The City of Chehalis will officially adopt Juneteenth as a government holiday — eventually.
City employees will have to wait one more year for the extra day off.
The Chehalis City Council approved a resolution to adopt the federal holiday as a paid city government holiday starting in 2027. Council members approved the resolution on its first reading after suspending the rules that generally require two readings of a resolution before passage.
According to City Manager Stacy Denham, he and city staff recommended that the council adopt the holiday starting in 2027 due purely to the cost associated with an official holiday. That cost was not included in the city's planned 2026 budget, but will be factored into the city's 2027 budget.
“The city employees have reviewed the meaning and the purpose of the holiday and believe recognizing it locally is consistent with the city’s values,” Denham said.
During the council meeting, Denham stated that the city calculates that each federally recognized holiday also recognized by the city comes at the cost of approximately $21,000 to the city.
Juneteenth is already a federally recognized holiday. It became the nation's 12th federally recognized holiday in 2021 after Congress passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. Former U.S. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Thursday, June 17, 2021.
Officially called Juneteenth National Independence Day, the holiday, which is celebrated June 19 each year, recognizes the emancipation of American slaves following the Civil War.
The date, June 19, is significant to the holiday because it recognized the day that news of emancipation was delivered to the final enclaves of the nation still practicing slavery roughly two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Union Army soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to deliver news of the proclamation and bring the region into compliance with federal law.
