City of Yelm public services highlights projects set for 2026

Cody Colt, City of Yelm public services director, and Brad Chatwood, City of Yelm projects and programs manager, made it clear during a Yelm City Council study session meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 3, that their department will be jam-packed with projects this year.

Colt clarified that all of the mentioned projects are either happening right now or will happen within the year’s timespan. Additionally, he told council he’d be providing information on where the project is at in the process, what pricing looks like and why some projects may be delayed.

Water Reclamation Facility
Colt first discussed the City of Yelm’s Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) — which has been an ongoing project since 2017 when council voted to adopt sewer rates. With that adoption, it led to the city’s interest in constructing the WRF.

Colt noted that Yelm received approval from the Department of Ecology to begin the project in 2021.

“It’s been being built for the last five years and we’re finally at the culmination. It should be finished this year,” Colt said. “We’re actually starting a solids side, turning them on, part of the solids side project, in about two months. That’s the last little phase of this project.”

He added that the City of Yelm received a loan from the Department of Ecology worth roughly $36 million for the WRF project. Additionally, Yelm will begin to repay the loan in 2027.

“The benefit of council adopting the rates in 2017, we didn’t have to increase rates to do this. Sewer rates auto-increase with CPI every year, but because of that, we haven’t had to go back to council for a rate adjustment — which has been huge,” Colt said. “We just had a meeting with another city today where they’re exploring building another plant, and their rates will have to go up significantly. 10 to 20% more.”

Colt added that the City of Yelm has also finished a sewer rate study to see if rates can either be lowered or kept around the same.

“I’m happy to report we can at least keep rates the same,” Colt said. “Lowering may not be able to happen until the 2029 budget. I’m still crunching the numbers right now. The good news is we don’t have to increase rates as loan payments start. We’ll probably relook at rates in the 29-30 budget and lower them, possibly, on the sewer side of things.”

Chatwood noted that the public services department is getting ready to “fire off” some of the solid waste within the WRF. Additionally, he said that liquid waste within the facility is “99% there.”

“Everything is running great,” Chatwood said. “We’ve had our hiccups but we’re getting there.”

Cochrane Memorial Park Phase 2
Colt first highlighted the proposed upgrades to Yelm’s Cochrane Memorial Park, located at 750 Mill Road SE. He stated the City of Yelm has been discussing Phase 2 of the Cochrane Memorial Park upgrades “forever.”

He noted that Phase 1 of the Cochrane Memorial Park added the park’s front pond and introduced giant reed grass to suck up nitrogen and purify the water.

“We wanted to do the back half of Cochrane Park at the same time, but ecology said ‘no, you have to go through this whole entire study.’ We finished the study,” Colt said. “The hope is ecology, now, will let us go ahead and upgrade phase two — which means the back half of the park.”

Additionally, Colt said some lighted water fountains would be implemented into the big duck pond near the dock at the park. The dock itself would also be redone, and a pavilion would be constructed.

“You could host weddings at it and have different events, baby showers, whatever. That’s phase two,” Colt said. “We have to wait for ecology to give us the ok because there’s some permitting stuff with the water going into the ground. The benefit is we’ve been doing testing over the last year and it’s showing the water we’re putting into the ground is better than the aquifer water that’s in the ground. We’re actually making the water more clean.”

According to Colt, Yelm Public Services is hopeful to begin working on this project in 2026. He noted that plans for the project are complete, and Yelm just awaits approval from the Department of Ecology.

“In Phase 2, we’re going to enlarge those two big ponds over on the Mill Road side, which I think we’ll lose a tree or two there,” Colt said. “The pavilion will take down a single tree. The one tree that’s leaning really bad on the back half, which is about to fall on the pond, will probably come out too.”

Yelm Prairie Line Trail Phase 2B
Colt stated that Phase 2B of the Yelm Prairie Line Trail project was expected to be completed in December, but noted that several slabs came in “out of specs” and caused puddling on the pathway across the trestle over the Nisqually River.

“A lot of these concrete slabs got rejected and we have to replace them, but I believe we’re good now,” Colt said.

Chatwood added that 11 total slabs were rejected and needed replacement on the trail. The replacements came at zero cost to the City of Yelm.

The trestle portion of the trail, which spans across the Nisqually River, is also rated for tonnage, according to Chatwood.

