It’s one way I can give back,” Crossman said.
“It was never a dream of mine to be on the city council,” Crossman added. “I grew up off of 702, and 11 years ago we moved into Yelm proper, as I call it, or within the city limits. When we looked for a house to buy, one of the requirements was that it had to be near Yelm because I love this community.”
After growing PTL Flooring for 15 years within the community, Crossman was able to purchase his business’s showroom in 2019. The showroom, which can be found at 310 Railroad St NW, officially opened its doors in 2020.
“That was about that time I thought that I should pay more attention to what’s going on with things that affect my business, my employees and where we live,” Crossman said. “That’s when I started getting more involved in watching council meetings and paying attention to regulations that were happening, because it affects business and where I live.”
Crossman added that he began watching Yelm City Council meetings and becoming more versed in local politics shortly thereafter his business’s showroom opened.
“I’ve got a successful business and figured I’d give it a shot,” Crossman said. “I think I have a good head on my shoulders and have a good plan for the future. I didn’t want Yelm to change. One of the things when I ran for council was ‘keep it Yelm.’ I went to school here, I grew up here, I graduated from here. I’ve seen the growth and we have to expect growth, but it has to be managed correctly.”
The councilor added that the City of Yelm should be managed in a way where the town’s culture and spirit remain the same. He often considers what the city can do in order to allow for growth without changing what makes Yelm what it is.
“It’s changed. It’s different than when I went to school. But we can’t go backwards. We can’t go back to being a single-light town,” Crossman said. “All of the establishments have changed over the years, but I don’t want us to become another Olympia, Lacey, South Hill — all these other cities. We want to keep Yelm, Yelm. It’s what attracts people here and why people love it so much.”
Crossman said it’s hard for him to pick his biggest accomplishments during his tenure on the Yelm City Council. Though the city has accomplished a lot since he was elected in 2021, Crossman said a lot of the city’s projects have been in the works for years, and that he and the current council can’t take all of the credit.
“There’s a lot of projects happening, and a lot of projects that have taken years to come about. For example, even though the council didn’t have much say in it, it’s been the work of a lot of people for the last 30 years,” Crossman said. “We play a small part in it, and so helping guide those things along is more important, for me, than focusing on one really big thing that we’ve done or accomplished.”
