Stories that defined the year 2020 in Thurston County
The year 2020 was a year like no other. Here are the Top 10 topics that attracted the most interest from Olympian readers in a year of pandemic, protests, loss, disaster and a fraught election.
#1: COVID-19
2020 will forever be remembered as the Year of the Pandemic, a time when a respiratory virus known as COVID-19 radically changed the way we work, live and learn.
Like the rest of the world, it was felt throughout Thurston County, but as the new year approaches, there is light at the end of the tunnel as vaccinations begin.
The first to receive the vaccines were high-risk health care workers and emergency responders as well as staff and residents at longterm care facilities, an industry that has been rocked by the virus.
As the year drew to a close, Thurston County had reported 4,776 cases of COVID-19, including Lacey City Councilman Lenny Greenstein, and 55 residents had died of of the virus.
The year began with the first cases of the disease detected in the Seattle area in late February; the first case was reported in Thurston County on March 11.
Governor-imposed rules to control the spread of the virus closed schools and businesses, resulting in a sharp downturn in economic activity and the need for financial assistance from federal, state and local governments as well as nonprofits. All have responded with assistance, as well as steps to protect renters and homeowners in the form of eviction and foreclosure moratoriums.
The economy slowly reopened in phases over the summer, but COVID-19 cases spiked in the fall, once again closing restaurants and bars. The shutdowns have also produced anger from business owners who say they can’t survive the shutdown and have remained open.
Schools tried to continue to provide education via the internet, but some parents pushed for schools to reopen as online learning has been difficult for many students.
#2 Black Lives Matter
George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer awakened a movement nationwide as well as in Thurston County to address systemic racism.
The movement for Black lives manifested in many ways, as groups such as SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice) and a newly formed group called BLAST (Black Leaders in Action and Solidarity) called on the city of Olympia to take concrete steps to address historical injustices.
BLAST presented a list of seven “the tip of the iceberg” demands to the city, which including divesting from police and prisons as well as firing specific police officers; only one was adopted as part of Olympia’s emergency renter protections, which made renters’ debt “non-possessory,” meaning that renters cannot be evicted for nonpayment of rent during the pandemic.
However, the city hired a coordinator to help form a “Social Justice and Equity Commission,” and is in the process of identifying members of the public who will be compensated to serve on the commission to recommend changes to city council.
It also formed an Ad-Hoc Committee on Public Safety, which is tasked with “reimagining public safety” through criminal justice and policing reforms.
The majority of council members balked at calls to defund the Olympia Police Department, arguing that hasty cuts without a plan to fill the gap in services would lead to negative outcomes.
#3: Election
In a year of big stories, the November election seemed to loom over and weave through them all.
Thurston County voters turned out in droves -- by mail, with the county offering pandemic-conscious drive-through voting services. Almost a quarter of registered voters cast ballots in the first week, and nearly 84% turned out in all. The number of registered voters is at an all-time high.
Auditor Mary Hall reported Election Day went off without a hitch.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee handily won a rare third term in the state’s highest office. But Republican challenger Loren Culp, in an echo of national politics, had yet to concede as the year ended, and recently sued the Secretary of State. He came in more than half a million votes behind Inslee in results certified by Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican who has released a statement in part saying Culp and his attorney have not provided any substantive evidence to support allegations of voter fraud.
Almost all incumbent statewide officials who ran, including Wyman, held on to their positions. The exception was Treasurer Duane Davidson, a Republican who lost to state Rep. Mike Pellicciotti, a Democrat.
U.S. Rep. Denny Heck of Olympia won the race for lieutenant governor, and Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland will take his 10th Congressional District seat. She’ll be the first Black and first Korean congressional representative from Washington state.
Locally, election results also featured significant benchmarks and shuffling of well-known names.
Strickland came out ahead of state Rep. Beth Doglio of Olympia — Olympia City Councilmember Jessica Bateman will fill Doglio’s 22nd District seat in the state Legislature, leaving the city with a vacant council position to fill.
Sharonda Amamilo won an open seat on Thurston County Superior Court and will be the first judge of color to serve on the bench.
And, after a particularly tumultuous election season, the county commission will shift from a majority of commissioners who ran as Independent to majority Democrat.
