Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 144
For the La Conner Daffodil Festival and the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, the last two years have been all about no. In 2020 there were no visitors to Roozengaarde and Tulip Town and almost no sales when havoc in the food supply chain canceled wholesale and retail cut-flower sales. No Kiwanis Salmon Barbecue, no street fairs, nothing, nothing, nothing. “Don’t come” was the Valley’s message to flower lovers. Then 2021 was all about maybe, as the festivals adopted social distancing and advance...
The 320-passenger jet ferry MV Dorado rolled out of Mavrik Marine last week for a brief excursion to Anacortes. The La Conner boat builder is contracted by California’s Water Emergency Transportation Authority to build four, and possibly five, aluminum ferries for its 15-vessel San Francisco Bay fleet. The MV Dorado is the first. On Wednesday evening, Feb. 16, the 130-foot long, 36-foot wide and 30-foot tall vessel was lifted onto a custom-fabricated, 18-wheel, remote-controlled hydraulic d...
Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen got the first word and Congressman Rick Larsen the last at the 6th annual Ag Summit hosted by Washington State University Skagit County Extension Feb. 11. The hybrid event, with lunch for those attending in-person, offered updates on everything from the county-sponsored farmland legacy and voluntary stewardship programs to new state rules for agricultural overtime pay. Water was a key topic. Skagit River water use is regulated by the Department of Ecology’s instream flow rule, protecting aquatic species a...
For farmers evaluating Governor Inslee’s Salmon Recovery bill, the devil is in the details. Details like what exactly constitutes a Riparian Management Zone and whether the riparian buffers proposed in the now withdrawn HB 1838 will not just target salmon-bearing streams and side channels but encompass delta farmland behind Skagit River dikes. The million-dollar question: Inside those buffers, is farming permitted? The bill is clear about the need to maintain and enhance natural resource industries like agriculture and to encourage the conserva...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, part of the 300-member Skagit Headwaters Coalition, is grateful for a new agreement between the government of British Columbia, Imperial Metals Corporation and the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission. Imperial Metals has agreed to surrender all its mining and related rights within the so-called Skagit River Donut Hole. The is a 22.4-square mile gap of unprotected lands surrounded by the parks in British Columbia. The headwaters of the Skagit River are inside this area, which is also a centerpiece of...
Changing county planning rules to permit fully contained communities (FCCs) “opens the door for making this county suburban,” said Margery Hite last Tuesday, Jan. 11, during an online Community Conversation sponsored by the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. “Growth in Skagit Valley: Our Future, Farming & FCCs” drew about 90 Zoom participants, La Conner residents among them. Hite is on the grassroots campaign ‘Right Growth, Right Place’ advisory group, which opposes permitting FCCs. She described FCCs and their likely impact on Skagit County in g...
Maybe you saw, as you drove down Maple Avenue last month, an Alexander Calder-like array of giant ornaments spinning on arms held in place by a giant magnet on a giant metal ball in a small front yard two houses south of the old Hedlin ballfield. That was the holiday version of Chris McCarthy’s garden buoy, which she decorates about 10 times a year. McCarthy got the ball-shaped buoy at an estate sale 15 years ago. “I knew I was going to roll it into the front yard and paint ‘Go Braves’ on it,...
Curt Buher was a big guy. The hole he leaves behind is big, too. Buher, who died Dec. 20, came to town with his wife Lori in 1979 to housesit for Maxine Wyman and never left. “They knew that La Conner was where they wanted to be,” said Cathie Wyman, Maxine’s daughter-in-law and Buher’s sister. As a clerk and driver for Nelson Lumber and as a freelance laborer, Buher grew to love construction. He started Atlas Construction in 1983 with Jim Robertson, his partner for about ten years. Over the next 30 years, Buher and a crew of locals that in...
