Foreword to the disinterested, of which there will likely be many: I apologize if this post seems inappropriate for this forum. The reason I decided to post this here was that I figured I would probably reach more residents of Elma here than just about anywhere else.

Surprisingly, I have observed a notable presence of what my neighbor calls "Elmalodians" (residents of Elma) among the members of the forums here. This post is intended for those folks - others will likely be less than interested, but please feel free to read/contribute as you like.

Since we all (presumably) share an interest in sport fishing, I suspect at least some of us may also have similar interest in local politics in the greater Elma area. Up until recently, my level of interest in local politics has been next to none, mostly because I have not found the time (or compelling reasons) to get involved. The only City Council meeting I have attended during my seven years of residence in Elma was to argue against an ordinance a crazy, evil neighbor was attempting to get passed that would have required city police officers to fine members of the community whose dogs could be heard barking long enough for her to be annoyed by it. (I should add that I would not have been concerned about such an ordinance were it not for the fact that said neighbor had complained to the police about my dogs (and those belonging to many of my other neighbors) after only a few audible barks, which I figured put me at undue risk to be fined over something so petty.

I moved to Elma in 2003, partly because I was working in the area, but mostly because housing was considerably more affordable in Elma than in Olympia for a man of means similar to mine. For the most part, I really like living in Elma. Sure, it's got its problems (some of which concern me deeply as a father of three young children), but I am always comfortable in our sleepy, little town. I liked it better when the fishing was a little better, but that's for another thread.

I have always been generally aware that political decisions in our community (typical of a small town, to be fair) are made largely by a few individuals. I have been told by many locals that the motives of those individuals are not always community-centric, and that is putting it mildly. I try not to put much faith in hearsay without personal experience, so I have always taken such "information" with a grain of salt and reserved judgment. While browsing through the East County News (which I also take with a grain of salt in most cases) last evening, I came across a story that caught my attention and left me somewhat disturbed and angered. Did any of the rest of you see the story about City Councilman Jim Sorenson's proposal to expand the City Council's membership to 7 members being blatantly dismissed by the Mayor and the other Council members?

To be clear, I'm not entirely sure we need more City Council members. However, I do agree, whole-heartedly, with Sorenson's primary intent, which was to make room for new blood on the council. Sorenson stated that the Council meetings typically proceed in a "bang, bang, bang" fashion, with all propsals (at least the ones the Mayor likes) being passed through without any open discussion of why or why not they might be appropriate. He noted this was because there tends to be no dissenting opinion presented, as the Council members (himself excepted, of course) typically agree with everything the Mayor proposes. I recall noticing that trend in the one meeting I attended, and to hear that this is how those meetings always go concerns me.

Left to their own devices, the Council can potentially make decisions in their own, personal interests and set them into motion without any resistance from those affected. This, as Sorenson pointed out, is not the way Democracy (for whatever that term is really worth anymore) is supposed to work. This is effectively a dictatorship.

The reason this is of particular interest to me at this point (and why it makes me suspicious) is that the Council recently passed through proposals to spend a thus far undisclosed amount of public money to build a new fire station and renovate/expand the existing police and fire stations, as well as City Hall. I do not question the importance of sufficient police and fire coverage in the area, and I don't intend to make this an issue of what I think our firefighters, police officers, and public servants deserve. My concerns are more around the priority being placed on these projects versus other things that I feel would stand to benefit our community, as a whole, more. Sorenson's remarks from the article indicated that all these projects were "the Mayor's," which suggests that his personal agendas may be influencing the decisions made.

I am not accusing anybody involved of wrongdoing for personal benefit, but I do think the majority of our community would be better served by allocating these public monies (which WILL increase our city taxes significantly - remember the ambulance initiative from last year?) to projects that benefit the entire population.

An example of something I would personally rather see money dedicated for would be a public recreation center (with a swimming pool, sport court, etc.), which could serve as a much-needed safe haven for the kids in the community, who currently have little to do to keep themselves occupied besides underage drinking, experimenting with hardcore drugs, getting pregnant, and finding trouble in general. It would also give us a place to go to escape the summer heat in a clean, safe environment (I don't consider the Vance Ponds a safe place to swim and play).

If I am wrong, and the local public safety and government offices do need an overhaul more than we need a community center (or anything anybody else might propose), cogent arguments among the Council members, with opportunities for citizen input, could convince me of that. The main problem I see is that no deliberation is occurring over matters that will consume our city budget and, inevitably, raise our taxes.

If anyone else is concerned by this, I strongly urge you to start attending City Council meetings as often as you can. I know I will be making an effort. If any of you fellow Elmalodians out there have any comments you would like to share with me but don't feel comfortable expressing them online, please send me a PM. I would love to hear from you and get a feel for what other ideas are out there. Who knows - maybe one or more of us can be the ones to bring some new blood and fresh ideas to the City Council soon.

With the best of intentions...

OK... 12 views, but no replies. Shall I assume this means that everybody from Elma has read this and doesn't care to comment? Perhaps you all clicked to view it, saw how long the post was, and ran for the hills?

