Inside the City of Tumwater Date: March 18, 2022 To:
Mayor Debbie Sullivan City Councilmembers City Employees
From: John Doan, City Administrator
PEOPLE
Sustainability Coordinator Comes from Florida
The City’s first Sustainability Coordinator, Alyssa Jones Wood, is currently the Sustainability & Resiliency Officer for Hallandale Beach, Florida. She leads the work to implement the City’s Sustainability Action Plan and other related policies. She is a graduate of Florida Atlantic University, where she has a Bachelor’s in Environmental Science and a Master’s in Geoscience and Human and Environmental Sustainability. She has been an academic researcher, college instructor, environmental planner, and community garden coordinator. We look forward to welcoming Alyssa to Tumwater and the opposite corner of the nation.
Management Analyst Brings Ph.D. to City
As a result of police reform, the Police Department is adding a management analyst who will provide crime analysis in support of Police operations and data to support community education and engagement. Dr. Oliver Bowers will be joining the City soon. He recently graduated from WSU with a doctorate in Criminal Justice and Criminology. While at WSU, he taught numerous courses in the criminal justice program. Although born in the United Kingdom, he came to the US to study criminal justice and attend Missouri State University. He lives in West Olympia with his wife, a data analyst for the Administrator of the Courts. Welcome, Oliver!
Sorry to Announce
Cheri Lindgren, our friend and co-worker, passed away earlier this month. Cheri started with the City in 1974 and was employee #5. Although she retired once, she returned to work doing our payroll until a couple of years ago. Cheri will be missed but remembered fondly for her hard work, attention to detail, love of her grandkids, sense of humor, friendships, and smile. Our condolences to her family and friends.
Kudos to Our Employees
A happy resident contacted the City singing the praises of Transportation Lead Eldon Newell for Eldon’s snow plowing during a recent snowstorm in their neighborhood. Eldon also gave the man advice on tree pruning. The resident described Eldon as highly knowledgeable, “by the book,” and a good representative of the City. Thank you, Eldon!
An office manager at a local roofing company wrote to thank Kerri Kinnaird for helping her successfully complete permit applications and not being like other government agencies. She said that Kerri “was my Thursday blessing, and I hope you appreciate her as much as I do. She is a jewel.” Kerri, we do appreciate you! Former Olympia Fire Chief Larry Dibble wrote to give Hanna Miles feedback for helping him access the City records to find the history of the Fire Department. Kudos to Hanna for making it happen for our retired chief friend. An HOA president and a resident sent us thank-you messages recently. Mary Heather Ames and Ann Cook attended an Association meeting to discuss the Old Hwy 99 Project and respond to questions about the new O & M facility. “It's clear you heard our concerns and provided information about what kinds of interventions work and those that don't. We look forward to finding solutions. You navigated these discussions with transparency, and it was appreciated.” Thank you, Mary Heather and Ann! The West Thurston Fire Authority wrote to thank the Fire Department for assisting with their recent flooding events, specifically Assistant Chief Shawn Crimmins and Lt. Jon Kalar. We were called out for being “a strong mutual aid partner.” Finally, we received a nice note in praise of Police Officer Friedrich Jaeger for responding in a personal and timely way when the author’s daughter’s car was broken into. He said about Officer Jaeger and the Department, “what a great guy and so amazing how Tumwater Police Department responds to even the smallest insignificant things way to go!”
EVENTS Spring Recreation Classes
Classes and programs fill up quickly—check out the online catalog for youth and adult programs. Register today!
Summer Events Ready for Your Calendar
Mark your social calendar for these summer events: April 11-15: Where’s the PEEP Virtual Contest
April 16: Easter Egg Dash at Tumwater High School
April 23: Earth Day & Arbor Day at Historical Park
July 4th: Independence Day Parade and Fireworks July & August Fridays: Screen on the Green August 20: Artesian Brewfest
Riverwalk Guided Talks Return
Historian Don Trosper and the Olympia Tumwater Foundation are resuming the popular Riverwalk Talks. The first Walk of the year will be Monday, April 18, at 5 p.m. Check the Parks Department webpage for the schedule; pre-registration is required. The Parks and Recreation staff are working with the Health Department to ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols for employees and participants.
