Yelm fire supporters to try again

Supporters of a proposal to annex the City of Yelm into the Yelm Fire District 2 will try again next year.

Yelm Mayor Ron Harding  told Rotary Club of Yelm  Tuesday morning that, while he isn’t directly involved, he thinks the fire committee will once again place an annexation proposal before the voters.

The ballot measure to annex the city into the fire district failed in the Primary election, but just barely.  Voters inside the city limits voted to approve the annexation, while those in the fire district voted no, by just about a dozen votes.

Mayor Harding said he was surprised since the measure would not have cost the fire district taxpayers anything.   The costs would have been borne by the resident of the city who currently pay about 68 cents per thousand of assessed value for fire services. 

If the measure had been approved, city residents would end up paying $1.50 per thousand, the same as the taxpayers in the fire district.

Harding said there was no choice but to once again run the measure, perhaps in February and hope to better educate voters.  “We just don’t have any better options,” he said.