Please, be brutally honest.

I don't know if they are Elmanites, Elmadonians, or Elmers. I prefer Elmers, as in "They are from Elmers."

Good on you for getting involved in your local community issues. The issue as far as the application of limited funds in a small town generally has two sides. Yours and theirs.

Pools are generally considered an extravagance. The City of Olympia doesn't have their own pool, yet you propose the construction of a pool. Rather than just saying, "Hey, we need a pool!" Do the leg work. Find out if there is support for a community pool. What would the cost be? How would you propose to pay for the upkeep of the pool? What additional funding sources are there for the pool?

Lots of ideas sound pretty cool, but once the legwork has been completed, and the true costs realized, it becomes apparent that other programs would need to be cut, or a new tax levied to support this program.

Saying that, "there 'oughtta be a pool," is really similar to your neighbor saying, "there 'oughtta be a law against barking dogs." No offense meant, but you have just created your own special interest group.

Many ideas presented to the McCleary School Board while I was on the board were neat ideas in theory, but when we asked these folks how they planned to pay for their ideas, like a stand alone gym, the person making the proposal had no idea or reasonbly thought out suggestions.

My wife worked for Elma PD, and by all means they were not an organization dripping with excess funds. The drug and crime problem is unique in that area, and those officers do everything they can to help out. Public safety should be priority #1 for small town governments, and that sounds like what the mayor is doing.

My suggestions to you. Do the legwork first, realizing that there is a finite # of dollars available to Elma. Find out support for your idea, get an estimate of costs and upkeep, find a funding source that will continue as long as the pool will be in existence, and then make a proposal all wrapped up in a nice bow. I would also suggest you run for office to see how it really does work from the inside. It was an eye opening experience for me. If your proposal has no funding source other than taking money away from other projects, you are short sighted.

A pool would be nice, but the Elma ponds make a nice swimming hole in the summer. Who would want to swim inside on a nice sunny day? Many Harborites travel to Aberdeen and swim in the YMCA pool during the fall, winter, and spring. There are reasonable substitutes for the program.

Best of luck on you proposal.

Dude, it has only been up for 44 minutes. Chill!

BTW, I'd like a pool, but I wouldn't use itoften, even though I am 8 miles away.

I live in Elma. I know the mayor to be a person that has lived in Elma his entire life and I have spent a lot of time with him and his family over the last 22 years or so.

I will agree with you that it's a bit of a good ole boy's network at the city council meetings but, not all is as it seems. There is a lot of legwork and preparation that goes into MOST of the proposals that come across at the meetings.

The Mayor and the council members have really already made their decision on most issues before it gets brought up at the meetings. On the occasions where there is a difference of opinion amongst the council members, there is a very "open discussion" type of format. They simply talk it out, weighing the pro's and con's and if they can't get to a point where there some sort of agreement, they table the issue and take more time on it.

I honestly believe the Mayor has the city's best interest at heart and the reason a lot of the council members seem to just go along with his decisions is because generally, they are good decisions IMO.

Not to say that things could be done differently and I am 100% all for doing some legwork and working with you to put together a proposal for a community rec. center as there is a huge need for something like that.

If the proposal makes sense, I believe the mayor and city council would be on board with it as well.

I just got back from the gym so I just saw this thread, and I am definetly an Elmer. As a matter of fact I am woven into many of the issues in your original thread in too many ways to count.

Hankster, to be clear, the city council makes something like $220 a month or something like that, so it wouldn't exactly be expanding gov't but in a town with the tiny budgets they are dealing with they would have to spend some time figuring out where the money comes from. Knowing many past and present members of the council very well, they make about $5 an hour to do it. Most of them do it out of a sense of civic pride, and nothing more. Sure, there are a few who work hard to push the interest of the few, but this years council is pretty well balanced IMO.

FleaFlicker - As far as the new muni-building goes, they do not have the money to do this, they are going to be asking for a loan. The whole thing stems from a report issued by a structural engineer about the existing firehall. It does not meet the code for a critical structure, and so must be upgraded. When they hired an architect to give them an estimate on the upgrades, the answer basically came back to tear it down and start over.

That started the chain reaction to the grandiose municipal development you see being proposed. Now, they have a designer under contract who will provide them a construction estimate, and they will search for a loan and/or grant to try and make it fit within their annual budgets. I think you will see several iterations of the new city hall design, until they reach one that works fiscally.

You also have to understand that the type of federal loans/grants (probably not going to get any grants) available for something like a public pool/skate park, are going to be different than those for essential facilities (fire/police). One is easier to apply for and get, can you guess which?

I go to a few meetings and hearings every now and then, and if you want on the docket it is easy enough to do.

I dozed off after the first two paragraphs - Maybe some strategic editing would help keep the interest of your target Elmaudience.

Being from a small town in SWW, all I gotta say is "good luck." You'll need it.

Little towns like that are run by the 'born & raised.' In the town I grew up in, trying to shake up the local political establishment got people fired, houses vandalized, phone harassment, and their kids beat up at school. One guy they even had The Chronicle run a background check on him and publish it as a story.
Little towns get pretty tight-assed when it comes to 'newcomers*' trying to change things.