Juneteenth: The Newest Federal Holiday
As we near our first year celebrating Juneteenth in the City of Tumwater, let’s look at its history. Juneteenth grew out of the events of June 19, 1865 when the Union Army arrived to occupy Galveston, Texas, following the Civil War. It was the first day that the enslaved Africans being held in the city learned of the Emancipation Proclamation, the end of the War, and their subsequent freedom from slavery. The first Juneteenth was celebrated on June 19, 1866, known as Jubilee Day in Galveston. Although free, some cities barred black people from using public parks to celebrate because of state-sponsored segregation of facilities. To combat this, Black leaders in Texas raised $1,000 to purchase 10 acres of land to celebrate Juneteenth, now known as Houston’s Emancipation Park. The celebration grew to draw up to 30,000 people celebrating at Brooker T. Washington Park, established in 1898 for Juneteenth celebrations. Since then, the Juneteenth holiday has been celebrated as a “Second Independence Day” in some communities across the nation. The holiday has evolved to include Black American culture celebrations and encourage participation in civic life.
PLACES Annexations Moving Forward
Nine of the 12 proposed island annexations will be moving forward to the City Council for final adoption. Those annexations did not receive an appeal to the Boundary Review Board. There are still three annexations outstanding, with their appeal period ending April 1.
DRC Busy with Projects
The Development Review Committee has been busy and has done a preliminary review for 18,250 s.f. of a pre-engineered building at 2865 37th Ave. SW in the Mottman Business Park. They are also doing feasibility on a proposed short plat to create six pads on the properties for fast food restaurants, commercial retail, and a hotel at 1401 Kingswood. Other projects include a subdivision to allow a single-family house at 3338 Hawthorne Pl SE. and a proposed 3-story, 20-unit apartment building) at 7125 Littlerock Road for Preliminary Review. The Committee will be doing a formal review on a proposed 450,000 s.f. industrial building on 30 acres at 7901 Center Street SW. This portion of the Panattoni Port lease area was previously discussed as the first of the development in that lease area. Pocket gophers do not impact this property. The Committee will also be doing a feasibility review on two proposed warehouse buildings totaling 314,000 s.f. in that same development. These would be located just west of International Wood Products. They are also doing feasibility on a 10,000 s.f. storage building at 37th Avenue SW for L & E Bottling. Next week, they will review the feasibility of a 37,400 warehouse and office building for the Winemaker Depot at 8991 Select Ct. SE and the Preliminary Review of the development of six industrial buildings on 84 acres 2222 93rd Ave. SW. They reviewed the proposed restrooms for neighborhood parks
INSIDE THE CITY Illustrating our Mission, Vision, or Beliefs in Action. Like everyone, I hope this COVID story of the past two years is wrapping up. Time, the pandemic, and our behavior will tell us if it is over. Regardless - if there are
more surges and we have to return to protections, we’ve learned a lot. As we reflect on the past two years, the pandemic impacted us in a slew of negative ways. Tragically, many people across the nation did not survive, and many have lingering health issues from the disease. We all hope they can recover and that we don’t have additional surges and waves of cases. Nonetheless, I also think some things were good and could make our lives better into the future. From my own experience: •
Spending less time eating out and cooking at home helped me eat healthier and lose some weight.
•
Spending time at home focused on “making a house a home” and doing many of those projects that had been on the list for a long time.
•
I was reminded of the extraordinary respect I have for our community educators. They have stayed focused on teaching while pivoting to in-person, online, vaccinations, distancing, shortages of bus drivers, etc.
•
Having been isolated from family and friends, particularly in the early days of the pandemic, I was reminded of the importance of staying connected. In 2020 we did Zoom calls with friends we hadn’t seen for a long time; we need to continue to connect with people.
•
Not everyone will agree on this, but maybe there is something to the masks. Absent a pandemic, perhaps we don’t need them everywhere and all the time, but maybe there are places and times where they make sense - places with lots of people and where germs can be spread. Honestly, I will be one of the people wearing a mask at the airport and on a plane regardless of COVID.
•
I really missed going to the gym. But I was reminded of the incredible power of just taking a walk. 8,000 steps a day is a bunch of steps in the right direction.
