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When power failed in La Conner late Friday night and Saturday, the cell phone flashlights came out at Art's Alive. "It was art in the dark," said La Conner Arts Foundation board member Sheila Johnson – at least in the Invitational Show on Maple Hall's main floor. Upstairs, natural light flooding through the windows made the Open Show pieces easier to see on Saturday. Entrance table volunteers fielded the question "When will the lights come on?" over and over. After some false starts, the q...
Expect to see an exciting array of art when Art's Alive opens at Maple Hall this Friday at 1 pm. "Northwest Focus," this year's theme, was inspired by poster artist, greater La Conner resident and Town of La Conner Arts Commission member Craig Barber. "Craig's work in photography brought the word focus into it and all our artists are Northwest regional artists," said Sheila Johnson. She is a board member of the La Conner Arts Foundation, the 501c3 organization that plans and produces the show...
After a weeklong wait for the right tide and weather conditions, the aluminum ferry M.V. Delphinus left Monday night in a tricky operation conducted under rented klieg lights. No crane in La Conner is big enough to lower the 130-foot long, 36-foot wide, 30-foot tall aluminum catamaran into the water. Dunlap Towing barged it to Dakota Industries in Anacortes, where a Syncrolift will place it in the water. After transferring sister ferry M.V. Dorado to a barge in February 2022, Mavrik Marine...
An alarm of sorts went off at last Friday’s fall party for the Skagit County Historical Museum – on purpose. An enthusiastic crowd was enjoying itself at Maple Hall. Radio show host Mike in the Morning was master of ceremonies. Santo Coyote staff served the appetizers. The 120 or so folks showed their support for the Museum by buying tickets for five raffle items and bidding on 2024 naming rights to the East Wing. Madeline Roozen’s top bid was made in memory of her parents William and Helen Roozen, whose names will appear on the East Wing...
Nearly 1,400 individuals and organizations from inside and outside Skagit County submitted comments on proposed changes to county code regarding agritourism last summer. During its Oct. 10 meeting, the Skagit County Planning Commission reviewed 1,367 written and oral comments (493 from people who do not live in Skagit County, 36% of total) and discussed next steps of the process. Twenty five comments supported the county’s Agricultural Advisory Board’s recommendation to clarify existing restrictive code rather than open new allowances or new...
You may not know John Roozen – but you probably know his truck. On any given day, a red F250 Power Stroke diesel truck from the late 1990s may pass you on Calhoun or McLean roads – or may be parked in a field on your route. "John has about 500,000 miles on his Ford pickup," Dave Hedlin told attendees at the Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland auction last Saturday night. "About 100,000 of them are in support of the agricultural infrastructure of Skagit County, whether that's through the Ska...
It's hard to take a photo of a fast-moving salmon – even when you are surrounded by them. They splash. They skitter. They hit your kayak and soak your shirt. One second they are a tiny ripple in the water and the next they speed past your camera, while you snap pictures of empty water. On Sunday morning at low tide, 10 of us welcomed chinook salmon back to the Samish River with the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. Our agenda: drift among the salmon, talk about salmon habitat and lifecycles, r...
An adhoc Agritourism Stakeholder Working Group created in July has submitted agritourism policy concepts to the Skagit County Planning Commissioners. The group's goal is to help the county shape code that lets large and small farmers and venue operators thrive. The group was formed after the Planning Commission's July 25 public hearing on agritourism zoning recommendations made by the county's Agricultural Advisory Board. Those recommendations proposed changing the definition of "agritourism" to...
Skagit County is officially in a drought emergency – but so far, some area farmers are having a pretty good year. Swanson Family Farm's berry crop was bountiful. "We went from a 10 percent crop and lots of freeze damage last year to a 110% crop this year," said Dean Swanson. He is already picking corn and thinks his cucumber and bean crops will be good. Potatoes "look good," said John Thulen of Pioneer Potatoes, "not lackluster, but not a crasher either, although some plants look stressed." P...
After promoting the Valley's most famous flower gardens, Cindy Verge is looking forward to tending her own backyard. Executive director of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival for 20 years, Verge will retire this fall. Verge was a journalist and editor when she joined the Festival as its Sponsorship Coordinator in 1999. When she became executive director in 2003, "I learned how to run a business," Verge told the Weekly News, "because it was payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, a budget...
Amber waves of grain are beautiful, until you can't sell them. Dave Hedlin's barley fields along Chilberg Road – labeled "Spring Malting Barley" on crop signs – will be ripe in about a week, along with several other fields tucked in around La Conner. Unfortunately, Hedlin's barley buyer, Skagit Valley Malting, closed abruptly on Friday, June 16. Hedlin grows about 100 acres of conventional barley and 100 acres of organic a year for Skagit Valley Malting, which turned locally grown barleys int...
Lori Buher retired in June after 27 years with La Conner Schools and even longer as a La Conner School parent. Her long career can be divided into three chapters. In Chapter 1, she joined the La Conner Co-op Preschool when Eric and Anne enrolled in 1987, serving until 1992. By 1989, she was also on the board of the La Conner Elementary PTA. Soon she was helping lead the school’s Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts. “It was a lot of fun, and I had great support from other parents, but I was def...
After 20 years, Juli Olson is finally graduating from middle school. The La Conner middle and high school administrative assistant retires at the end of June after working under six principals and through a school remodel and a pandemic. Besides keeping attendance and other critical records, she has helped plan the 8th grade promotion and filled in as school nurse, lunch lady and field trip chaperone. Driving the school bus is the only job she hasn’t tackled. Not all of her records have been official. During the years when middle school c...
