Lacey City Council honors teacher who stopped teen shooter

Lacey City Council on Thursday night honored Brady Olson, the North Thurston High School teacher who tackled and detained a student after he fired shots at the school on April 27.

Olson’s feat was recognized with the Spirit of Lacey award, which was presented by Mayor Andy Ryder.

“This means the most to me,” Olson said of the award. “This is from my community, the community I love. I’ve lived in Lacey for over 20 years and I just want to say thank you to law enforcement, my school and fellow teachers.”

North Thurston High School Principal Steve Rood also was recognized with an award — a Lacey medallion — and Lacey police and student resource officer at North Thurston High, Ed McClanahan, received a standing ovation from the council and those in the audience. McClanahan also responded to the incident on April 27.

Also Thursday night:

▪ The council unanimously approved a resolution to move forward with creating the city’s first lake management district for Hicks Lake, and set a public hearing date of Aug. 27 to further discuss the proposal.

Two Hicks Lake property owners have pushed for the district as a way to manage the condition of the lake, which has recently been overrun with algae blooms and weeds. If the district is approved, it would levy property assessments and user fees to generate about $51,000 annually to manage the lake. Under the proposal, the owner of a private lakefront parcel would pay an annual assessment of $300.

▪ Councilman Michael Steadman displayed a flash of anger during the meeting after resident Terry Ballard questioned Steadman’s fundraising sources for his 2013 council run.

Ballard’s comments, which were made during public comment, stemmed from last week’s council vote on whether to put the city’s plastic bag ban before voters and pay the election costs with money raised by the Effective Self-Governance Association, a political action committee.

Steadman, who voted to uphold the plastic bag ban, said after last week’s meeting that he voted to uphold the ban in part because he needed more information about the source of the PAC’s funds, wanting to make sure the money was from Lacey donors.

It wasn’t immediately clear Thursday whether Ballard has ties to the PAC.

Ballard went over the three minutes allowed per person for public comment, which led Steadman to interject.

“Your three minutes are up,” he said to Ballard. “You need to stop talking.”

Steadman added: “I thought you were going to question my military service.”

Councilman Jason Hearn intervened to restore order, but Steadman replied, “You need to back off.”

“I don’t appreciate that,” said Ballard in response to Steadman’s comments.

▪ Rob Kavanaugh, who lives near Lacey, once again urged the council to make sure the city’s tree ordinance is being enforced after trees were cleared from a development on Corporate Center Drive in the Lacey Corporate Center. Office buildings have been proposed for that site.

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 9:29 AM with the headline "Lacey City Council honors teacher who stopped teen shooter."