Democrat Carolina Mejia will take the place of Commissioner John Hutchings on the three-member board of commissioners. Democrat and Lacey City Council member Michael Steadman recorded an early lead then fell short of ousting Commissioner Gary Edwards, a former sheriff.
#4: Year of protests and destruction
It was the year of the protest, at first largely spurred by the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis in late May.
Those protests and calls for racial justice and police reform prompted daily rallies and protests in downtown Olympia, as well as on state property, such as at Sylvester Park, Heritage Park and the Capitol Campus.
The focus of the protests also changed. Calls for racial justice soon morphed into more violent actions directed at police and other law enforcement, and armed counter-protesters soon began appearing.
As the nation began focusing on the presidential election between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, local protests evolved into primarily two groups facing off: black-clad individuals, sometimes associated with the anti-fascist movement, and pro-Trump right-wing demonstrators. The two groups clashed as recently as Dec. 12 near the Capitol Campus, which resulted in a shooting and multiple arrests.
Downtown businesses and Olympia City Hall felt the brunt of the long run of protest activity that often resulted in late-night vandalism. Many businesses boarded up windows for protection, and some closed, including Starbucks.
There also was an effort to beautify all of that plywood and some property owners eventually removed the plywood to reveal new art.
#5: Business openings, closings
Small businesses throughout Thurston County were buffetted and challenged with COVID-19-related closures. Restaurants and bars struggled to convert to take-out providers or set up outdoor seating.
But a number of businesses have closed: Yenney Music, The Estate Store, Estileon, Cooper Point Public House, Falls Terrace , Pellegrino’s Event Center, Tumwater Lanes and Waterstreet Cafe.
The Waterstreet Cafe location, across from Heritage Park, has been taken over by Octapas, who moved their operations from Fourth Avenue. The owners of Wayside Cafe, who moved their eatery to Fifth and Capitol, also have taken over Le Voyeur on Fourth Avenue to keep it going during the pandemic.
Scotty B’s in Tenino also said goodbye.
“I am filled with sorrow and sadness,” owner Scott Hineline said. “You all have become a second family. I may be closing the doors in Tenino, but in no way am I closing my heart to this sweet, life-filled town.”
But some businesses also opened during this time.
Among the openings: Uptown Grill, which filled a space downtown on Capitol Way previously occupied by Tipsy Piano Bar; Cynara, which recently opened on Columbia Street; Row in the old Les Schwab Tire location on Percival Landing; Chicory, in the previous Hart’s Mesa spot; Silverio’s Mexican Kitchen in the old Pepper’s; and Koko’s Lounge.
#6: Homeless Encampments Cleared, RVs moved
Battles over homeless encampments and vehicle settlements were a continuing issue in 2020, exacerbated by the economic recession, coronavirus pandemic, the governor’s stay-at-home order, and the CDC’s guidance to avoid sweeps.
One of the largest encampments on Deschutes Parkway by Capitol Lake, which is located on private property, continues to provoke tension among neighbors, who have posted multiple vacate notices, organized cleanups, set deadlines that have come and gone, and made numerous appeals for the city to provide an alternative shelter.
An erstwhile plan to donate the land to a nature conservancy appears to be dead after the primary landowner sold his parcels. The city and police have taken a hands-off approach, and it’s not clear what the future holds for the camp or the community — but it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Even the Port of Olympia became embroiled in the politics of homelessness after calling in the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office to remove a group of about a dozen people camped on port property in Tumwater, which drew condemnation from residents and the city of Tumwater.
Deschutes Parkway was also the site of a large settlement of RV dwellers. Some came from Lacey, which is now being sued in federal court for its RV parking restrictions. In August, dozens of those RVs were displaced by temporary road work that turned into a permanent closure of the gravel parking area next to Percival Cove, an area managed by the state Department of Enterprise Services.
Many of the RVs relocated to Ensign Road. In October, the city of Olympia announced that the RV settlement had to move because vehicles were impeding ambulance access to nearby Providence St. Peter Hospital. A planned sweep was undermined at the eleventh hour by a letter from the Attorney General’s office warning it might be a violation of the governor’s eviction moratorium. Now, the city is planning a vehicle safe parking site at the corner of Martin Way and Carpenter Road.
