Just about a year ago, there was a seemingly short discussion within the City of Olympia on wi-fi, with the conclusion to sit by and wait for the technology to come to them.
In Tumwater, there apparently been a larger discussion on setting up a few city owned wi-fi hotspots, with the cost at around $8,000 (scroll down to page 26).
I went down to the Olympia Library and the Community Center yesterday with my PDA, assuming that it would have been pretty easy for the city to set up small, private, wireless networks in either place. Nope, no signal as far as I could tell.
Also, apperantly, someone is setting up a cooperative wireless system (Cirgo):
Objectives of the wireless group are to create and maintain a low cost citywide wireless network for providing access to Internet services. Currently, no citywide network exists. Initially, the project will be piloted in downtown Olympia and if successful, will be expanded to the greater Olympia area and to other rural towns and counties in Western Washington.