•
Finally, mental health is essential, and we are all vulnerable. We talk about it more now. People ask how they decompress. They take mental health walks. We understand that having a difficult day or struggling with depression or anxiety aren’t weaknesses but can be reality just like a shoulder injury, cancer or high blood pressure.
What positive things did you take from the pandemic?
Administrative Services Department News March 2022 Enhancing the Safety Program The past two years have given new meaning to workplace health and safety. As we emerge from COVID life, the Central Safety Committee plans to focus on bringing a fresh take to our workplace safety program. This year we have replaced our Emergency Survival Kits and have updated workplace safety posters and bulletin boards across the City. Along with providing more supplies and resources, we are also conducting collaborative quarterly inspections for a proactive approach to maintaining a safe and healthy workforce. This quarter our focus will be incorporating various safety training offerings into the learning management system through LocalGovU. We look forward to building a participation-based incentive program that encourages worker involvement and engagement in our safety and health program. The City has recently partnered with the American Red Cross to host recurring blood donation drives. The Fire Department has offered to support these drives by opening their training room during donation hours. Stay tuned for more details about our first drive on May 25! Questions? Contact Lacy Neal, Safety Coordinator
What is WELLNESS? From your Wellness Committee Wellness is not a passive or static state but rather an “active pursuit” associated with intentions, choices, and actions as we work toward an optimal health and wellbeing state. Wellness is also linked to holistic health—that is, it extends beyond physical health and incorporates many different dimensions that should work in harmony. Most models of wellness include at least six dimensions: • • • • • •
Physical: Nourishing a healthy body through exercise, nutrition, sleep, etc. Mental: Engaging the world through learning, problem-solving, creativity, etc. Emotional: Being aware of, accepting, expressing our feelings, and understanding the feelings of others. Spiritual: Searching for meaning and higher purpose in human existence. Social: Connecting and engaging with others and our communities in meaningful ways. Environmental: Fostering positive interrelationships between planetary health and human actions, choices, and wellbeing.
The Wellness committee looks forward to encouraging and promoting your overall health and wellbeing in 2022 through events, webinars, surveys, and articles! Contact Juliann McGarva to get involved.
Welcome to our new Learning Management System! We have been working on a better way to give training courses to our employees, and are ready to introduce the LocalGovU training system. This system aims to give you better resources for onboarding materials, training opportunities, effectively track training and help us maintain a positive and productive work environment. Our first goal with the new learning management system is to get everyone’s account activated and take a learning course on cyber security. The importance of the cyber security course is to give everyone the knowledge of how our information stays protected and what we can do to help keep our information secure. It has already been identified that end-user training is one of the weakest links in cyber security. By offering a cyber-security course, we better prepare everyone to keep our information and systems safe.
Cyber Security With digitally stored information and systems becoming more and more vital to our lives every day, it’s important to keep them safe from cyber threats. We aren’t able to protect ourselves against a threat that we do not know about, and cybersecurity protection can often be overlooked. Here is some helpful information regarding cybersecurity and how to stay protected by understanding the various types of cybersecurity threats and using better practices. The common types of threats or exploits for IT systems are listed below.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7. 8.
Phishing: Emails, texts, or pop-ups that seem urgent and request that you share your confidential info. They will impersonate reputable companies and are getting harder and harder to recognize. A legitimate business will not request that you send your personal information through unsecured channels. Brute-force: A cyber-attack where the attacker eventually submits many passwords or passphrases to guess correctly. Alternatively, they can attempt to guess the key, typically created from the password. This is also known as exhaustive key search. SQL Injection: a code injection technique used to attack data-driven applications, in which malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field for execution (to dump the database contents to the attacker). They must exploit a security vulnerability in an application’s software. Zero-Day Attacks: A computer software vulnerability is either unknown to those interested in its mitigation (including the vendor of the target software) or known and without a patch to correct it. Hackers can exploit the vulnerability to adversely affect programs, data, additional computers, or a network until the vulnerability is mitigated. Lateral Movement: the techniques that cyber attackers use to progressively move through a network as they search for the key data and assets that ultimately target their attack campaigns. Privilege Escalation: The act of exploiting a bug, a design flaw, or a configuration oversight in an operating system or software application to gain elevated access to resources that are normally protected from an application or user. The result is that an application with more privileges than intended by an application developer or system administrator can perform unauthorized actions. Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS): Cyber-attack where perpetrator takes control of your computer to hack into other computers and generally includes sending massive amounts of data to websites or spam to email addresses. Advanced Persistent Threat: A stealthy threat actor (cyber attacker), typically a nation-state or state-sponsored group, gains unauthorized access to a computer network and remains undetected for an extended period. The term may also refer to non-state-sponsored groups conducting large-scale targeted intrusions for specific goals in recent times.
