THE DOWNTOWN: City takes steps to link old with new:

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Progress Sunday, March 17, 2002 Yelm \| *Small-town charm coexists with the rise of big-city conveniences* Joe Nicholson/The Olympian A new movie theater complex is one of the recent additions in Yelm, a city that has grown to 3,420 people but which serves a growing population outside the city limits as well. Joe Nicholson/The Olympian Jenkins Elmore THE DOWNTOWN: City takes steps to link old with new LORRINE THOMPSON THE OLYMPIAN YELM -- Keep this number in mind as you consider the change and the growth of Yelm's downtown: 3,420. It's the city's current population. Think about it, as you drive past the almost-new McDonald's, past what used to be the only traffic light in town, but is now one of four. Think about it when you gaze at the jazzy, stadium-seating movie theater with "YELM" blaring in artsy neon, and the new two-story building next door that will house a restaurant and the city's library (at quadruple its former size). Consider that population as you take in the new Rite Aid, new-ish Safeway, Blockbuster Video, Papa Murphy's, Mail Boxes Etc. and Burger King, or as your gaze sweeps across a large shopping center with a QFC, Jiffy Lube, GNC nutrition center, Radio Shack, Fantastic Sams, Sunbird, espresso bar, banks, teriyaki restaurants, another video store, jewelry store, and on and on. In this downtown there are investment offices, tanning salons, chiropractors, acupuncture, physical therapy, taverns and more restaurants, a new fitness center, a new auto glass store, cigar shops ... Of course, you might know you're still in a small town when you see the Red Nails acrylic nail salon next to the Horseplay saddle shop, or the furniture store that doubles as a restaurant. But when the new Walgreens starts going up, things might get hazy again. All of this for 3,420 people? Well, yes and no. Yelm has not only grown; it has boomed to become something of a regional downtown that draws shoppers from small towns and rural areas all around the small city. People come from Rainier, Roy, McKenna, the Bald Hills and houses tucked into the trees and prairies throughout southeast Thurston County. "People even come from rural Pierce County," said City Administrator Shelly Badger. "Most cities our size don't have an expanding downtown core," Badger said. "It has really become a regional commercial center." Tracey Elmore agrees. "This is it. Everyone comes here that I know of. We've got it all," said Elmore, who lives about 10 minutes outside of town in the Bald Hills area. Elmore said she does all of her grocery shopping and most of her other shopping and chores in Yelm now, though that wasn't always the case. "I used to come through here, and it was nothing," she said. Badger remembers those days, and they weren't so long ago. "Ten-plus years ago, we had one grocery store," she said. Reasons behind growth What happened? In 1970, Yelm was several hundred people smaller than Tenino. Now it is more than twice as large. In 1950, Yelm had fewer people than Bucoda. Today Bucoda has 628 people -- a growth of 155 people since 1950, matched against Yelm's growth of about 2,800 people, and countless businesses. What happened was the 1990s, and a sewer plant, a daring water reclamation plant and an active community that didn't shun growth, say city and business leaders. "We were all septic tanks before (the sewer plant was built). We were at the point where a lot of the small lots were unbuildable," Badger said. The sewer and water reclamation plants "opened up opportunities," she said. Yelm Area Chamber of Commerce director Cecelia Jenkins remembers 75 new businesses joining the chamber during her first year as director in the late 1990s. The growth has continued since then. "Rarely do we have a month where we don't have a new member," she said. The chamber boasts 345 members -- six new members in January. All this because of a sewer system? Not exactly, says Jenkins. Yelm had the land available, a lot of population spread outside the city with nowhere close to shop, and a business community that welcomed newcomers. "We've worked really hard to make sure it doesn't become the old versus the new," she said. "We're all hanging together to make sure it doesn't become a splintered community, with all the growth." School officials and public safety officials and city officials all attend the chamber lunches, and business members get involved in school and city affairs. "We go into each other's worlds to keep that sense of community," Jenkins said. Days gone by That said, there's no doubt the growth has altered the nature and even the location of Yelm's downtown. The traditional downtown has been about a four-block radius around the city's first traffic light at Yelm Avenue (called "Yelm Highway" by most everyone) and First Street, say city leaders. In days long gone by, that corner sported the city's general store -- "H.L. Wolf and Company General Merchants, 1924" -- and the Yelm Mercantile store. Bob Wolf worked in the general store owned by his father, Harold, for years, then later owned the store with his brother. The store supplied pretty much everything -- groceries, clothes, farm feed, appliances, trucks and school buses ordered from a company, gasoline, oil and so on. As a youngster, Wolf would take a customer's grocery list and run around the store filling it while the customer waited. He'd slice lunch meat (no prepackaged stuff), and fill containers brought by the customer with vinegar and cooking oil and kerosene, fill bags with potatoes (they didn't come prebagged), and pump gas. "Back in those days, that's the way it was. The good old general store," says Wolf, 73, now retired. In those days, Wolf said, "The central focus was downtown. We didn't have QFC or Safeway. That was country." In the 1980s, the general store was sold and is now a small community theater, the Drew Harvey Theater. Wolf watched as the old grange store became a bank, the mercantile became a pharmacy, a small cinema in town became bowling lanes, and more changes. Yelm's population started branching out from its farming-community roots. The city has attracted Fort Lewis soldiers and their families, urban escapees tired of city life, and an eclectic group of people from around