Yelm residents will soon have an idea of how the city’s capital budget will shape up, as Yelm Finance Director Stephanie Nanavich and Public Works Director Cody Colt gave specifics behind the spending in each department during the Yelm City Council meeting Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Nanavich broke down the municipal building fund and the projects it is funding in 2025, which includes the grant-funded Yelm Prairie Line Trail and the Yelm City Park master plan, which isn’t grant funded yet. The Veteran’s Memorial Park, currently unfunded, was also on the list. Colt said that PARC is currently leading the charge for state funding.
“We are parking some one-time money that we received in the general fund. We moved $750,000 last year, and this year we’re requesting to move $1 million to the municipal building fund in a separate reserve to be used for future governmental buildings,” Nanavich said. “That will sit in a reserve, and council will decide how they want to spend that money.”
Under the road and street construction fund, 2025 projects included one-way couplets near City Hall, the Rhoton Road reconstruction and the construction of a Bald Hill roundabout.
“We don’t have anything in 2026 yet. What will happen is we’ll go through 2025 and figure out towards the end of that year what we can do in 2026,” Nanavich said. “We’ll come to council if we need to carry anything over or if we have new projects.”
Colt added that there’s “quite a bit of development” coming in, and anticipates traffic control being introduced at Longmire and Highway 510, next to Gee-Gees Quilting, in the form of a traffic light or roundabout.
“If these developments come in during the next year, that’d probably be a budget amendment you’d see in late 2025 or early 2026 to build that,” Colt said.
Under the water capital improvements projects for 2025, the Southeast reservoir and water main improvement projects were listed. Colt added that the city will begin to look at new locations for wells and will have that budgeted for in 2026.
Under the sewer capital improvements projects in the next two years, Nanavich said the water reclamation project will be up and running in 2026.
“Everything will be put together in March of next year, but then they do a start-up sequence where they start things up to make sure everything functions for the next six months,” Colt said. “We estimate that in September of 2025, it will be fully online and good to go.”
In addition to the water reclamation facility, the city plans renovations at Cochrane Park in the near future. Colt anticipates the construction of a gazebo and the addition of a lighted fountain in the big pond. He added the back half of the park will be cleaned up and upgraded, too.
“We get to actually remove a lot of the vegetation because we’re not going to be doing what we thought we were,” Colt said. “Cochrane Park will get a major face lift over the next two years, which I think will make it much more aesthetically pleasing — and a wedding attraction for all.”
For the emergency response capital purchases, Nanavich said three police vehicles will be replaced in 2025 while five police vehicles will be replaced in 2026 — in addition to the other police vehicles requested. Colt noted that police vehicles are on an eight-year rotation.
According to Nanavich, as previously discussed, the finance department is requesting funding in 2025 for one police officer’s equipment and vehicle, additional Flock cameras, Laserfiche and facility repairs. In 2026, it requested two officers’ equipment and vehicles, additional Flock cameras and more facility repairs.
Biennial Budget Public Hearing
Nanavich did not have many updates on the biennial budget during the public hearing portion of Oct. 22’s Yelm City Council meeting. The 2025 general fund starting balance is estimated at $4,960,481, with $20,933,364 in budgeted revenues throughout 2025-26.
She added that the 2026 ending fund balance is estimated at $3,334,860, with an estimated $22,558,984 in budgeted expenditures for 2025-26.
“The union negotiations are still ongoing. Once they’re resolved, it’s going to change the numbers slightly, but we just don’t have that information yet,” Nanavich said. “We also don’t have the final property tax information. Everything else that we’ve put in the budget and that we presented to you, I don’t expect a lot of changes.”
