Should the City Council approve the requests, Yelm’s Public Works Department will receive seven new staff members, as well as funding for street and sidewalk projects, as part of its budget for the next biennium.
Yelm Public Works Director Cody Colt spoke before Yelm City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 22, putting forth his department’s budget requests for 2025 and 2026.
The seven new positions would include two park employees, one street employee, one grants manager, one traffic engineer and two wastewater employees.
“We understand not all of those can be funded, but that’s what we need to get the job done that we have. So you’ll see some of those coming through,” Colt said. “The biggest [positions] are the grants manager, which we’re working with the finance department for, and the traffic engineer is another one. We don’t really have anyone to do traffic, and it would be cool to have someone doing a general plan for that.”
He said that the new wastewater plant would require at least one new operator once it opens. The department’s goal is to introduce more sidewalks throughout the city to allow residents to walk safely to intended locations.
Colt added one of the sidewalk projects proposed for the next biennium will connect the sidewalk at Yelm’s McDonald’s down to Mosman Avenue — one of several projects planned.
“We finally are tackling a section, which we’ve never done before, of sidewalk every year. Council has strategically put money away every year to tackle a section of sidewalk, and we’re going to start using that,” Colt said. “There’s about 50 to 80 middle school kids who walk that, and there’s no sidewalk there. They walk that grass at the fence next to the apartments, and that will be our first section. The next section we’re going to tackle is Railroad to Middle Road in order to connect that sidewalk to Fort Stevens.”
Colt highlighted the department’s biggest accomplishments during the last budget period as upgrading the stage at Yelm City Park, improving development processes by refining city code and for nearing the completion of the Water Reclamation Facility project, which started in 2021.
The department also started updating the city’s design guidelines, along with the unified development code and comprehensive plan and completed the design of phase 2 of Yelm’s Cochrane Park upgrades.
Yelm Public Works also introduced solar panels and battery-backup installations at the Yelm Community Center, in case of emergency. It also started and nearly completed the construction of the Southeast Reservoir, which Colt anticipates wrapping up in December. In 2023, Yelm Public Works also created a streets department for the first time in the city’s history.
Some of Colt’s department goals for 2025 and 2026 included completing the Cochrane Park phase 2 upgrades, starting and completing the construction of the roundabouts at state Route 507 and Bald Hill Road and Morris and Bald Hill roads. He also anticipates starting construction of the downtown corridor plan.
“One thing we want to focus on, if we get state funding, is to start connecting these roads — connect Mosman all the way through, get Fourth Street all the way through,” Colt said.
Colt also anticipates starting and completing the Veterans Memorial construction project in 2026 if the city can acquire funding for it. Designs for the project would be completed next year.