Two La Conner institutions have new owners – and one of them a new name. Purchasing the Reclamation Candle Company and Coffee Bar from Barney and Tammy Richard was a no-brainer for Greg Whiting and Jenelle Whitton. "We loved La Conner and we loved coffee and we wanted to do something together," said Whitton. Specifically, they loved La Colombe coffee, which Reclamation served. They continue to sell the ethically sourced coffee at the 106 South First Street store. The shop is now called Ravens Cu...
Very few people give up a desk job to work in the tulip fields – but Jeannette DeGoede did. “I was sporting goods managers at Ernst Hardware in Mount Vernon,” she remembers. “Leaving a nice warm store and coming out to a cold field with no one to chat with was a drastic change, but I grew into really loving it.” In her new book, “Tulip Town Remembered,” Jeannette tells the story behind the beloved institution that she and her late husband Tom DeGoede created. She spent eight months writing, encouraged by fellow writers in Claire Swedberg’s cr...
Ready or not, here comes the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The Mount Vernon Kiwanis are firing up the grill for their annual salmon barbecue, which starts this Saturday, April 1. The four local flower venues are standing by. The Roozengaarde staff are ready to guide visitors to the display garden, five tulip fields (featuring a million bulbs!) and parking. Tulip Town's Opening Weekend is all about dogs. The Seattle Barkery will offer a dog treat bar, photographer John Melicor will take portraits...
It's March 15, and nary a daffodil can be seen, but Brent Roozen isn't worried. Field picking ramped up last weekend, said the Washington Bulb Company CEO, and daffodils are shipping to customers at tulips.com as well as grocery stores across the country. "Yellow is right around the corner, and when daffodils bloom late, the color can come on really quickly." As for tulips, it is too early to tell. Late daffodils can mean no tulips until mid-April "but tulips can catch up quickly if they get a...
What laws govern billboards in Skagit County? Exactly what kind of billboard is being proposed by the 76 gas station owners east of the Conway exit? The answers to those questions are one reason the county revised its “Notice of Development Application” for a proposed billboard east of Conway and extended the comment period to Feb. 24. Residents of La Conner will not be surprised that one person probing these questions is Linda Talman. “There was so much misinformation about the proposed sign,” she told the Weekly News. “A lot of it was contr...
Morning coffee, afternoon tea and better St. Patrick's Day potatoes are now on tap in greater La Conner. Cruser Coffee, 313 Morris Street, is a new source for your morning joe. Nicole Cruse owns and operates a stand with the same name on Memorial Highway near the Mexico Café. Cruse likes the pace of her second location. "In the stand you only get two-minute interactions with people," she said. "They want quick, quick, quick get me out the door." Here, she is enjoying getting to know her...
January and February may be quiet months for La Conner, but town businesses are in the midst of big changes. Perhaps the most prominent is the recently opened Firehall Kitchen and Taphouse at 402 Morris Street. Owned by Pam Alvord of La Conner Brewery, Firehall is located in – natch – the former home of the La Conner Fire Department. Old-time LCFD photos on the walls honor the building's history. "We are growing organically as the staff settle into a new kitchen and a new menu," says man...
In the first three weeks of January, 32 trillion gallons of rain and snow fell on California. I was there for an awful lot of them. Usually, when I make my holiday sojourn to Sacramento, I enjoy slightly warmer temperatures and a whole lot more sun than I get in Skagit County in the winter. Not this year. Rain began just a few days after I pulled up to my mom's house on Dec. 19. At first, it was refreshing and from what I saw on my drive south, badly needed. But one storm turned into one atmosph...
When Taylor Brink visited La Conner High School last Thursday, he was fully armed – and armored. The butcher/meat cutter for Northwest Local Meats, the retail butcher shop for the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative, used all the tools of his trade to break down two quarters of a steer in teacher Peter Voorhees' cooking classes. Before employing his knives and saws, Brink put on a chain mail apron to prevent accidental stabs and a Kevlar arm band and glove to ward off cuts. Then he tackled the s...
After struggling through two pandemic years, the Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon closed out 2022 in good shape. Audiences are returning. There is money in the bank. Membership, which dipped to 482 during the pandemic, is on the rise. Programming and ticket sales look good for 2023. Pull and Be Damned resident Roger Gietzen is a big factor in the Lincoln's good fortunes. A Lincoln staff member staff since 1999 and executive director since 2015, he has helped lead the theatre, its staff and volunt...
Larry McCormick has been seeing a lot of dead birds. "You drive around Best, Calhoun, Bradshaw, you see them," said the La Conner resident, an avid hunter. "At one farmer's field with goose decoys out, I picked up 14 dead geese. A guy I know counted 81 dead ducks in a ditch on Best Road. It's bad." In a Dec. 8 release, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that it has retrieved more than 700 deceased birds of several species – primarily juvenile snow geese – from the Ska...
Art, appetizers and wine and lots of buzz about the quality of the show – in short, the Art's Alive opening gala Friday was "a wonderful night," observed La Conner Arts Foundation board member Sheila Johnson. Attendees savored food and beverages capably served by a crew of volunteers that included Mary Davis, Joyce Welch and Gretchen Dykers. They also examined artwork by invitational and open show artists throughout Maple Hall. La Conner resident Kathy Wyman was looking for something that w...
