Rainier City Council discusses America250 plans, roundabouts, hydrant system upgrades, park bathroom vandalism and more

Among the agenda items for the Rainier City Council on Tuesday, May 12, was the city’s six-year street plan listing street upgrade and improvement projects public works staff hope to get completed.

However, the plan is not concrete, but serves as a guide for staff to choose which street project to tackle next, Rainier City Engineer Adam Lyons explained.

The first upgrade coming up is a chip-seal project on several Rainier city streets scheduled to start this summer.

Lyons added he is working with the Thurston Regional Planning Council on grant applications for roundabouts at state Route 507’s intersections with Minnesota and Centre streets.

Southeast Thurston Fire Authority Assistant Fire Marshal Matt Russell has also been working on a fire hydrant flow analysis for Rainier, Lyons stated, which showed that the system may need upgrades to accommodate for potential future growth.

“I’ve been working with him on it for a few months, and I think that he should be here to present it,” Lyons said. “But his analysis follows the current fire code that the city is supposed to follow. It raises the fire flow requirements in the city quite a bit with some commercial buildings and some with residential. You’re OK in some areas, and in other areas there’s need for improvement with piping and additional storage into the coming years.”

Russell’s full analysis will be discussed at a future Rainier City Council meeting, Lyons stated.

During the public works report, Rainier Public Works Supervisor Theron Perry stated with spring’s arrival, public works staff had been “living on lawnmowers.”

He stated the fertilizer purchased at the beginning of the season and the newly installed sprinkler systems at the city’s parks, the grass was growing perfectly. However, they did have to get off of their mowers recently to clean up some rather nasty “minor vandalism” at the Wilkowski Park bathrooms in April.

“Somebody smeared their poop all over the walls and fixtures, just from floor to ceiling. So we had that shut down for two days while we deep cleaned and sanitized that,” Perry said.

This hasn’t been the first time feces has been used to vandalize the park bathrooms there, either.

“The fascination with that, I wish somebody would explain that to me, cause I don’t get it,” Perry added.

To end the meeting, Rainier City Clerk Treasurer Tami Justice explained some of the ideas she and other city staff members had been tossing around to do as a part of America250 — the nationwide collaborative celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday coming up on July 4.

While a parade float with the city council is in the works, she added her favorite idea so far has been giving out commemorative packets of flowers at Rainier City Hall.

“I personally like the idea of a little seed package, like wildflowers or whatever, in red, white and blue, and we can put a cute little saying on it,” Justice said.

The Rainier City Council meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m. inside Rainier City Hall, located at 102 Rochester St. W.
For more information, visit the city’s website at https://www.cityofrainierwa.org/.