“If we had to, we could get an ambulance across that or potentially a fire truck,” Chatwood said.

In the world’s worst scenario, Chatwood said that cars could also be funneled across the trail’s trestle bridge.

Colt revealed that a special fence — known as a love lock fence — will be implemented on the trestle bridge. Colt stated if area residents make the 3.5-mile trek to the love lock fence, they’d be able to add a lock with their name and their lover’s name.

“As long as that lock is on there, supposedly, your love will last,” Colt said.

SR 507 and Morris Road roundabouts
Several new roundabouts will soon be introduced within the City of Yelm, as project bids are expected to go out by the end of 2026 for roundabouts at the intersection of SR 507 and Bald Hill Road, and at the intersection of Bald Hill Road and Morris Road.
Colt believes these roundabout projects should coincide with construction of the long awaited Yelm Loop project.

“We think there will be double construction time, where you’ll have all three, Vail Road, with Thurston County, the loop and this one all working at the same time,” Colt said. “It sounds really bad, but instead of having 18-months of stretched out construction, you have a shorter time where everyone is doing their construction at one time and then it’s done.”

Colt added that the roundabout at the intersection of Walmart Boulevard and SR 507 will head to construction first. He imagines that project will begin this summer as there’s more work to be done at Walmart Boulevard, Grove Road and 103rd Avenue.

The public services director believes the introductions of roundabouts at Morris Road and Bald Hills will be huge for everyone.

“This is going to be a big help,” he said.

Veterans Memorial Park
Colt acknowledged that the City of Yelm recently received some “really positive” feedback from the community during an open house on Wednesday, Jan. 21, regarding the planned Veterans Memorial Park on Mill Road in Yelm.

“Every public comment we received at the open house was very positive about this and very excited for it. I didn’t hear any negatives,” Colt said. “I heard there might’ve been a couple people who might’ve had some reservations about this project.”

Colt said there is some funding available from the state of Washington for this project, and Yelm City Council recently passed a donation ordinance to help with other funding aspects of the Veterans Memorial Park.

“We are going to go to construction for at least the roadway realignment (on Mill Road) this summer,” Colt said. “If we can get all the money, we’ll go to construction for the entire thing. If not, it’ll have to be phased — which is ok because the road realignment has to happen, regardless.”

Colt and the City of Yelm believe that the Mill Road realignment will create additional safety for pedestrians walking in the area. He also has high expectations for the quality of the anticipated Veterans Memorial Park.

“In my mind, this is going to be the best veterans memorial in Thurston County, if not the state,” Colt, a veteran of the United States military, said. “I think people are going to come from far and wide to see this. The state representative for the VA was at our open house. He lives in Yelm, which I thought was crazy. He was head over heels. He thought this was the coolest thing he’s ever seen.”

Additionally, he described the memorial as a really exciting project for Yelm and all involved. Colt said there will be monuments representing each branch of the United States military, along with memorials about different veterans and wars fought by Americans.
Fuller Footpath

The City of Yelm recently received some good news regarding funding for the Fuller Footpath project from the office of United States Representative, Marilyn Strickland, WA-10.

Legendary Yelm resident Fay Fuller’s will be honored in the activated alleyway named after her, nearly 70 years since her death.
Fuller, a former teacher in Yelm, was the first woman known to summit Mount Rainier. Her inspiration to climb Mount Rainier dawned when P.B. Van Trump, one of the first documented people to summit Mount Rainier, visited her classroom.

“We’re pretty excited about this one. We were able to get money from the federal government — Marilyn Strickland’s office, thank you — for about a million dollars,” Colt said. “We were short, when I came to you about six or seven months ago, by about a million bucks. Lo and behold, here comes the federal government to help us out. We have a million dollars from the federal government, plus some local dollars, to complete this. Once we get everything OK’d by the federal government, we’re going. We have the plans, they’re ready to go to bid. We’ve already gotten everything else done.”

Colt added that they’re hoping to receive the OK in the next month or two to head to bid. He’s hopeful the project will head to construction this summer.

“This won’t be a long project,” Colt said. “We get to do some water mains at the same time. It will be started and finished quickly. I want to say this year, but everytime I say this year it always ends up being longer. The hope is by next summer, you will have an alleyway that you can walk in.”