Not saying that'll happen, just hope it doesn't.

If Elma does put in a public pool, it'll put you guys way ahead of Olympia, where children have to play in a public fountain like some kind of 3rd world village in a Banana Republic somewhere.





*By newcomer, I mean anyone not born there. You can live there 50 years, and still be a 'newcomer,' especially if you didn't grow up there.

Somebody needs to buy the Parkhurst Motel and turn it into a community center.

I'm not from Elma but can tell you are new there. You call a cement pond a pool.

Thanks, Dogfish. You make some good points, and I can see where I may have been a bit short-sighted in my "proposal." I quoted proposal, however, to clarify that what I wrote about a public recreation center, while it may be the beginnings, was not intended to be interpreted as a proposal, which would (to your point) require a lot more "legs" than what I have down so far to be worthy of presentation. This was only an example of something I think would benefit the community, as a whole, more than the projects that were just approved.

I sympathize with the plight of our local police officers (please thank your wife on my behalf for her service), and I certainly didn't mean to belittle their importance to our community. It's just that I'm not convinced a new police station is going to make any real difference in their ability to control the drug problems. More officers, on the other hand, might help, but that has not been proposed.

In a nutshell, I think the main reason for my distaste is not that the Mayor is placing emphasis on public safety. Rather, it is that new buildings, while they may create a better working environment (in City Hall, anyway), would seem to do little to improve a police crew's ability to prevent crime or a fire crew's ability to put out fires. Their important work is done away from the stations, or at least that is my perception, flawed though it may be.

When I read that contractors had already been selected for these projects, prior to their approval, it suggested to me that there was never any doubt they would be approved, which demonstrates how the way our council is conducting their business holds no regard for outside opinions, public or otherwise.

With regard to your points about the pool idea, while I agree with a lot of what you said, I would argue (I already did) that the Elma ponds are not a safe place for kids to swim. Not only are they located perilously close to the freeway, but they are also full of trash, fishing gear, and occasionally dangerous levels of coliform bacteria from the neighboring cattle farms. The Y in Hoquiam is an option, but it's not very viable for most, considering how much it costs to get to Hoquiam and back with today's gas prices. We did that for a while, but it became hard for us to justify the cost relative to the benefit, so we gave it up. I suppose it's fair to say that is an available option, though, so good point.

The only other thing you mentioned that I have a counterpoint on is the general lack of funds available to small cities. You are certainly correct in pointing that out, but I think that only strengthens my argument that these decisions cannot be made by a few individuals. Not only will these projects that have been approved consume all of whatever budget the city has, but they will also very likely lead to tax increases. Paying higher taxes and receiving no tangible benefits does not sit well with me, and I am hoping that some of my fellow citizens will be willing to help me bring this sort of management of our money into question.

Thanks again for your response. It has inspired me to think these things through a bit more thoroughly.

LOL. That fountain thing is great. I was there with my kids one time, and there was hundreds of little kids in there playing. Then this super greasy bum, stripped down to just his jeans and took a shower amongst all the kids. The looks on the faces of the moms and dads was priceless.

I have worked with Lewis County some, and they probably have the worst croneyism that I have ever seen in my limited career. I couldn't believe the kinds of things we were asked to do by some of the ruling elite down there.

Thanks to the rest of you guys, too. You all had some good points to offer, and I appreciate your time and effort.

Sorry for writing novels every time I post, but I am passionate about a few things, with fishing and my community being among them, so I tend to unload a bit more than may be necessary at times.

Oh yeah, they definitely have not picked a contractor for the project yet. They have picked an architect to generate a preliminary plan and budget estimate.

Vance Creek Ponds may not be safe but hundreds of people swim there, and pretty much love it. I can say I am the only person I know who has "surfed" VCP. I taught myself to windsurf down there last summer.

Wow! I just realized that I have officially been upgraded to "Juvenile at Sea" status. Given the average length of one of my posts, that probably equates to at least one novel. I should start writing professionally. Anyone got any ideas for topics that might be interesting enough to get published? Goodness (and everybody here) knows I don't....

I like the ponds just fine for fishing, and I bet the windsurfing is fun (and challenging at times). That said, ask yourself where you would rather have your kids swimming - in those ponds, or in a clean swimming pool that is located away from the freeway. If your answer is the ponds, then fair enough.

Sorry about the misinformation on the contractor selection process. Didn't I just say something about how I try never to let hearsay form my opinions? It's just so easy to do that sometimes I can't resist.

Last time I swam in those ponds I kept getting nipped at by 100's of tiny troutski's. I do like to take the kids fishing there though.

I have my own pool now. But the RV park out by Toad's just put in a new big indoor pool. Cost of membership to use it is less than Hoquiam Y, and my friends who go there really like it for their kids. Not many people know about it but it is an option.

Sounds like a right fine option to me, RR! Thanks for the tip!

How much is a membership at your pool? :-)

Some combination of Coors light and yard work.