Yelm Issues: December 2007 Archives

YELM PRAIRIE ARTS ASSOCIATION

"The Yelm Prairie Arts Association is a non-profit organization serving to enrich the lives of people in Yelm and the surrounding communities through supporting visual and performing arts

We support groups who dance, make music, create live theater and enhance arts in education in Yelm Community Schools.

We spread the word about our area performing arts and visual arts groups, sponsor events and participate in activities that the public attends.

We organize fund raising events and provide funding to visual arts groups & performing arts groups via an annual granting process. We operate with the intent to provide an even balance of annually granted funds to both performing arts groups and to visual arts groups.

Make Art a Part of Your Life!

This is an excellent time to be a YPAA member! In the last few years, we have seen significant change and growth in our communities. In 2002 and 2003 as part of our evolving community, the Nisqually Regional Arts Council and Yelm Partners for Performing Arts, now known as The Yelm Prairie Arts Association. gained strength by merging into a single organization under one board to support arts in our community. This includes activities, education and funding for performing and visual arts.

The following are samples of a few of the events and groups our fund raising efforts have helped to support:

Ruddigore, a Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta project at the Drew Harvey Theater

The Annual Christmas program, A Salute to Christmas, by Women in Harmony received funding for the 2002 performance.

ACT 2, ACT 3, ACT 4 and ACT 5 of the Yelm Community Consortia through the Yelm Community Schools. Matching funds to support a renewable grant from the Washington State Arts Commission to provide artists in residence and visual art experiences in Yelm schools and community for the 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005, and currently, 2005-2006 school years.

Yelm Middle School - Artist in Residence Matching Funds

Arts are the heart and soul of a civilization. Our hope for the Nisqually region is that our visual and performing arts will bring beauty, warmth and color to the fabric that weaves our community together. We've made significant steps in the past 10 years, yet there is much more we dream about for Yelm and our surrounding communities.

Please join us to help create the hometown and region we all wish for our children, our neighbors and ourselves. If you would like to find a way to contribute and make a difference in our community, click here. Please feel free to contact us by email, or, send regular mail to:

PO BOX 2168
Yelm, WA 98597

Thank you for your caring and support. Your help will enrich the heart of our community.

Anne Wahrmund
YPAA Chair

PS. We are looking for interested people to become members of the YPAA. Please contact a board member for more information.

The Yelm Prairie Arts Association operate as a non-profit organization under the governance of one common board of directors. The common abbreviated name is YPAA."

TELL THE YELM PRAIRIE ARTS ASSN. YOU READ ABOUT THEIR WORK ON THE YELM COMMUNITY BLOG!

July– December, 2007 by appointment only
Opening reception, cocktails and auction December 15th 2007, 4 – 9 pm

Duveen Group is pleased to announce an exhibition of never seen works of oil on glass, oil on canvas and charcoal all done by the Serbian artist Mr. Georgije Popov who is better known as Makara. This will be the artist's s first United States exhibition and we are happy to host it here at “Dancing Spirits Estates” home of Duveen Group in Rainier, Washington

The exhibition consists of Makara’s most recent bodies of work; on various mediums which were painted between 2002 – 2006 The exhibition will provide an overview of Makara’s life and career and include his newly completed works of 2007.

Known for his unique “cosmic” style, Makara has gained an international reputation for his works among private collectors. His themes are sourced from history and culture and include references to his personal experiences and influences building narratives of epic proportion. Many of his works include the solar system as a prominent theme. Some paintings reference religious themes. Mixing universal concepts with historical and personal themes are also frequently found in his works.
Some of the paintings display female figures communicating with the universe in a unique way, which has been one of Makara’s effective focal points since his beginning as an artist. His complex oil-on-glass layering technique, what he calls “painting in reverse,” is a new style of painting developed by him. One of the oil-on-canvas paintings, “St. Nicolas”, large as life, displays a figure well known and revered to Serbians and Orthodox Christians. His love for animals and angels is profoundly expressed in some of his paintings.
One particular aspect of Makara’s style which I call the shadow play, takes the layering that appears in his paintings and drawings even further, almost to the point of them becoming three-dimensional animations.
Makara was born in 1944 and his journey as a painter began when he was a small child. His classrooms were European painting workshops with teachers from the schools of fine arts which provided him with rich learning experiences.
For the next ten years, he studied the artwork of the Italian Renaissance masters. Enlightened from this experience, he was inspired to travel throughout Europe, South Africa and Canada and see the works of other great master artists.
Today, Makara lives in Canada and Serbia and spends most of his time creating his masterpieces.
___________________________________________________________________
Duveen Group Gallery: Is located at Dancing Spirits Estates in Rainier, WA viewing by private appointment only. Information or images, please call Kevyn 360.446.4866 or duveengroup@yahoo.com

