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David Cram pulled down his share of rebounds as a La Conner High basketball player in the 1980s. But perhaps his most impressive rebound has come in the financial arena over the past 15 months. Cram, now the La Conner Schools financial chief and interim superintendent, has overseen a fiscal bounce back resulting in notification from Olympia this week that the district is released from state financial oversight. During the fiscal year Sept. 1, 2023-Aug. 31, 2024, the school system grew its...
The La Conner High School girls' soccer team lost its state tournament match last week. But head coach Maddie Huscher, her staff and players won the hearts of many across Washington. La Conner received much love on Thursday for hitting the road a second time for its playoff venue in Cle Elum. The team's Nov. 13 trip ended abruptly when its bus was struck by a pickup truck on I-405 in Bothell, forcing a 24-hour postponement of La Conner's date with third-seeded Cle Elum-Roslyn. No one on the bus...
A favorite La Conner Thanksgiving tradition is on the menu once again. The Waterfront Cafe will provide its free community Thanksgiving meal from noon-3 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. As always, it's an opportunity to dine with friends, family and neighbors in a relaxed holiday atmosphere. Those facing financial challenges, are alone or who simply want to celebrate Thanksgiving with Waterfront Cafe patrons and staff are invited. The cafe, located at 128 S. First Street, will provide a turkey dinner with...
Fire District 13 Chief Wood Weiss got the green light on Thursday to commit up to $700,000 toward purchase of a Pierce tender truck that would bolster an aging District 13 emergency response fleet. District commissioners authorized Weiss to pursue acquisition of a new tender shortly after approving a preliminary 2025 draft budget that projects a fund reserve exceeding $1 million. “That sounds like a lot of money, until you have to buy some equipment,” commission Chair Bruce Shellhamer cautioned when referring to the seven-figure bank bal...
The shorthanded La Conner Emergency Management Commission, which this year has juggled flood mitigation, neighborhood mapping and the crafting of a community disaster preparedness plan, received a much needed shot in the arm last week. Brianna Wilson, owner of Thrive Direct Health Care, was appointed by town council at its Nov. 12 Maple Hall meeting. A commission vacancy remains, said Mayor Marna Hanneman, who nominated Wilson. The Council unanimously approved Wilson, noting that her medical...
Fate served up tough luck for the La Conner High School volleyball team at the Yakima SunDome last week. First, head coach Pam Keller’s charges drew top-seeded Adna in first round state 2B tournament action. Perhaps equally brutal was La Conner libero Addison Keller playing under the weather for Wednesday’s matches with the Pirates and Tri-Cities Prep. Still, La Conner battled. The NW2B/1B runners-up pushed Adna, which arrived in Yakima riding an 18-game winning streak, in a hard-fought opening set. But Adna, which finished 22-3 on the sea...
Praises continue to be sung for Sarah Cook at Skagit Valley College, much like when she was a La Conner H igh School multi-sports star. Cook, an SVC sophomore who has earned Northwest Athletic Conference honors in volleyball and basketball, is receiving more accolades this fall. A 5-foot-9 outside hitter for the Cardinal spikers, Cook was recently named to the 2024 NWAC All-Star team. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community member has been an integral part of an SVC volleyball squad that...
It's always nice to have connections. Just ask the staff at La Conner Swinomish Library. Its connections extend not only across town with several local art partnerships but by extension to the other side of the world. The library this year has displayed in its children's section the popular "Path to La Conner" quilt comprised of panels, depicting familiar storefronts on First Street. The La Conner-centric imagery was inspired by "Path to Edo" quilt work created by Japanese students and part of...
The largest ugly sweater party in Skagit County was an evening of substance over style. About 200 people proudly donning garish holiday sweaters attended, officially designated the 2024 Anacortes Salvation Army Red Kettle Kickoff Program, at the Swinomish Casino & Lodge on Nov. 9. Because the Anacortes Salvation Army service area covers La Conner, local donors in attendance included Mayor Marna Hanneman and her husband, Leroy, and Swinomish Indian Tribal Community civic leader Janie Beasley....
La Conner residents received an Ivy League education at Pioneer Park on Saturday. The volunteers, led by trained natural resources specialist Steve Phillips, spent a couple hours removing invasive English ivy from a patch below the town water tower. It marked the second such work party at the park this fall. Phillips envisions the ivy removal project continuing monthly through autumn and winter and in the years ahead, if possible. "We decided to do this now, because summers are so busy, and...
The polls are closed and Lona Wilbur has cast her ballot. But the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community member and La Conner High School alum will vote a second time for Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party's standard bearer. And she'll do so legally. Wilbur has served numerous party roles at the local, state and national levels during a long and fruitful tenure in politics. Now she is Washington state's Second Congressional District elector and will travel to Olympia next month to pledge her...
Communication was the word that resonated at the Nov. 5 La Conner Emergency Management Commission meeting. Commissioners continued their review of a draft Community Emergency Management Plan, which communicates strategies for dealing with natural disasters and provides a risk analysis of each potential scenario – from earthquakes and flooding to fires and tsunamis. “It’s a work in progress,” commissioner Jerry George called the draft plan, due for approval by the end of the year. Fine tuning the plan has been a priority this year. “We nee...
The La Conner Planning Commission forwarded one recommended comprehensive plan update to the town council but tabled action on another during its Nov. 5 public meeting at Maple Hall. Commissioners were unanimous in advancing updates to the comp plan's transportation element, including language addressing electric vehicle charging stations. The element, reviewed every five years, will eventually include a Transportation Improvement Program schedule. Deferred was a draft parks and recreation...