#7: The manhunt for Portland shooting suspect Michael Reinoehl
Thurston County drew national attention when a U.S. Marshals task force tracked down, shot and killed Michael Reinoehl outside a Tanglewilde apartment complex in September.
Reinoehl, 48, was the suspect in a fatal shooting of a right-wing supporter during protests in Portland. He died of gunshot wounds to the head and torso, according to the Thurston County Coroner’s Office — task force members fired a total of 37 rounds at Reinoehl.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr released a statement calling Reinoehl’s killing “a significant accomplishment in the ongoing effort to restore law and order to Portland and other cities,” and President Donald Trump also praised the U.S. Marshals task force’s effort.
Some reporting has questioned if the task force made a serious attempt to arrest or even identify themselves to Reinoehl before opening fire.
The five-county Region 3 Critical Incident Investigation Team is investigating the shooting, led by Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, which has periodically released details. Evidence is still being analyzed at the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab, according to the Sheriff’s Office, and the investigation is expected to wrap up in the first few months of 2021.
#8: Nisqually River Flooding
The Nisqually Valley saw extensive flooding in early February, prompting evacuations, rescues and relief efforts.
The trouble started in January when the area saw exceptional amounts of rain, making it the third wettest January on record. The excessive amounts of water led Tacoma Power, a public utility with a dam and reservoir on the river, to announce it would release water from the LaGrande Dam upstream of the valley delta.
At first, the release was expected to have a minimal impact, but Tacoma Power increased the amount of water it would release from 6,200 cubic feet of water per second to a peak of 15,000 cfs. As the situation grew more dangerous, Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies knocked on doors to hand out evacuation notices before river water entered homes and made roads impassable.
Eventually, responders had to wade through the flooded area to rescue those who did not evacuate. In all, 700 to 1,000 people had to evacuate in early January, 14 homes suffered major damage, 40 had minor damage and 76 were affected in smaller ways.
The community rallied to bring relief and respite to those affected in the aftermath. The United Way of Thurston County spent thousands from the Emergency Assistance Fund to help pay for displaced residents to stay at hotels for free.
Residents began to rebuild just as COVID-19 arrived in the county.
#9 Mima Road wildfire
A wildfire that burned 290 acres in the Littlerock/Mima Mounds area of south Thurston County forced 70 families, or around 200 people, to evacuate Sept. 8.
The fire started when a transformer blew and it spread with sustained winds, endangering about 100 homes within a one-mile radius. The area was under a Red Flag Warning due to hot, dry and windy weather at the time.
Those who fled the area could find respite at a reunification site at Littlerock Elementary School. Meanwhile, animals and livestock were sheltered at the Thurston County Fairgrounds.
Residents returned to their homes the next day, once evacuation orders were lifted. About 30 fire departments worked to contain the blaze, including the state Department of Natural Resources and crews from Thurston, Grays Harbor and Lewis counties. Additionally, a plane from the Moses Lake area dropped water on the fire.
Officials confirmed that no one suffered injuries due to the fire. However, one home was destroyed in the blaze and at least four buildings were damaged.
#10: Olympia legislates housing options, new shelters break ground
“I have three words of advice for you,” Olympia’s Assistant City Manager Keith Stahley said to outgoing council member and state Representative-elect Jessica Bateman at the last Olympia City Council session of 2020.
“Housing, housing, and housing.”
The council took historic action on housing Dec. 8 when it passed an ordinance that effectively eliminates single-family zoning and legalizes duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes across most of the city. It was the end of a long and often contentious four-year process that involved homeowners, a state growth management hearings board, a new state law, and a lot of discussions at the Planning Commission.
Olympia also passed emergency renter protections that will extend a ban on evictions for non-payment of rent after Gov. Inslee’s statewide moratorium expires.
The city’s Home Fund gave millions to permanent supportive housing projects launched by Interfaith Works and Family Support Center.
In addition to Interfaith Works’ 2828 Martin Way project, which broke ground in December and will house 125 people, the organization plans to open a modular “Sprung” shelter in early 2021 that will house 38 chronically homeless individuals before being converted to a day center.
Next year, the city council will vote on several building code amendments that promise to make it easier to build ADUs and tiny houses, which The Olympian dug into in a two-part series in November.