Photo from Port of Olympia website

While there has been much written about the December 2-3 storms, here are some local notes of interest:

1. A record single day rain total for the date of December 2nd
of 2.12 inches beat the former record of 2.01 inches set in 1975 at Olympia Regional Airport. Additionally, the 58 degree high temperature was 2 degrees short of a record high that goes back to 1982.

2. A record single day rain total for the date of December 3rd
of 3.19 inches beat the former record of 2.77 inches set in 1982 at Olympia Regional Airport. Additionally, the 58 degree high temperature was 2 degrees short of a record high that goes back to 1982.

Additionally, locals submitted pictures of our flooded streams carried by KOMO-TV 4, Seattle's ABC affiliate:

1. Lacamas Creek over Bald Hill Rd, Yelm
Scroll down to picture with the caption above.

2. Neat Rd. where the Deschutes spills into the Nisqually
Scroll down to picture with the caption above.

"Sea-Tac Airport recorded four inches of rain on Monday, the second wettest day on record, according to the National Weather Service," quoting KING5 News, Seattle's NBC affiliate.

Wal-Mart says it does not build stores in flood zones. The site of Yelm's Wal-mart was under water last January and this Chehalis location shows that store completely an island!
Wal-Mart Chehalis from KING 5 News from the ground
Wal-Mart in Chehalis form the air from KING 5 News Sky King.

Will Yelm's Wal-Mart be flooded this winter?
Stay tuned as Professional Engineer Ed Wiltsie is on the record at City Hall saying that the Yelm Wal-Mart was approved on a high groundwater area and prone to flooding.

Photo of Yelm Timberland Library courtesy of Guustaaf Damave Photography

ANNOUNCING A YELM TIMBERLAND LIBRARY SPECIAL EVENING

Our Past, Our Present: the History of Yelm

Date: Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Start Time: 7:00 PM
Yelm Timberland Library
What are the origins of Yelm, and who are the people who have lived here? Ed Bergh, Yelm High School history teacher, will show slides and talk about how the community has evolved through time. Sponso...
Age(s): Adults, Teens middle & high school

Mr. Bergh has created on the internet THE YELM HISTORY PROJECT, "an on going attempt to collect and display Yelm’s history."

WON'T YOU JOIN MR. BERGH AT THE YELM LIBRARY THIS WEDNESDAY EVENING TO LEARN ABOUT YELM'S HISTORY?

CONGRATULATIONS TO YELM'S OWN J & I POWER EQUIPMENT!

"The fifth-annual Yard & Garden Dealers in Excellence Award winners were recently named at the GIE+EXPO in Louisville. Sponsored by Ariens, STIHL, EETC and GIE+EXPO, the awards recognize independent power equipment dealers who are successfully growing their businesses with professionalism and innovation.

This year's winners are:

- Dave's Small Engine Repair in Oxford, ME

- Clay's Power Equipment in Raleigh, NC

- J&I Power Equipment in Olympia and Yelm, WA

The third winner has been a finalist for this award twice before. Opening a second dealership that did over a million dollars in its first season has left no doubt this year – J&I Power Equipment in Olympia and Yelm, WA, is as good as they get. Like many outstanding dealers, J&I credits its experienced, dedicated staff for its success. As the employer, Randy and Lori Longnecker are always looking for new ways to train and motivate their people. They recently set up a training room which houses a computer, conference phone and plasma screen TV, so technicians and sales staff can receive on-site training at minimal expense to the dealership. The Longneckers also added a camera system and central server for both stores. Originally added for security reasons, Randy says the system also helps him manage the Yelm store from his main office in Olympia. These are just a couple examples of the countless innovative, cost-effective things the Longneckers have done over the years to keep their dealership one step ahead," quoting Yard & Garden.


