Board Minutes Oct 2025

South Capitol Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Minutes
Weds, Oct 8, 2025 6:30 – 8 pm
Lincoln Elementary School library

Note: On October 13, 2025, Blake Melancon made a motion to approve the October 8, 2025 board minutes via email vote. Gordon White seconded with one addition – adding his name to the members in attendance list. Ten board members voted in favor, and the motion passed.

Introductions and Call Meeting to Order
Members of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association (SCNA) Board in attendance:
John Saunders, President
Gerry Apple, Vice President
Sue Hedrick, Secretary
Morgan Montes, Treasurer
Gordon White, Eric Seder, Kelley Dolan, Nora Hawkins, Lorie Hewitt, Tyler Graber, Blake Melancon, Valerie Hammett, At Large members

John called the meeting to order.

Approval of Today’s Draft Agenda
Sue asked that an additional item – Public Works photo shoot – be added to the agenda for discussion. Gordon moved to approve the agenda as amended, Lorie seconded, and the motion was approved unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report – Morgan Montes
Morgan went over the written report she previously sent to the board members, which is under Written Reports at the end of the minutes.

Port of Olympia Proposed Airport Master Plan presentation – Gordon White with guest Ronda Larson Kramer

Gordon introduced Ronda, a local attorney who has been very involved in advocating to the port for a more complete environmental review of the Port of Olympia’s proposed master plan update.

Gordon said it is a key step for developing larger jet plane capacity. To accommodate commercial jet flights, the flight path would likely use South Capitol neighborhood airspace. This is many years away, but now is a good time to understand it and begin to think about our neighborhood’s interests in such an expansion.

Ronda is a member of Stop Olympia Airport Growth, residents who are concerned about the negative impact of an ever-expanding Olympia Airport. She walked through a powerpoint presentation she created about the Olympia Airport Master Plan Update to explain why the public should oppose this version of it and steps to take for opposing it.

She began with a short history about port districts and how they were created with the passage of the 1911 Port District Act, which made port districts independent to avoid special interests. Ronda said ports lack checks and balances and now special interests dominate some Washington ports. Money is the number one priority and everything else is an afterthought. It is also hidden from view – most people never interact with the port.

The Olympia Port Commission manages the Olympia Regional Airport, and any airports that receive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding must have a master plan, which is a 20-year forecast.

Master plans must look at multiple alternative scenarios including a “do-nothing” one. The port must assess each scenario’s ability to accommodate the forecast, assess environmental and financial constraints, and pick a preferred alternative.

Ronda said the port predicts that aviation demand will increase by 1% per year at the Olympia airport. But the master plan update proposals far exceed that growth projection. She said it’s possible the port may be trying to become an air cargo distribution center, which would explain why it is so focused on building lots of warehouses.

The Olympia Airport Master Plan Update includes:

• 610 parking spaces
• 131 new hangars for more aircraft, including larger jets
• 259,000 square foot area for passenger/cargo aircraft loading and unloading
• Six gates
• A 40,000 square foot deicing pad
• Another helipad to accommodate more noisy helicopter traffic
• A 40,000 square foot passenger terminal
• Taxiway changes to increase capacity
• A new turf runway, which could be lead to a paved runway in the future

Ronda listed a number of concerns including:

• Lead in airplane fuel, a known health concern, especially for children
• Aircraft emissions that are elevated around airports and drift for miles
• Olympia’s frequent temperature inversions that trap pollution near to the ground
• Increased helicopter and aircraft noise

The port has said the proposals in the plan are just conceptual, but Ronda said the port’s director of operations wrote that the master plan is charting a course for the airport for the next 10 years.

And, in the past, the port has said one thing and done another. In 1994, the port said that the airport wasn’t planning for any changes. But when it said that, it had already paid a consultant to study airport expansion, which it called a “market study.” The port wouldn’t give a copy of the study to the public. And just after that, it bought out homes and demolished them in preparation for extending the runway. It ultimately extended the runway by 40%.

She gave other examples of actions the port took to expand. In 2005, the port extended the main runway by 10% to allow more types of jets to land so that higher speed business jets could use the airport. In 2006, it strengthened the main runway to increase capacity. In 2022, it signed the Swire Lease to turn 95 acres into a massive warehouse with a 75-year lease. And in 2023, the port told the Capitol Little League it would need to move in the near future to make way for aeronautical use.

