Thursday, October 1, 2026
Funding requests from the Tumwater Water Resources & Sustainability Department and Tumwater Valley Municipal Golf Course have been reduced ahead of looming decisions on the 2026-27 budget.
City Finance Director Troy Niemeyer presented the funding requests to the Tumwater City Council at a meeting on Sept. 22.
City administrative staff developed the proposed figures by consulting with departments to identify baseline budgets and additional funding requests necessary for enhancing levels of service.
The Water Resources & Sustainability Department made $2,238,531 in enhancement requests for drinking water, sewer and stormwater utilities. While initial review and adjustments brought that figure down to around $1 million, city administration only approved $295,388.
Approved enhancements included $251,789 for a new capital project manager position and $43,599 to reclassify an administrative supervisor position.
Denied requests would have covered additional positions, other salary grade corrections, three vehicle replacements, a new service truck, a remote controlled mower, and a replacement for a ground-penetrating radar unit used to locate underground utilities.
For the city-owned and operated golf course, the Parks & Recreation Department requested $850,548 for enhancement, while city administration approved $360,000.
The approved requests were $150,000 for a backflow prevention device used for the golf course’s connection to its reclaimed water supply and $210,000 for pro shop and restaurant projects.
The planned improvements for the pro shop and restaurant include the following:
Niemeyer pointed out that the cost of the planned improvements exceeds the approved amount, so staff will need to identify priorities.
In terms of rates, the Parks & Recreation Department is planning a 7 percent to 10 percent increase across green fees, range balls, lessons and tournaments in order to generate revenue for aging maintenance equipment and upcoming golf cart lease replacements.
Parks & Recreation Department Director Chuck Denney said the increase has an additional purpose of intentionally slowing down business as more golfers mean more maintenance work.
“We have to really manage that number of how many people (we) are having per day or per week,” Denney said. "If you imagine 300 people walking across your lawn every day — 600 feet stomping on grass that's an eighth of an inch tall — it's a lot of impact. If you add another 100 people to that, then it's that much more.”
The council will participate in two more work sessions before considering the proposed budget for adoption by late November or early December. Public hearings will also be held before the city council adopts the budget.
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LivinginthePNW
I'm not even going to get into whether Tumwater taxpayers are getting enough value from owning the golf course (although I'd love to know how many users are actually Tumwater residents and what the community benefit is compared to the cost).
What really concerns me is the Deschutes. There's been an effort to bring coho back, and five years ago there were essentially no coho being seen at Tumwater Falls. In 2025, more than 1,100 adult coho were trapped and released upstream. The upstream release program is specifically for coho, not Chinook, so the Deschutes is becoming an increasingly important coho stream.
One of the first things those fish encounter is a problem the City itself has identified: about 2.5 acres of the golf course parking lot drains untreated toward the Deschutes. That's concerning because of 6PPD-quinone from tire runoff, which is particularly toxic to coho.
The City got a $123,717 Ecology grant to address this with a bioretention system, but the current plan still has the stormwater treatment tied to the $740,000 parking-lot project.
We're also looking at roughly $2.8 million in golf-course capital spending over the next five years.
Didn't the City say the golf course would be evaluated in 2025, including its ability to support itself financially? Where's that report? Seems like something we should know before committing millions more.
2 days ago Report this
HotTractor
One, Why are the Tumwater tax payers funding this.
two. Why is there contaminated water from the facility draining directly into the Deschutes?
Three. Why isn't there a budget item to address number two?
2 days ago Report this
Southsoundguy
The golf course is awesome.
Yesterday at 11:00 AM Report this