TELL J & I YOU READ ABOUT THEIR AWARD ON THE YELM COMMUNITY BLOG.

YELM'S COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TRAFFIC AMENDMENTS PUBLIC HEARING BY THE THURSTON COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS THIS TUESDAY

The Thurston County Board of Commissioners Public Hearing on Yelm's Comp. Plan Amendments will be Tuesday, December 4 at 6pm at the County Courthouse.

This is a very important meeting to attend to tell the Commissioners we do not accept the City of Yelm's conclusions about traffic.

If you cannot attend and wish to submit public comment,
Aimee Swenson, Associate Planner for Development Services is the person to write, however you must do so in writing by December 3rd at 5pm.

You may email your comments directly to her at:
swensoa@co.thurston.wa.us

or via snail mail to:
2000 Lakeridge Dr. SW
Bldg.1, 2nd Floor
Olympia, WA 98502

or Fax:
360-754-2939

The Board of Commissioners will have Work Sessions on Dec. 12 from 3 - 4pm and on Dec. 18 from 4 - 4:30pm to review amongst themselves all of the public input on the Comprehensive Plan.
The public is welcome to attend as observers only, however no public comments are permitted at these 2 sessions.

YELM'S WATER POLICIES "AN OLD IDEA & IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK ANY LONGER"
NPR's Fresh Air Program with Terri Gross aired this fascinating interview on November 27 with Peter Gleick,
a MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the Pacific Institute. Mr. Gleick runs one of the nation's leading water-conservation assessment centers.

Mr. Gleick was asked a question about water vs. growth that certainly echoes what is going on in Yelm and says such old-style thinking must change:

"In the past, the answer has been to build it and we'll figure out a way to get the water there and that worked to some degree in the 20th century, but it's not going
to work anymore.
The idea that we can grow without thinking about the resources that are available for that growth is an old idea and it's not going to work any longer.
It's time that we integrate growth and the concerns about growth with the decisions about water and frankly energy and all the other resources we use."

[Ed. Note: Nowhere is this exact observation more relevant than Yelm's City Council quest for growth and where anyone questioning that is called a critic and anti-growth. Yelm's water availability vs. all of the housing for which the city has accepted applications to supply that water are swiftly coming together in a major confluence. This is as critical as the traffic and storm water runoff issues, all making headlines here. Mayor Harding's column on growth last week in the NVN demonstrates old-style thinking that does not serve the city's future. Scroll down to the November 27th entry for more on Mr. Harding's remarks. And, Yelm Community Blog readers have been kept informed on this issue for over a year and a half!]

STATE'S LEGISLATION CITED FORCES YELM TO STOP USING LODGING TAX FOR HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM
This writer wrote the following letter to the City's Community & Government Relations Coordinator Cindy Teixeira and copied the City Council. No answer or acknowledgment by the Council was ever received:

Your Staff Report dated November 19th, 2007 about the Yelm Prairie Historical Society service provider contract said,
"Questions about using lodging taxes for the museum have arisen, however and we recommend (City staff to Council) that museum funding from that source cease until ownership conditions can be met. Clarification and research into appropriate legislation revealed a discrepancy about use of lodging taxes for operation of a museum housed in a facility not owned by the City of Yelm or the Historical Society. Alternatively, we would pay for the contracted services from the General Fund."

Could you please tell me what the city is going to do with the money it has already collected from the hotel lodging tax?

If legislation revealed a discrepancy about the use of lodging taxes for operation of a museum housed in a facility not owned by the City of Yelm or the Historical Society, then wouldn't the proper course of action be that the taxes previously collected be held in escrow until a permanent space is found where legislation would permit their use - i.e. a facility owned by the City or Yelm or the Historical Society ?

If the city already spent those taxes against "appropriate legislation", then shouldn't the city repay those taxes by putting that amount in escrow until we have a facility owned by the City of Yelm or the Historical Society and those monies can be spent according to the law?

WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT THESE ISSUES?