Ronda said the port’s preferred alternative is to put passenger service infrastructure on top of Capitol Little League’s fields. She showed some photos of this and also impacts of the Swire Lease which are not mentioned in the master plan or the SEPA review. She also shared a link to a website showing live flight paths near the Olympia airport.

Ronda said that well-functioning rail is gaining momentum, and expanding regional airports will delay it. Yakima wants to be the next large airport, and building fast rail across the Cascades could make that happen. It would solve the problem of SeaTac Airport overflowing, and undercut any economic justification to expand the Olympia Regional Airport.

Ronda listed some things that people can do:

• 1. Sign the petition 
• 2. Join them in meeting one-on-one with elected officials
• 3. Give public comment at Tumwater City Council meetings
• 4. Donate to the legal fund

She also mentioned two port candidates in the upcoming election that support the group’s concerns.

John and Gordon thanked Ronda for coming to the meeting and sharing this information with the board. 

Neighborhood Engagement Subcommittee discussion – Kelley Dolan, Nora Hawkins, Tyler Graber, Morgan Montes

At the board’s last meeting in September, attendees discussed how the board might reach out to neighborhood residents proactively to find out what they are interested in or concerned about. One idea was to do a survey, asking residents what things they would like the board to focus on.

Nora, Kelley, Morgan and Tyler volunteered to work on this and bring it back to the board at the October meeting for further discussion.

Morgan said the subcommittee created an action plan and a draft survey for the board to review. Their plan is to have the survey run from Oct 15 through Oct 30th, and they’ll publicize it via flyers, the neighborhood listserv, and a blog post on our website.

Once the survey is closed, the subcommittee will analyze the data, make recommendations to the board at a future meeting, and then communicate results and board actions with the neighborhood via a blog post on our website.

John made a suggestion to add a place on the survey for folks to note what they are – renter, homeowner, business owner. Kelley asked why this information would be important. John said there’s been a lot of interest from the city about whether neighborhood associations are reaching out to and receiving input from everyone in the neighborhood, particularly renters.

Nora made a motion for the subcommittee to move forward on the timeline and the draft survey – updated with any changes and additions – and send out a new draft next week to the board members. Gerry seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Proposed Guidance on Offering Free Items at Curbside – Morgan Montes
Recently, a number of neighborhood residents commented on an email sent to the neighborhood listserv about putting free items out for anyone to take. Board members discussed whether it might be helpful to follow up on the recent discussion by sending out a blog post with helpful suggestions.

It was noted that since the South Capitol neighborhood is not a homeowners association (HOA), it has no covenants or rules that residents are required to follow. The South Capitol also has a longstanding tradition of sharing free items in the neighborhood in various ways.

It was ultimately agreed that since the listserv conversation was resolved with those who wanted to comment having done so, it was not deemed necessary to do anything more.

Update on extra yard waste bins for residents on Capitol Way during October – Morgan Montes
At the September board meeting, Morgan had suggested the board ask the city for an extra yard waste bin during the month of October for residents along Capitol Way to put the street tree leaves in.

Morgan said she reached out to Cameron Coronado, stormwater specialist in the Olympia Public Works Department, but no bin has been promised yet. Cameron said they are awaiting the results of the Adopt-a-Drain survey to see what barriers there might be for participating in the program.

Gordon suggested that city staff could also involve the Stream Team with this effort. The Stream Team Program is funded and jointly managed by the Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater and Thurston County stormwater utilities. Morgan said she will follow up with Cameron to suggest this idea.

City of Olympia Public Works Photoshoot – Sue Hedrick
Sue mentioned that she did a blog post recently, at Cameron’s request, to encourage folks in the neighborhood to fill out an Adopt-a-Drain survey. Sue shared a link to the post with Cameron, who thanked her for doing it.

He also took the opportunity to mention that the Public Works department would like to do a photoshoot of residents in the neighborhood clearing storm drains and keeping sidewalks clear. City staff have two (weather-dependent) dates set: Nov 5th from 3:30-5 pm and Nov 12th from 9:30-11 am, and Cameron wondered if anyone in our neighborhood would be interested in being in the photoshoot.