These threats can cause major problems for our organization, and there are many different ways to protect ourselves from these attacks. The common cybersecurity best practices are listed below. 1. 2. 3.
4.
5.
6. 7. 8.
User Education: By educating our users on cyber security threats and best practices, everyone is better prepared to protect our databases and recognize a potential cyber-attack. Zero-Trust: An approach to the design and implementation of IT systems. The main concept behind this security model is “never trust, always verify,” which means that devices will not be trusted by default, even if they are connected to a permissioned network such as a corporate LAN and even if they were previously verified. Asset management: A business practice that involves managing and optimizing the purchase, deployment, maintenance, utilization, and disposal of software applications within an organization. The goals of SAM are to reduce IT costs and limit business and legal risk related to the ownership and use of software while maximizing IT responsiveness and end-user productivity. Multi-factor Authorization: An electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence to an authentication mechanism: knowledge (something only the user knows), possession (something only the user has), and inherence (something only the user is). End-to-end Encryption: A communication system where only the communicating users can read the messages. In principle, it prevents potential eavesdroppers-including telecom providers, internet providers, malicious state bodies, and even the communication service provider- from being able to access the cryptographic keys needed to decrypt the conversation. Password Managers: A computer program allows users to store, generate, and manage their passwords for local applications and online services. It assists in generating and retrieving complex passwords, storing such passwords in an encrypted database, or calculating them on demand. Data Back-ups: A copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form refers to the process of doing so. Routine Maintenance (vs. Deferred Maintenance): Maintenance done to computer hardware or software application to keep your computer more secure, faster, and less cluttered regularly.
If you feel that you have experienced any of the above attacks, please reach out to IT as soon as possible to resolve the issue. By following these best practices and refreshing our knowledge on cyber security procedures, we can maintain a safe and secure database where all of our information is well protected.
Police Department Monthly Report
To:
John Doan, City Administrator
From:
Jon Weiks, Chief of Police
Date:
March 15, 2022
Re:
February 2022
CRIMINAL ACTIVITY 22-0179 Mail Theft/Possession of Stolen Property - A Tumwater officer was in the area of Capitol Boulevard at Lee Street when she observed a vehicle traveling on Lee Street that matched the description of a vehicle involved in a mail theft from two days earlier. The officer conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle to identify the suspects and continue the mail theft investigation. During the stop, Tumwater officers were dispatched to a report of a mail theft that had just occurred in the neighborhood the officer saw the suspects coming from. The officer obtained identification from the female driver and discovered she had multiple warrants for her arrest. The male passenger reported he did not have identification and verbally identified himself. The witness of the mail theft responded to the scene and confirmed it was the same vehicle involved in the mail theft that had just occurred and provided a photo that matched the vehicle the officer had stopped. The officer observed mail strewn about the suspect’s vehicle and confirmed she had located the suspects involved in the recent mail thefts. Due to multiple pending calls for service, both suspects were arrested only for their outstanding arrest warrants and transported to jail. The suspect vehicle was impounded to the police department for processing at a later date. The arresting officer later applied for and was granted a search warrant for the vehicle. The subsequent search of the vehicle revealed several stolen items of mail and some packages. Multiple victims were identified. Multiple charges of Mail Theft and Possession of Stolen Property were referred to the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office for consideration. The recovered mail was later turned over to the U.S. Postal Inspector to return to the victims. 22-0213 Trespassing - Tumwater officers were dispatched to an apartment complex for a report of an unknown male inside an apartment. The reporting party reported he woke up and found an unknown male inside his apartment, on his couch. The reporting party contacted his son, who was also home, and inquired if he knew the suspect, to which the answer was no. The suspect then got up and wandered around the apartment, making no attempt to leave, and poured a glass of milk. The reporting party advised dispatch he had retrieved a firearm, and he and his son waited in a separate room until law enforcement arrived. Upon the officers’ arrival, they located the suspect still in the victim’s apartment. The suspect complied with officers’ orders and exited the apartment. The suspect seemed confused about why officers contacted him and reported that management had let him into the apartment. That was
confirmed to be untrue. It was unclear if the suspect was under the influence of an unknown substance, had mental health issues, or both. The suspect was arrested and booked into the Nisqually Jail for Trespassing. 22-0242 Burglary 2nd - Tumwater officers were dispatched to a burglary now at a local commercial office building. Two independent witnesses reported observing a male shatter a window of the building and make entry. Upon officers’ arrival, they observed the entry door window was shattered and they did not locate anyone on the outside of the building. Multiple officers entered the building and located the subject hiding in a third-floor bathroom. The suspect complied with officers’ commands and was taken into custody without further incident. The suspect was wet and disheveled and based on the suspect’s utterances, officers believed he was under the influence of an unknown substance. The suspect was transported and booked at the Thurston County Jail for Burglary 2nd Degree.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG DROPBOX The public deposited 70 pounds of prescription drugs in February and a total of 140 pounds for the year.
