Future Events
- Association Meeting – March 19, 2026, Thursday, from 6:00-8:00 PM @ Hands On Children’s Museum
- Annual Picnic (open to paid members) – September 3, 2026, Thursday, from 5:30-7:30 PM, @ Squaxin Park Rose Garden
- Annual Meeting – October 15, 2026, Thursday, from 6:00-8:00 PM @ Hands On Children’s Museum
Accomplishments
Murals: The two murals along East Bay Drive, depicting Olympia throughout the years, were originally funded by a fund raiser hosted by the Association. Those funds provided the cost of the artist and painting while the City provided cleaning of the retaining walls prior to painting the murals.
In recent years, the murals had become soiled and weeds had invaded along where the murals meet the sidewalk and top of the murals. The Board voted to fund the cleaning of the murals and the murals were recently cleaned. The murals were repainted in September 2024 by volunteers from the neighborhood.
Old Gas Station: East Bay Drive Neighborhood Association is a member of the Olympia Northeast Neighborhood Alliance (ONNA). It is made up of Five Neighborhood Associations: Bigelow, Bigelow Highlands, East Bay Drive, Northeast, and Upper Northeast. The Northeast Neighborhood Alliance sponsored and received a matching grant from the city to clean up and beautify the lot where the old gas station was recently torn down. East Bay Drive Neighborhood Association participated in the planning and the actual clean up of the site with volunteer hours. There are now planters with plants and picnic tables that everyone can enjoy. The owner of the site is putting in a coffee stand and hopes to have food trucks in the near future. It is across the street from the San Francisco Bakery.
Website: East Bay Drive Neighborhood Association sponsored a website development team and received a matching fund from the City for this project. This website you are using is the benefit of the team that helped develop it. The concept is that we have a low cost and easy to maintain website. Additionally, the website should require minimal expertise to develop and maintain. The site you are on was developed without any knowledge or experience and the hope is it will be used by other Neighborhood Association in the City as well as the Council of Neighborhood Associations that will be able to use the process developed for their own websites.
Oyster Planting: East Bay Drive Neighbors have participated in planting oyster seeds in Budd Inlet along the shore along East Bay Drive and beyond. This annual event has been spearheaded by one of our neighbors, Dan Mazur, for the more than a decade. Multiple neighbors have participated each year in the planting of the Oyster Seeds. One Pacific Oyster can filter 50 gallons of water per day, reducing red tides/algae growth, and promoting eel grass and salmon habitat.
Hands On Children’s Museum Solar Panels: Solar Panels have been installed at the museum to mitigate future electrical expense. The project was started when Richard Wolf read about the Hummingbird Project to install solar panes on the museum. Richard contacted OlySolar for information about the project. Richard presented the idea to the Board for $1800 for the outright purchase of one panel and a second panel to be repaid over 17 years from the power savings realized by HOCM. This was approved by the Board.
Banners: Richard Wolf with the help of Greg Bucove and Niki McClure were the driving forces for the artistic banners you see along East Bay Drive. The City of Olympia pitched in for installations and approvals but our Association dues and neighbors’ special donations paid for the art and printing.
Mission Creek Restoration: Fred Adair led a project to restore Mission Creek. Mission Creek runs beneath East Bay Drive currently between Squaxin Park and Mission Drive. Many years ago, before Easy Bay Drive was completed as we know it today, the road dropped down the south side of the creek, over a large culvert along the bay, and up the the north side of the creek where it re-joined the upper level. It was a macadam road with brick rubble lifting the road and bedding the culvert. Unfortunately for fish this structure killed the stream bed and the estuary. Over the years the area silted up behind the obstruction. If you visited the area it looked like a grassland with the stream meandering through it. A pretty glade but not beneficial for juvenile fish. Today, with the culvert, asphalt, and rubble removed the creek currently is naturally removing the silt and reorienting the stream bed.
Now with the natural gravel beds you will see thousands of fish fry congregating in the backwaters. Fred led this project through the approval process with the Squaxin Tribe, WDFW, Corp of Engineers, City of Olympia (who paid for the restoration) and many other concerned parties.
Welcome Sign: East Bay Drive Neighborhood Association is responsible for the Welcome sign to East Bay Drive Neighborhood located at Mission Drive NE and East Bay Drive. This is meant to welcome all who travel south on East Bay Drive into our neighborhood.