Sue said she would bring this request up at the October board meeting. Two board members agreed to participate. John suggested that Cameron send a note to our neighborhood listserv to request additional volunteers.

Sue said she will follow-up with Cameron on this.

Update on Home Conversions to Businesses – John Saunders
John said that Olympia City Councilmembers Clark Gilman, Robert Vanderpool, Kelly Green and Dani Madrone have now done walkarounds through the neighborhood with some South Capitol residents to see and hear our concerns about vacant lobbyist residences. All of the city council members were invited, but we haven’t heard back from all of them yet.

John also noted that Clark Gilman spoke up at the Olympia City Council’s Sept 16, 2025 study session in support of our neighborhood’s concerns about residences being purchased and used for businesses, not homes, often sitting vacant for months at a time. This was in response to a director interpretation memo written by Susan McLaughlin, Community Planning and Economic Development director that was presented at the study session.

John said he believed the city council will again review the Land Use & Urban Design Chapter at its Nov 10, 2025 meeting.

Update on Capitol Way improvements – Gerry Apple
Gerry said he had a phone conversation with Sophie Stimson, City of Olympia transportation director, about Capitol Way/Boulevard traffic improvements. Following up on the suggestion at the September board meeting, he invited Sophie to a future board meeting to provide an update, but she declined, saying that city staff plan to hold an open forum in December. Gerry said he will let the board know when it will be.

In their discussion, Gerry said they agreed on some things and disagreed on others. He said he feels that city staff need to do a school zone, add speed advisory signs and orange crossing flags at key intersections, and that the timing of stoplights needs to be changed.

He said he thanked Sophie for the improvements city staff have done recently, which include: repainting some crosswalks, and adding centerline pedestrian crosswalks signs, a flashing speed limit sign near the Maple Park intersection, two chevron signs with LED borders and centerline delineators on the curve near the I-5 bridge, and two temporary speed feedback signs – one in each direction.

Board members discussed what is and is not on the city’s Capitol Corridor Improvements list and why. City staff created the document in September 2024 following a listening session with residents from the three neighborhoods – South Capitol, Governor Stevens and Wildwood – that Capitol Way/Boulevard runs through. The school zone near Lincoln Elementary is on the list, but has not yet been created.

Gordon thanked John for adding a comment to a Jolt News article, clarifying that it did not make clear that most of the cost of the project is for routine resurfacing of Capitol Way/Boulevard.

Gerry agreed to draft a letter to Sophie for the board to review, thanking her and her staff for the improvements that have been made and encouraging them to make the rest of the improvements on the list.

Motion to adjourn
Morgan moved to adjourn the meeting, Kelley seconded, and the motion was approved unanimously. The meeting ended at 8:07 pm.

Next SCNA board meeting – Weds, Nov 12, 2025 6:30 pm, Lincoln Elementary School library

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Written Reports
September 2025 Treasurer’s Report
Period: 09/01/25 – 09/31/25

Business Priming Savings $25.00

Innovator Checking Ending Balance $2,516.37
Innovator Checking Beginning Balance $2,214.19
Difference $302.18

Recent Income:

• Grant Reimbursement $1,795.16
• Membership Dues Checks $60.00
• Membership Dues Cash $113.00
• Paypal Transfer $48.07
  Total $2,016.25

Recent Expenses:

• Google Suite $9.23
• Propane Reimbursement Check #1586 $49.89
• Safeway $54.94
• Chef Store $424.69
• Costco $141.13
• Vic’s Pizzeria $100.00
• Ice, Soda and Meat
  Reimbursement Check #1593 $434.17
  Band Expense Check #1583 $500.00
  Total $1,714.05

Difference $302.18

Transactions in Progress for September and Notes:
A Paypal transfer of $277.69 was initiated on 9/30/25 for membership dues and a Facebook consumer protection settlement ($38.36 of the $277.69).

Outstanding costs for picnic:
Janitor (estimate) $175.00 (I emailed on 9/8 & 9/30)
Scones Reimbursement Check #1584 $118.00
BBQ Supply Reimbursement Check #1585 $21.69

A grant reimbursement was submitted in the amount of $70.18 for BBQ supplies ($21.69) and propane ($49.89).