When Felicia Value sits down at her desk on Monday, Jan. 3, she’ll no longer be a solo practitioner. She’ll be an employee of Barron Smith Daugert PLLC of Bellingham, which recently purchased her law practice. “I feel like I’ve been invited to sit at the cool kids’ table,” said Value. “I’m also glad for our community, because they are such a good firm, with a deep bench in probate and estate planning.” Three lawyers will join her Morris Street office. Jessica Carr will be the primary partner. Aaron Rasmussen, who has practiced in Anac...
Local art lovers turned out in force for Art’s Alive 2021. Almost 1,100 people attended the four-day event in Maple Hall Nov. 5-8. This was the 36th annual show since Black Swan Café owner Martin Hahn, Art Hupy and a group of artists that included Ed Kamuda and Michael Clough held the first Art’s Alive in the Gaches Mansion in 1985. Since then, the show has been organized by town merchants, the La Conner Chamber of Commerce and the La Conner Arts Commission. “The town literally rescued th...
After a two-year absence, Art’s Alive returns to Maple Hall next Friday, Nov. 5. Through the following Monday, La Conner residents and other art lovers can view the work of a dozen invitational artists downstairs and more than 40 artists upstairs in the Open Show. As usual, patrons will bestow the People’s Choice award through their votes for their favorite Open Show work. “I’m excited and glad to see something happening, after a year off,” said councilman John Leaver, liaison between the Town...
After a wave of good-sized public events actually took place in July and August, many venues and civic groups are once again scrubbing face-to-face events from their calendars. The Skagit County Fairgrounds was able to hold its annual fair and house the Bike MS Deception Pass Classic, but cancelled its Fall Garage Sale. Skagit Fire District 2 decided not to hold its annual spaghetti feed on the first Saturday in October. “It’s amazing how many people we can pack into our fire hall for the spaghetti feed,” said firefighter Jason Vande...
No lunch at The Fork at Skagit Bay. No summer patio service at the Calico Cupboard. One person filling parts orders at the Morris Street NAPA store. A dozen-plus openings on the La Conner School District website. These are among the local impacts of a national scenario that in July saw 10.1 million job openings and 9.5 million unemployed people. “That’s backwards,” said Scott Price of Edward Jones in La Conner. “Now we are at about 4.8 million unemployed, but there are still a lot of job openings out there, especially in the restaurant and ser...
When Pat Ball of the Slider Café visited the wholesale US Food warehouse store in Burlington last summer, all he saw were empty shelves. “It looked like they were going out of business,” he said. Ball and David Kas of The Fork at Skagit Bay are two among millions of restaurant owners at the receiving end of COVID-19-induced supply chain and transportation problems. Mustard, catsup and caramel are out of stock one week. The next it’s toilet paper, pizza boxes and straws. Or they are on bac...
Three greater La Conner family farms will participate in the Skagit Festival of Family Farms this weekend: Roozengaarde, Schuh Farms and Gordon Skagit Farms. Longtime participant Hedlin Family Farms is not on the roster. Started 20-plus years ago by the Washington State University’s Skagit County Extension program, the event took a break last year, a result of the coronavirus pandemic. “Last fall there was no vaccine, so we as a group decided it would be better not to encourage people to com...
When Gordon Skagit Farms opens its Autumn Market next Monday, Sept 27, it may be a bit more crowded than usual. The farm is featured in the October issue of Martha Stewart Living, perhaps the country’s most prominent lifestyle magazine. “Picks of the Patch” starts on page 68 and tells the story of Todd and Eddie Gordon’s journey from roadside hawkers of generic Halloween pumpkins to vendors of gorgeous, obscure, even ugly gourd and pumpkin varieties not meant to be carved at all. Two years p...
When Chenoa Urness heard that channel-side space in the Pier 7 building was available, she jumped on it. “It was now or never,” said the Stanwood resident and former social worker for Indian Child Welfare in Snohomish County. Then she spread the word that she was opening a store showcasing the work of indigenous creatives. “Sign me up!” was the unanimous response. Her ocean scenes, created from resins, acrylic paints and pigment, hang on the walls of Sacred Cedar Company, which opened in July. Besides Urness’s own art, Sacred Cedar offers so...