BUDGET At the end of the month, the police department budget is 13% spent for the year and 52% spent for the biennium.
K-9 STATISTICS K9 James spent the month recovering from a leg injury sustained during training,
SRO ACTIVITY School Resource Officer Rollman assisted Tumwater Middle School staff with a student in crisis. The student was upset about an incident that occurred at home the night before. School Resource Officer Rollman provided the student with guidance and referred her to the school counselor to get additional assistance. School Resource Officer Boling responded to a report of a disorderly student at Tumwater Middle School. The student acted unruly and threw things, but agreed to calm down if School Resource Officer Boling responded and talked with him. School Resource Officer Boling responded and met with the student, who calmed down and discussed his behavior. Upon the arrival of the student’s parent, the student was taken home and the incident was resolved. School Resource Officer Rollman responded to a report of an unruly student at Michael T. Simmons. The student damaged property threw rocks at the Principal, and left campus. School Resource Officer Rollman was able to locate the student and upon contact the student agreed to return to campus. The student’s parent responded to the school and the school resolved the remainder of the incident. School Resource Officer Boling investigated an incident involving Tumwater High School students who had taken a water gun to school and shot students with water pellets. School Resource Officer Boling provided counsel to the students and the matter was turned over to the school administrators to handle any discipline.
CODE ENFORCEMENT Code Enforcement opened four cases this month: • utility trailer full of garbage parked on a residential street • inoperable vehicle parked in the parking lot of an unoccupied business
• •
trash accumulating outside a residence trash being stored outside a residence
Code Enforcement closed three cases this month: • overgrown vegetation from one property damaging the fence of the bordering property was resolved after issuance of a courtesy letter. • graffiti on the exterior of an unoccupied business was resolved after issuance of a courtesy letter. • inoperable vehicles parked at a residential property resolved after issuance of a courtesy letter. Code Enforcement currently has 14 active cases.
QUANTIFIABLE ACTIVITY
Calls for Service Self-Initiated* Arrests Citations Issued New Cases – Investigations Public Disclosure Requests CPL/Gun Transfers Court Documents Evidence Overtime Annual Leave Sick Leave
*
2022 1,302 780 35 29
Monthly 2021 1,280 1,547 39 78
% Changed 2% -50% -10% -63%
2022 2,697 1,680 59 47
20
17
18%
68
77
104 89 115 284 296 176
Year to Date 2021 2,768 3,058 91 132
% Changed -3% -45% -35% -64%
40
34
18%
-12%
158
163
-3%
74 39 149
41% 128% -23%
235 155 239
190 111 265
24% 40% -10%
168 169 205
69% 75% -14%
807 589 635
670 299 372
20% 97% 71%
Self-Initiated includes investigative follow-ups, civil paperwork service, area checks, business checks, school visits, resident contacts, traffic stops and back-up activity.
