Enjoy these snapshots of articles written in past issues of the Nisqually Valley News from 45, 35, 25 and 15 years ago, respectively.
A Look Back at This Week,
45 Years Ago
- Yelm voters were set to return to the polls in February 1980 to approve a new levy for operation of Yelm schools. The levy would have cost taxpayers about $1.79 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, a drop from the $2.70 being collected that year.
- Loral Lee Justman, 27, a student at Skagit Valley Junior College on her way home for the holiday vacation, suffered a broken back, shoulder and arms in a single-vehicle accident on Reservation Road on Dec. 22, 1979.
- Officials in the Yelm Community Center were pleased when Yelm High School students began carrying in cartons of canned goods on Dec. 20, 1979. The 320 cans of food were a result of an inter-high contest between schools of the Black Hills League. Each school conducted a drive to see who could collect the most food for charity.
- Voters in the Rainier School District were going to be asked to approve a special $100,000 excess levy at an election held Feb. 5, 1980. The levy would have cost taxpayers about $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation if approved.
A Look Back at This Week,
35 Years Ago
- Wilcox Farms donated dairy products for UCBO Christmas baskets. The UCBO youth volunteers gave away the Christmas baskets on Dec. 21, 1989.
- A final version of the Yelm-Thurston County Joint Plan was greeted with complaints at the plan’s first public hearing on Dec. 20, 1989. The zoning plan suggested population density levels and land use for the City of Yelm and its adjacent areas. The plan was created to encourage “orderly growth” in Yelm and the surrounding county. Many speakers that lived in the unincorporated county asked that their property remain zoned as “unmapped use.”
- Ronald Morris, 22, received minor injuries Dec. 23, 1989, from a single-auto collision with the guard rail of the Reservation Road wooden bridge.
- The Yelm Tornados boys basketball team were routed by host Enumclaw 111-33.
A Look Back at This Week,
25 Years Ago
- With Y2K just hours away, Yelm and Rainier city and emergency services officials said they were ready for anything. On New Year’s Eve, local fire and police departments were set to be out en masse to ensure nothing went wrong. At midnight, local officers planned to check to make sure the phone lines were still up and test start their vehicles to make sure they still ran.
- Police officers for the City of Yelm were set to shop for new uniforms in 2000. The city appropriated $6,200 in the next year’s budget for police uniforms.
- Two Thurston County patrolmen made an unscheduled stop at the Yelm Community Services center, unloading a pile of goods and toys from their Jeeps. This came after the Thurston County Jeep Patrol received bags of Christmas toys and supplies at their station and didn’t know what to do with them. The patrol decided to pass the goods along to the Yelm UCBO’s Adopt-a-Family program.
- With the uncertainty of what the year 2000 could have brought, Yelm’s Optimum Y2K Preparedness Center did a brisk trade in disaster and survival items. In the weeks leading up to New Year’s Day, business picked up exponentially.
A Look Back at This Week,
15 Years Ago
- A Les Schwab tire store was set to be constructed in Yelm in 2010, located on property owned by Our Redeemer Lutheran Church. The building was expected to be 11,751 square feet and located on Yelm Avenue next to Rite Aid.
- Rainier School District Superintendent Dennis Friedrich told the school board that he would not be a candidate for superintendent for the coming year.
- Police discovered a suspected mobile meth lab while arresting a Yelm man on felony warrants on Dec. 15, 2009.
- Two Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies were critically wounded Dec. 21, 2009, while responding to a domestic call near Eatonville. Sgt. Nick Hausner, 43, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, and Deputy Kent Mundell, 44, a nine-year veteran, were shot while responding to a complaint of an unwanted person on Tanwax Court.