They're back. The young and resilient La Conner High School volleyball team, twice on the brink of post-season elimination, swept Auburn Adventist and Orcas Island on Nov. 9 to preserve the program's long streak of state tournament appearances. La Conner (15-11) faces top-seeded and undefeated Adna in first-round state 2B action at 11:45 a.m. today (Wednesday) in the Yakima SunDome. La Conner has captured multiple state net crowns, its last in 2022. The Braves are seeded 16th in the 16-team...
The 14th-seeded La Conner High School girls’ soccer team has a tall mountain to climb in this year’s post-season format. And that’s on several levels. Not only have the Braves (5-7-2) drawn No. 3 Cle Elum-Roslyn in first round state playoff action today, but La Conner must play the loser-out match on the Warriors’ home pitch on the east slope of the Cascades. The winner of the contest (5 p.m. Nov. 13) advances to play the victor between No. 11 Adna and No. 6 Mount Vernon Christian with the date and location to be determined. La Conner lost 5-...
Life may be just a bowl of cherries, but Young Life offers a full range of desserts. That was borne out once again during the annual Young Life Dessert fundraiser at La Conner Elementary School Sunday night. The event is held here each November to provide financial support for students who attend Young Life summer camps, an experience master of ceremonies Peter Voorhees, a La Conner High School teacher and coach, described as life changing. Young Life donors filled the elementary school's...
It was another spooktacular Halloween in and around La Conner. Historic First Street, now one-way traffic, was closed to all traffic – other than the popular Meow Mix car and law enforcement vehicles – for a full hour Thursday afternoon to allow for La Conner's annual Halloween downtown pedestrian parade. After striding from Gilkey Square to Maple Hall, costumed paraders of all ages walked back to Morris Street, collecting candy along the way from La Conner merchants and business owners. "Th...
As office seekers and voters alike focused on which way political winds were blowing, it was a meteorological windstorm that grabbed attention in the La Conner area Monday afternoon. Gusts of up to 60 mph snapped off sections of trees in the Snee-Oosh Road area, occasionally bringing down power lines and causing short-term interruptions of electrical service. Power was out on at least some part of Pull and Be Damned Road till about 3 a.m. Tuesday. Some homes in Shelter Bay lost power for at least a couple of hours. Indian Road was closed to...
Janie Beasley didn't need to drive far to be celebrated for choosing the long road in terms of public service. A Swinomish Indian Tribal Community member and La Conner High School alum, Beasley received a 2024 Skagit Women's Alliance Network Lifetime Achievement Award during Oct. 17 ceremonies at the Swinomish Casino & Lodge. SWAN is a nonprofit organization dedicated to recognizing and supporting accomplished women throughout Skagit Valley. Upper Skagit elder Kay Knott, who like Beasley was...
Local volcanologist Jerry George is doing his best to shake things up in La Conner. In a good way, of course. George, a charter member of the Town's emergency management commission and its immediate past chair, addressed the panel's embrace of neighborhood mapping at the "Meet the Mayor" bi-monthly forum at La Conner Swinomish Library Saturday. Neighborhood mapping developed in Oakland, California after a devastating wildlands fire in the 1990s engulfed hundreds of homes. It provides vital...
Food for thought took on added meaning during the “Meet the Mayor” session at La Conner Swinomish Library Saturday. La Conner Sunrise Food Bank Board President John Petrich and Director Arin Magill updated attendees on the probable move from the ground floor of the historic Garfield Masonic Lodge Building at Third and Benton. Area Masons are consolidating operations in Sedro-Woolley and selling their La Conner and Mount Vernon properties. Petrich, a retired Swinomish Indian Tribal Community staffer, said the food bank’s lease for the 19th...
Addison Wigal enjoyed a senior moment before she joined her La Conner volleyball teammates in a thrilling five-set home match Oct. 30 that won't soon be forgotten. Wigal, La Conner's lone senior, was honored prior to the Braves' marathon two-and-a-half-hour clash with Sedro-Woolley, which won by scoring the final three points in the decisive fifth set. "It was definitely one of our better matches of the season," La Conner head coach Pam Keller said. "It's what we needed going into...
Heartwarming and heartbreaking. Such were the results of last week’s soccer matches for La Conner. The La Conner girls improved to 4-5-2 on the season and secured a post-season berth with a thrilling 3-1 shootout-round win at NW2B/1B foe Lopez Island last Wednesday. The boys posted their third straight, single-goal, overtime loss, this time to archrival Coupeville on Nov. 1. Baylee Smith, Aisley Zimmerman and Yami Ocampo-Contreras made shootout goals for the Braves, who were locked in a shutout through regulation and two overtime periods. Z...
The annual Skagit County Pioneer Picnic in La Conner is not only steeped in history but also benefits local historical preservation. That was reinforced Nov. 1 when the Skagit County Pioneer Association Board of Directors approved presentation of $4,500 in proceeds from August’s pioneer picnic to the Skagit County Historical Museum. The picnic, in addition to serving as a fundraiser for the county museum, has been a summer tradition in La Conner for more than a century. It features a program that honors a Skagit Pioneer Family of the Year a...
Moving downstairs is a step up for the Skagit County elections office, which has doubled its workspace, increased transparency and improved efficiency in its new digs at the county administration building in Mount Vernon, Auditor Sandy Perkins told the Weekly News last Thursday. The Skagit County Auditor's Office in September moved its elections space from a cramped cubbyhole on the administration building's second floor to first floor court hearing rooms. The county this year revamped two of...