PERSONNEL • •
Laura Wohl, Administrative Manager – 4 years Rachael Black, Officer – 3 years
TRAINING • • • • • • • • • •
Two members completed the three-day TASER Instructor training Three members attended Draeger/SFST refresher training Two members attended a one-day CPR Instructor course Four members attended a two-day Use of Force Core Principles course One member attended a one-day Intro to Communication Technology Four TPD members of Thurston County SWAT attended monthly training One member completed a one-week Defensive Tactics Instructor training One TPD member of Thurston County Crisis Response attended team training One member completed a 21-day Racial Equity Challenge training One member attended a Criminal Legal System webinar
•
•
Sixteen members completed a one-day Department Training day covering Patrol Tactics, Defensive Tactics, The WRAP system, Capitol Metro Independent Investigation Team overview, and Legislative Update. One member completed a one-week EVOC Instructor course
463 total training hours COMMUNITY ACTIVITY Services and Transport Officer Patrick Long and Volunteer Dianne Powers represented the Police Department at the Susitna neighborhood Homeowners Association meeting.
TUMWATER FIRE DEPARTMENT
MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF The City and all levels of government must be prepared to respond to various emergencies. "Public Safety" is a priority and is generally thought of as police, fire, and emergency medical response on a day-to-day basis. Larger emergencies, however, require coordination between all City departments and government agencies. Earthquakes, storms, flooding, and other natural or human-caused events require a coordinated response through an Emergency Management system. Emergency Management (EM) creates a framework to help communities reduce vulnerabilities to threats and hazards and cope with disasters. EM is an essential role of government tasked to local and State government with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) resources as a backup. Investments in coordinated EM planning and training are key to effective response and recovery from any disaster. An EM program includes prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery components. The City has a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan that provides for maintaining an Emergency Operations Center at the headquarters fire station and training City staff on Emergency Management topics. Public education efforts and coordination with other agencies such as Thurston County are also important. On June 14 City staff will be participating in the Cascadia Rising 2022 exercise in cooperation with Thurston County Emergency Management. This training exercise will focus on response operations in the aftermath of a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. A primary focus of this exercise is impacts on transportation in the affected areas.
Brian Hurley MEDICAL SERVICES OFFICER Tumwater, Olympia, and Lacey Fire District #3 are all actively looking to fill open firefighter/paramedic positions. The application period has closed for the current process. If you are interested in future openings, please visit our City of Tumwater employment page. Crews ran on ten cardiac arrest calls during the month. The Department also partnered with Medic One to provide CPR classes for ten residents. If you are interested in attending a class, they are provided at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month. Contact Medic One at (360) 704-2780 to register.
March 2022
COMMUNITY OUTREACH During the month of March, several of our firefighters and paramedics were invited to Tumwater and Olympia schools to teach CPR to the students.
TUMWATER FIRE DEPARTMENT NEWS | March 2022
2
OPERATIONS
TRAINING
In the early evening, crews responded to a report of a trash fire between two buildings. The location of the fire was against a wall and under a covered breezeway. The fire was contained quickly and didn't extend into the building space or attic.
During the last several months crews were provided training on trench rescue awareness, electric vehicle considerations, and quarterly Washington administrative code (WAC) training. Trench rescue incidents do not happen often, but they are long and technically demanding when they do. Under Washington State law, rescuers can't enter an unprotected trench greater than four feet deep. On this type of incident in Thurston County, the Thurston County Special Operations Rescue Team (TCSORT) will be requested to respond. TCSORT is a team of over 40 members from seven different agencies that have specialized training and equipment. This equipment includes 4’ x 8’ panels and pneumatic struts to "shore" up the trench and make it safe for rescue crews to enter. Before TCSORT arrives, local fire crews determine how many people are in the collapse zone, secure the area, determine what utilities may be in the area, and gather information from witnesses. Equipment is stored at three different fire departments in the county, and when a TCSORT response is activated, crews from the stations that have equipment respond along with other on-duty and off-duty TCSORT members.
In March, the Department partnered with Olympia Fire to transfer one of our aid units.
With the increase in electric vehicles (EV), a new hazard is being presented to fire departments worldwide. This hazard is vehicle battery fires. When an EV is involved in an accident, the batteries can be damaged and cause a fire. These batteries are encased in a water-tight protected case, making it difficult for firefighters to get water into these protected cases. There have been several occurrences where the fires reignite even after the fire is extinguished. Energy remains in the battery and can cause re-ignition hours and even days later. Adding to the challenge is that when firefighters need to extricate patients that have been involved in an accident using the Jaws of Life, they have to be careful not to damage the batteries housed under the vehicle. Firefighters need to train on new technologies for effective and safe responses.
