Learn about local history and its connection to state and national events during a series of upcoming lunch and learn lectures on the Capitol Campus. 

The events, which are sponsored by the Capitol Visitor Services Volunteer Program, will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Columbia Room of the Legislative (Capitol) Building. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. Admission is free and open to the public. Attendees are welcome to bring their lunch for the events. 

Here are the dates and topics: 

OLYMPIA –- The steam system that supports a dozen state office buildings on the Capitol Campus, including the Legislative Building, will be taken off-line at midnight on Saturday, July 20, so that crews can make repairs to the central powerhouse.

During the outage, the buildings will be without heat and hot water. 

The steam system will be turned back on immediately after the repair. Heat and hot water are expected to be available by 8 p.m. Saturday. 

Preparation work to improve sidewalks as well as ADA access around the Capitol Campus begins tomorrow, July 12.

Initial repairs start on July 16 along:

• The west side of Washington Street behind the Capitol Court building from the corner of 11th Avenue to the 12th Avenue tunnel.
• The south side of 11th Avenue and between Washington Street and Jefferson Street.

Work for sidewalk and ADA repairs is scheduled to begin July 26 in the following locations:

The Washington State Department of Enterprise Services is seeking volunteer tour guides and greeters at the state capitol in Olympia.

Training will be provided. Must be 18 years of age, and willing to commit up to four hours a week.

Recruitment is underway for the following positions:

OLYMPIA - Activity related to clean-up from the Olympia Brewery Transformer oil spill will increase in Heritage Park this week and will begin to wind down in Marathon Park.

Marathon Park has been a staging area for work to remove contaminated sediment from Capitol Lake, with the parking lot closed for public use. Spill responders anticipate decommissioning the Marathon Park staging area by the end of next week.

A staging area for the next phase of sediment removal work will be located in Heritage Park. Set up begins today. Impacts will include:

The Department of Enterprise Services’ Capitol Security and Visitor Services has issued a permit for Capital City 3 on 3, a three-on-three basketball tournament, July 20-21st.

The Department of Enterprise Services has issued a permit for Capital Lakefair, an annual five-day community festival on the shores of Capitol Lake.

Organizers estimate that more than 200,000 people will attend the event, which runs July 17-22, and requires temporary closures of several Capitol Campus and city streets throughout the week.

A section of Water Street Southwest, next to Heritage Park will be closed starting July 13th at 8 a.m. for festival set up.

Here is a partial list of street closures during Lakefair:

One million miles driven and counting – that’s the status of the 113 long-range electric vehicles (EVs) in the state fleet managed by the Department of Enterprise Services. It is a milestone reached this month, just over two years after the state introduced long-range EVs into its fleet. Through an initiative in 2015, Governor Jay Inslee directed state agencies to make 20 percent of new passenger vehicle purchases electric by 2017. This year Inslee upped the ante to 50 percent by 2020.

Talk about curb appeal.

In recent weeks, Buildings & Grounds crews have been working hard to spruce up the lawns, landscapes, monuments and other features of the Capitol Campus so that they’ll sparkle for the summer.

Here are some examples of their work.

Hundreds of people attended Washington State Surplus Retail Store’s Grand Re-opening last Saturday (June 15), and they didn’t leave empty handed.

The store reported a record of more than $22,000 in daily sales for June 15. That’s four times the amount of a typical Saturday.