the country and world who came to study at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, which bases its teachings on the belief that JZ Knight channels the spirit of Ramtha, a 35,000-year-old warrior god. The school's followers have been good supporters of business in Yelm and opened some businesses themselves, Wolf said. In addition to watching his small city grow, Wolf has also watched as the city's commercial core has essentially migrated down Yelm Avenue south toward the new cinema and grocery stores and video places. "I'm nostalgic a bit. It would have been nice to have that stay a vital downtown location," he said, of the historic core area. "But I think there's room for both the downtown businesses and the Safeway and the businesses out that way," he said. "I think Yelm has grown for the best." Jenkins agrees. "Downtown has shifted," she said, but that doesn't take away from the businesses located in the historic center of town. It simply brings more people in to shop at all the stores. "There are businesses on both sides of me growing," said Jenkins, whose office is located between the historic and new sections of the city's commercial core. Badger and Carlson see the added businesses as linking the traditional downtown with the commercial area south. A project to add sidewalks and planter strips to Yelm Avenue south toward the new businesses will begin this summer, about the same time the expanded library moves to the new area. "That's going to be one more component that binds us all together," Carlson said of the connection. At the same time, a new trailhead park behind City Hall -- which sits on Yelm Avenue in the traditional downtown area -- is bringing more people to the historic core. The park launches the Yelm-Tenino trail linkage laid over an old railroad bed, a longtime effort of Thurston County Parks. It provides a location for walkers, joggers, skaters and bicyclists to enjoy the outdoors. Challenges Here's another number to remember when considering Yelm's downtown: 22,000. Not so many decades ago, Yelm residents used to block off the main street (yes, they blocked off state Route 510) to have a street dance during Prairie Days. They used blocks of hay and whatever else they could find. Today, about 22,000 vehicles a day travel down Routes 510 and 507 (otherwise known as the intersection of Yelm Avenue and First Street). Twenty two thousand vehicles traveling on two-lane roads which, for the most part, don't have left-turn lanes. Ask any business person or Yelm resident to name the downtown core's central challenge. It doesn't take much imagination to predict the answer: traffic, traffic, traffic. "It impacts Yelm, and at certain times, it impacts downtown," Badger said. "People I know avoid (driving) certain times of the day," she said. Drivers also look to cut through small neighborhood streets "that weren't meant for that." The plan is for the state to begin building an alternate route in the next five to 10 years in which drivers just passing through can skirt the central street, leaving that for people who want to visit the commercial. The project would take about $22 million and five years to complete. City leaders see the bypass as critical to keeping the city from getting hopelessly clogged. "We have to get it done to survive," Carlson said. What changes mean Gail Rivas graduated from Yelm High School in 1979. Now manager of the Prairie Hotel on the main drag, she remembers when she was pregnant in the 1980s and craving McDonald's french fries. Her husband, Adam (now mayor of the city), would race into Lacey and bring them back in a bottle warmer. "We never ever thought we'd see McDonald's (in Yelm)," Rivas said. She knows some residents who are not happy with the booming growth -- people who say they moved to Yelm for its quiet, rural nature -- but also people who are happy with it. She's one of them. The growth means her teen-age son can work in town -- he has jobs at the cinemas and car wash -- rather than arguing about driving into Lacey or Olympia to work (it was a battle never fought, but mom swears she wouldn't let him drive those roads every night to work). More adults can also work in town rather than commuting into the bigger cities, she said. When Cecelia Jenkins has a late chamber meeting, she can now run through any number of places for a burger on her way, she said. Shelly Badger can get nearly all of her Christmas shopping done in town rather than having to search out big-city shopping malls. "This was the first Christmas I've been able to do that," Badger said. What's good about the evolution of Yelm's downtown is that there's room for both the traditional core area and the new commercial boom area, the small stores and the chain stores, Rivas said. "It's just kind of an animal to itself. It's just kind of evolved. We're a mixed bag," she said. "I hope it continues to have the charm that it's always had, a mix of the old and new, that we continue to support choices and the mom and pops continue to thrive. After all, what's the option? Says Rivas: "We either thrive or die." Lorrine Thompson covers Thurston County and health for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5431 or via email at lcthomps@olympia.gannett.com. Yelm by the numbers - Population: 3,420. - Projected population: 8,560 in 2025. - Demographics in 2000: 86 percent white, 5.4 percent Hispanic (can be of any race), 2.2 percent American Indian or Alaska native, 1.8 percent black, 1.7 percent Asian, 2.7 percent other race, 5.4 percent two or more races. - Population growth: City grew by 43 people from 1980 to 1990, then grew by nearly 2,000 people from 1990 to 2000. - Business growth: Sales tax revenue in 1990 was $246,000, compared to $727,000 in 2001. Business and occupation tax in 1990 was $165,400, compared to $480,000 in 2001. - City history: Settlers first arrived in the 1850s. City founder James Longmire arrived in 1883 to establish a gateway to Mount Rainier. City incorporated in 1924. "Yelm" comes from "Shelm," the Nisqually Indian word for heat waves rising off the prairie. On the Web: Yelm Area Chamber of Commerce Fort Lewis Ramtha School of Enlightenment Thurston County Trails Yelm High School The Olympian Copyright 2002 back to main Progress index

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