Transportation & Engineering Water Resources & Sustainability March 2022 PERSONNEL UPDATES & ANNIVERSARIES
PROJECTS IN DESIGN
Steve Craig WRS Operations Manager | 03/09/1990, 32 yrs.
Improvements Design
Kelly Crawford Construction Inspector | 3/14/1990, 32 yrs.
Danny Miller Construction Inspector | 3/23/1992, 30 years Jerry Leaming WRS/TED Electrician | 03/02/1998, 24 yrs.
TRANSPORTATION & ENGINEERING PROJECTS IN CONSTRUCTION Interstate 5 / Trosper Road/ Capitol Boulevard Reconfiguration Project – Building Demolition
The building demolition project continues with the
contractor actively working at two separate sites: 5301 Capitol Boulevard and 348 Lee Street. The existing
Israel Road / Linderson Way Pedestrian & Bicycle This
much-needed
bike
and
pedestrian
facility
improvement project will provide increased safety along
Israel Road from Capitol Boulevard to Linderson Way. The project includes pedestrian crossings, sidewalks, curb
ramps, pavement work, and bike lanes. Funds recently awarded to the project will allow for upgrading of undersized and damaged water lines. Preliminary
engineering to include project scoping and preliminary design work has begun. Streets The Street Department completed repairs to a section of Tumwater Valley Drive SE washed out during the most recent flooding event.
building at the 5301 Capitol Boulevard site has been razed and building material has been hauled off the site. Backfill
of the site will occur mid-March, then the final removal of surface features will be completed. At 348 Lee Street, the
contractor has razed both buildings, removing waste
material. The demolition project is scheduled to be
completed in March 2022.
Tumwater Valley Drive SE during the flood event
Tumwater Valley Drive SE after repair work completed
WATER RESOURCES & SUSTAINABILITY Stormwater Management Action Plan Water Resources and Sustainability staff are currently
working on a new stormwater requirement, the Stormwater Management Action Plan (SMAP.) The goal
of the SMAP is to help identify and prioritize areas around
the City that would receive the most benefit in water
quality improvement. The first step is to determine where
all the stormwater in Tumwater flows. A drop of rain that
runs off a hard surface in Tumwater goes to seven main receiving waters, including the Deschutes River, Percival
Creek, and Capitol Lake. The second step is to prioritize the need for improvement in smaller catchment areas, based on several factors, including: • • • • • •
current water quality
amount of hard or impervious area
tree canopy cover
development zoning
land use
work within a two-week window, supported by all the utilities crews. While some work remains, the emergency
issues have been resolved, and plans are in place to limit the potential for major impacts soon. Great work by all. Water Mike Erickson, Cody Scharber, and Jeff Cota, along with
support from the storm and sewer crews, worked
together to dewater the crawl space under the Old Brewhouse Tower to allow engineers access to inspect the
footings and support structure of the building.
The engineers accessed the crawl space below the Tower
after a day and a half of pumping. As they entered the
crawl space to complete their inspection, they found the
“crawl space” was 14 feet high instead of the expected 4.5foot space. Approximately 278,000 gallons of water were
pumped out for the inspection to happen. Thanks to Wes Holmgren and all Operations staff that helped to make this happen.
historical investment in the area
We are looking to identify the areas that will see the most
water quality and habitat improvement with more
specifically tailored stormwater management techniques.
Over the next year, staff will be creating a tailored plan,
the SMAP, for our highest ranked area. The City will
receive $150,000 from the Department of Ecology to help
create and implement three SMAPs for our three highest
priority areas. We are excited to work closely with the communities within these catchment areas to improve water quality!
OPERATIONS Sewer Evan Ozasa and the sewer crew have been busy keeping
the wastewater flowing after several sewer main
blockages caused overflows into the storm system and local creeks and rivers. These blockages originated from
a gas main bored through a sewer lateral, a root-bound
residential lateral, and a failed concrete pipe connection
serving the Tumwater Valley Golf Club. Cory Hale, Jacob
Norton, Rich Hutchins, and Cody Smith stepped up to mitigate the overflows and complete emergency repair
Old Brewhouse Tower repairs