Every year the taxable sales report for Thurston County during the Third Quarter usually drops. This time it dropped close to 9 percent, and lower numbers have continued to show up on reports for the last seven quarters in a row, according to state Department of Revenue data released Thursday, January 15, this year.

In the State of Washington, taxable retail sales fell 11.6 percent from the previous year. This is the third-largest decline on record so far. The City of Yelm fell 17.29 percent to $35.7 million from $43.2 million the previous year.

Notwithstanding, Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment’s (RSE) demographic reports show a contribution to the local economy during the last Third Quarter by RSE students of $642,250, which is 1.8% of Yelm’s $35.7 million total retail sales. Furthermore, RSE’s demographic reports for the entire 2009 show a significant increase in local spending by RSE students from the previous year, a new record of $2,709,613 reported by 6,767 students who participated in the demographic survey.

Quite impressive, being in a major recession as the data shows!

Students of Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment are proud to contribute to the local economy and private businesses of this community.

On December 8, 2009, the Yelm City Council approved placing the Regional Fire District Consolidation measure on the ballot February 9, 2010.

All registered voters in the City of Yelm & County Fire Districts 2 & 4 will get an opportunity to vote on the merger to be under one umbrella of the Southeast Thurston Regional Fire Authority.

If approved, this will eliminate a lot of redundant administrative and duplicate office expenses & allow the Fire Authority to operate more efficiently.

View the ordinance the Yelm City Council approved unanimously.

Ballots will be mailed the week of January 18, 2010.

JZ Knight is a strong proponent of this ballot measure.

Southeast Thurston Fire/EMS

JZ Knight has been very impressed with the responsive, proficient and courteous manner of Southeast Thurston Fire/EMS personnel whenever their services are required at Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment or Ms. Knight’s home and she committed $10,000 each month from October to December, 2009 as a way to acknowledge their work.

Southeast Thurston Fire/EMS has reported a budget reduction this year of $180,000 due to tax receipts tied to dropping property assessments in the current economic environment. Knight is very aware of the difficult challenges facing the local Fire Commissioners & the Fire Chief to maintain services and existing response times the public expects and demands in emergency situations. In response, Knight has pledged $100,000 in 2010 to Southeast Thurston Fire/EMS for their general operational fund or to where the greatest community benefit would be derived.

Knight is an advocate for the Fire Consolidation issue to be on the ballot in February, 2010 – a proposal to consolidate the City of Yelm and two neighboring fire districts into the Southeast Thurston Regional Fire Authority. Under the authority, property owners in all three districts would pay the same tax rate for fire and basic emergency medical response at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The result would entail higher taxes for city residents, yet would not change the rate for those living in the rural fire districts. The City of Yelm’s contract for fire and emergency medical response will expire at the end of 2010. With the consolidation under a Regional Fire Authority, neighboring fire districts will be able to eliminate duplicative administrative positions, allowing them to place additional resources towards front-line response. Additionally, for the first time, residents in the City of Yelm will be able to vote for Fire Commissioners and fire issues.

This is also a gift from Knight to the greater Yelm Community.

A recent donation from JZ Knight to the Southeast Thurston Fire/EMS was a way to say thank you for their professional services. The donation went to the department’s smoke detector and battery program and other public education and community projects. Southeast Thurston Fire/EMS Chief Rita Hutcheson & her staff have been very responsive, proficient and courteous whenever their services are required at Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment or Ms. Knight’s home. Ms. Knight wishes to acknowledge through this contribution the current economic environment that has led to cutbacks in public services, forcing difficult decisions for the Fire Commissioners and local representatives just to maintain current response times and citizen services. The Fire Consolidation issue to be on the ballot in February, 2010 is strongly supported by Ms. Knight.

An Unique & Rare Invitation or Opportunity
Bonhams’ The JZ Knight Collection
Catalogue Now Online
Sunday 27 September 2009 at 10am
Los Angeles

View the online catalogue

Auction enquiries

Viewing times

“I have enjoyed a passion for collecting the works of geniuses using my unique gifts and abilities. I have the remarkable ability to go back in time and connect with the artist, the craftsman, or painter. Feeling their creativity inside me, I began collecting a variety of beautiful and rare items. This has been a life long passion of mine. Each piece of my vast collection involved a unique journey of acquisition. Each piece has its own story and exquisite history — I cherish them all. After years of requests from private collectors and famed auction houses to sell or release parts of my collection, I have agreed to share them with those who can have keen insight into the genius and beauty of each piece.” – JZ Knight

Bonhams & Butterfields is pleased to announce the September 27, 2009 auction of The JZ Knight Collection. Amassed over a decade, the Collection will feature eclectic and unique examples of period furniture, decorative arts, carpets and paintings from the 17th through 20th centuries with a particular focus on European and American elegance.