Like La Conner, the remote town of Skagway, Alaska, depends on tourists. Unlike La Conner, those tourists come on cruise ships – descending in May and vanishing in September, leaving just 1,200 residents to soldier on until spring. After one too many Skagway winters, Jim Thompson and partner Lisa Sentle pulled up stakes for La Conner last summer. The business they brought with them, Kirmse’s Antiques, they reopened at 501 S. 1st St., evoking southeast Alaska and the Klondike Gold Rush. Nam...
A new dog is greeting visitors entering La Conner. Rowdy Dog Antique Lighting, in the Tillinghast building at Morris and Maple, is one of a dozen businesses to open in town since last fall. It’s also one of two businesses that trace their roots to Mary Davis Lighting. “I knew Tom before Tom knew Mary,” said co-owner Paul Shong of Davis and her late partner Tom Minfie. A retired welder-mechanic, he often helped Davis and Minifie with tricky restoration assignments. He can repair Tiffany-style lamps using his extensive collection of vinta...
Every four years, Maggie Wilder finds herself weeping during the Olympics. “I’m moved by the glory of it and that I never won anything,” she said. “I always wonder what that would feel like.” Knowing that qualifying for the high hurdles was out of the question, Wilder suggested to her sister Georgia Johnson that they enter pies in the Skagit County Fair. “I wanted to win something in a friendly competitive way,” said Wilder, “and what could be friendlier than the fair?” When the judging was o...
A few years back, Valter Pavoni bought some Tesla stock. Then he named his new dog Tesla. Next came a Tesla car. Now, the Pleasant Ridge resident and his wife Eva are the proud owners of the first Tesla solar roof in Washington state. A Tesla solar roof is made up of 15-inch x 45-inch tempered glass tiles. On the west and south sides of the Pavoni house, most, but not all, tiles contain photovoltaic cells that generate 12-volt DC power, which is converted to 120-volt AC power by inverters on...
Since purchasing the Scone Lady bakery from Christie Eichler in January 2020, D.J. Gallegos and Keneisia Smart-Gallegos have gotten some puzzled looks. When customers ask Smart-Gallegos whether she is the Scone Lady, she politely says no, she is the Scone Lady’s wife. Then she introduces her husband, D.J. – Mr. Scone Lady to his bankers. Still others tell Gallegos how glad they are that his mom reopened the bakery. Confusion vanishes with the first bite. Gallegos, who met “honorary mom” Eichler when he was earning his associate degre...
For three or four days, Dean Swanson could hear the corn grow. The corn he planted Saturday, June 26 was up four days later. Stalks that was already a foot tall doubled in a week. “It was fun to watch things grow so fast,” he said. “Like they say in the Midwest, you could hear it!” Meanwhile, Swanson’s raspberries took it on the chin. He estimates the heat bleached about 20 percent of his crop, mostly berries on the west side of north-south rows. Kai Ottesen saw the same phenomenon at Hedlin Fa...
Some of the world’s best-known businesses started in depressions, recessions and other hard economic times. Three La Conner businesses followed their example last year, expanding their operations while many others were retrenching or folding. When Sempre Italiano relocated from the corner of First and Morris streets to the O’Leary building two blocks south, Robyn Bradley’s landlord asked whether she knew someone who could take over the space. “Without really thinking, I said ‘oh my gosh, me!...
It has often been dark and gloomy during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Friday was not one of those times. At least not for members of the La Conner High Class of 2021 and their families and friends. It was, instead, a rare opportunity to celebrate. Together. Bright sunshine and a spectacular view of Mt. Baker greeted the class and about 500 people attending outdoor commencement exercises at Whitaker Field for what was an often emotional 75-minute program. Valedictorian Sarah Malcomson and...
