Tumwater delays final community center site decision while evaluating senior services partnership and WSDOT brownfield

Senior Services for South Sound Partnership urged the Tumwater City Council on March 25 to include dedicated senior programming in the city’s new community center plan and described services that would use a partnership model, while city staff outlined next steps in the community center design process and reported findings from initial environmental work at the WSDOT headquarters property.

“It is to improve the quality of life for people as they age,” Brian Windrope, executive director of Senior Services for South Sound Partnership, told the council as he described the nonprofit’s operations across Thurston and Mason counties and what a Tumwater location could host. “We serve all of Thurston and Mason Counties, and we do great many things across these counties.”

Windrope described programs the nonprofit would like to provide at a Tumwater community center if space and partnerships were available: a commercial kitchen capable of serving volunteers and staff to prepare up to about 1,000 meals a week at scale; a multiuse dining room for roughly 100 people; flexible classrooms for classes and support groups; and a dedicated “Brighter Days” day program for people living with cognitive illnesses. He said Senior Services operates the Olympia and Lacey senior centers, has about 33 full-time equivalent staff and roughly 400 active volunteers, and that about 55% of its funding comes from federal sources such as the Older Americans Act. Windrope added that the nonprofit’s PALS pet-assistance program distributed about $75,000 last year to help low-income seniors keep pets.

City Administrator Parks and project consultants told the council they have asked Barker Rinker to provide a revised scope of work that includes at least one programming alternative showing how a partnership with Senior Services could fit into the community center. Parks said staff also want additional time to develop and present site-location tradeoffs before returning to the council with a final recommendation.

At the same meeting staff reported work under a Washington Department of Ecology integrated planning grant the city won to study the former WSDOT headquarters site on Capitol Boulevard. The $200,000 grant is funding phase 1 and targeted phase 2 environmental assessments; roughly 75% of the grant will fund on-site environmental investigation and about 25% will be used for planning and implementation strategies. Staff said the site has multiple historical hazards including former coal storage, underground storage tanks, a paint booth, an unpermitted landfill area and building materials that may contain lead paint and asbestos.

Lisa Parks said the city’s consultant, Haley & Aldrich, has completed a phase 1 environmental site assessment and is coordinating with WSDOT’s consultants to avoid duplicative testing and to refine a risk assessment and mitigation summary report. That report will summarize likely cleanup remedies, estimated costs and timelines and describe strategies — including possible caps, removal or redevelopment-based remedies — to reduce environmental liability for future reuse. Parks said Ecology remedial-action grants typically require matching funds and that remedies and cost depend on the intended end use.

Council members asked that the project team continue to explore intergenerational programming, flexible scheduling that serves both youth and seniors, and options to site aquatic facilities in a regional partnership. Staff said the brewery-district site and an industrial-campus parcel also remain under active review and that each candidate site has distinct constraints — from pocket gophers and infrastructure gaps to potential contamination — that need specific study before the council selects a preferred site.

No council vote was taken; staff said they will return with additional programming alternatives, more detailed site comparisons and a recommended timeline for next steps.