Each item on offer during the 500-lot sale has been personally selected by Knight to reflect her passion for rare and unique items. Featured works from the Los Angeles-based auction include a discerning selection of 20th Century design as well as a diverse array of European furnishings, decorative arts, carpets and paintings.

To arrange a confidential auction appraisal with a view to selling, please contact:
Andrew Jones
furniture.us@bonhams.com
+1 (323) 436 5432

If you want to be kept informed about your area(s) of interest click here.

The Olympian reported on Tuesday, August 18 in their front-page story titled “Yelm drops water rights proposal” that the city’s mitigated determination of non-significance (MDNS) has been withdrawn due to lack of additional water rights granted in 2009 by the Dept. of Ecology, a significant development.

“The city had proposed to boost its water supply five times above its current allotment by 2037, in part to supply a new 5,000 home development called Thurston Highlands” reported The Olympian.

Read the full Olympian article online

Read the city’s letter of the MDNS withdrawal.

In a landmark decision the City of Yelm has withdrawn their MDNS citing lack of new DOE approved water rights in 2009.

This is a major change in direction coming from the city and indicates that my efforts and actions by other citizens to stop the city from their intent to pump huge amounts of water from the area’s aquifer have been heard by the State.

After all, Ecology received 100 citizen comments AGAINST the city’s MDNS and not one letter in support of this plan.

The City of Yelm is at or near pumping their 2009 water allocation by Ecology, so any more expansion in the city without further water rights approvals is severely hampered.

My full-page ads in area newspapers went a long way to educate city, county & state officials about the facts of the city’s MDNS.

Read the city’s letter of the MDNS withdrawal.

Read JZ Knight’s comments to the City of Yelm about the Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) regarding the city’s Draft Water System Plan

Retail Trade Continues to Fall in Thurston County, except in Yelm where it rose 4.69% in the First Quarter of 2009

RSE Students inject $2,626,050 into the Local Economy in 2008 and more than $1.5 million in the First Half of 2009. Could this be the factor of Yelm’s unprecedented growth in the middle of a major recession?

SEE THE FULL PAGE ADD HERE

Mayor Ron Harding stated in his July 17, 2009 monthly column in the Nisqually Valley News (NVN) that the City of Yelm is attempting to secure additional water rights though what he says is “a difficult task, compounded by outside interests who would stymie our efforts and stop all progress.”

Harding did not state what outside interests he was referring, yet the inference was clear. I took out a full-page paid-advertisement in the NVN July 8, 2009 to set the record straight about the City’s misleading comments and disparaging remarks about citizens who speak out against improper and unlawful conduct printed in copious amounts of space in the NVN May 22 and May 29. Interesting to note the city’s and newspaper’s silence about my advertisement correcting their misinformation.

See that ad here.

What Mayor Harding needs reminding is that property owners inside city limits and owners peripheral to the city who are using the same aquifer as the city are all affected by the illegitimate use of local aquifer resources because the city has not been following procedures put in effect to preserve the use of those resources for private use, without impairment.

The City of Yelm has continued to maintain in their Draft Water System Plan, their MDNS & DNS that the huge increases in pumping water will have no environmental impact. The city has been relying on adding more water rights through the application to transfer the McMonigle water rights to the City of Yelm and has been using these requested but not approved additional water rights to justify they have enough water the last few years for increased city expansion. On July 20, 2009, Ecology REVERSES the decision of the Thurston County Conservancy Board and now says the City of Yelm is not approved to use the privately contracted water from the McMonigle water rights, leaving Yelm in a precarious position where their Draft Water System Plan may not be viable and the city could already be pumping more water than their allocated 796 acre feet per year.

The lack of regard for the environment by the City of Yelm has finally been noted in a landmark decision rendered by Ecology.

A Citizen Responds…

As you may recall:

Back in May, the City of Yelm issued a baffling MDNS (Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance) for an incomplete and unapproved draft Water Mitigation Plan -

in which the City of Yelm determined

- that a proposed five-fold increase in pumping City water “will not have a probable significant adverse environmental impact on the local aquifer”.

JZ Knight bought space for full page ads in the Nisqually Valley News (NVN) & The Olympian to alert citizens to the City’s failure to protect the local aquifer and to provide a reasonable opportunity for citizen input. [see that ad here]

JZ Knight, the Squaxin Island Indian Tribe, and the Yelm Aquifer Preservation Society have appealed the MDNS. Over 100 comment letters were written by citizens – all opposing the City’s improper MDNS. [see all of the comments here]

The NVN used copious amounts of space in its May 22nd and May 29th editions to publish the City’s misleading comments and disparaging remarks about citizens who speak out against improper and unlawful City conduct;

and now

JZ Knight buys space in the NVN and NVN Shopper the week of July 8th, yet again, to set the record straight:
See Full Copy of Ad Here