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Much of La Conner’s emergency management commission’s Sept. 3 meeting explored neighborhood mapping – the method for collecting vital information that emergency responders can access when called into residential areas to aid those impacted by flooding, fires, earthquakes or other threats. Neighbors break down barriers and foster increased communication to better prepare themselves to survive emergency situations. Commission chair Jerry George led by example at a Sept. 7 meeting in his North Third Street neighborhood. (see Sept. 11 Weekly News,...
The first day of school in La Conner was in the bag. La Conner Middle and High School students received something new during this year's back-to-school routine. Staff distributed magnetized Yondr bags into which students place and lock their cell phones during the school day. They can unlock the pouches to access phones when school lets out. Yondr marks the start of a project designed to increase academic engagement and eliminate distractions in classrooms. By establishing a cell-phone-free zone...
Jerry George put on his hardhat Sunday and went to work helping neighbors prepare for natural disasters or emergency situations that could strike La Conner. The town's emergency management commission chair joined north end residents at the Matthews North Third Street home for a 75-minute session on neighborhood mapping – the process of establishing a set of steps enhancing emergency preparedness. Leslie Smith led the meeting. She lives on Center Street with her husband, William. Their home w...
Tom Beckwith is the man with a plan that will be finalized by the end of the year. Beckwith’s firm was hired to develop a revitalization plan for the town’s formerly bustling south end industrial area by the Town of La Conner. He intends to draw heavily upon public input, he told the planning commission at its Sept. 3 meeting. Beckwith outlined the process his team will follow this fall. There will be public review sessions and meetings with the town’s advisory commissions and workshops with the town council and planning commission. “We w...
It was great weather for soccer at Whittaker Field last Thursday. Unfortunately, the host La Conner Braves couldn't weather the crisp passing and relentless attacks of Sea-Tac B power Auburn Adventist. The Falcons, coming off a 2023 campaign that saw them qualify for the state playoffs, posted a tidy 3-1 non-league triumph over La Conner before a large crowd that basked in sunshine and warm weather while taking in an often-physical match. Collisions and contact were frequent as players...
La Conner High School was already behind the eight-ball when the Braves headed to the Yakima Valley Friday to open its first full eight-man football schedule. That’s because the Pomeroy Pirates, La Conner’s Sept. 6 foe, was coming off a 9-2 campaign in 2023 during which the southeast Washington eight-man grid power posted beatdown wins of 90-0 over Tekoa-Rosalia and 76-0 against Dayton. The Pirates resumed their swashbuckling offensive style in the ’24 debut for both clubs, recording a 64-24 victory on a neutral site chosen to split travel time...
It's only the first full week of school and district officials are already looking ahead to February. The five-month countdown has begun for the next La Conner Schools Educational Programs and Operations replacement levy. School district voters in 2021 approved a four-year levy that will collect $1.02 million for 2024 and $1.05 million in 2025. Those funds are generated by a $1.11 per $1,000 assessed property valuation across the district. That rate is the second lowest among Skagit County...
She has owned a downtown bookstore, helped found the town's senior center and written accounts of La Conner history and her memoir. Janna Gage, who hails from a pioneer Skagit County family, is now ready for her next chapter. Seaport Books, which she and Marion Melville launched in 2017, is listed for sale. "We're not retired," quipped Gage, a 1958 La Conner High School graduate and class valedictorian. "We're just tired." But not so weary that Gage can't imagine taking on a new project or...
The countdown is on for 10-9-1 – as in Oct. 9, First Street shifts to one-way southbound traffic. The official deadline for changing the downtown traffic pattern, which includes the block of Commercial Street in front of Maple Hall, was announced at the Aug. 27 La Conner Town Council meeting. "We don't want this date to be a surprise," Town Assistant Planner Ajah Eills said. "We're going to do a big information campaign in September, getting the word out on kiosks, at the library, and h...
Communication was the key word when the La Conner High School girls' soccer team opened preseason workouts last week. The hope is that by season's end, the rebuilding Braves program will be the talk of the perennially tough NW2B League. "The feedback we're getting is that our communication on the field is much improved," second year head coach Maddie Huscher said. "We've really stepped up with that all over the field, on offense and defense." Huscher and assistant coaches Robert Hancock and...
Defense was its calling card a year ago. This season the La Conner High School boys' soccer team is counting on its best defense being a strong offense. "We'll be more focused on attacking," head coach Galen McKnight told the Weekly News Friday afternoon as his club wrapped up its first week of preseason workouts. "Last year we played a lot of close matches, with 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2-type scores," he said. "I think we can build on that but also play more aggressively on offense." One reason for the...
The Skagit Women's Alliance Network and its leadership award nominees gathered here Aug. 29 for a two-hour meet-and-greet at the La Conner Civic Garden Club. Nominees for annual SWAN awards were honored guests at the historic venue, which proved an ideal setting. That's because one of the honorees has lifelong ties to the community. La Conner High School alum and Swinomish Tribal Community elder Janie Beasley has been nominated for the 2024 SWAN Lifetime Achievement Award. Her nomination is...
Nancy Llewellyn may not have known it at the time, but her years at La Conner High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s were a prescription for future success. A positive prognosis was quite apparent even then to fellow students and faculty members alike, all of whom admired her keen academic skills, especially gifts for solving tough math problems and writing bold pieces for the campus newspaper. The 1972 La Conner grad would go on to medical school at the University of Washington and a sub...
It's rare to be the recipient of a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Award, presented to those who have made significant contributions to the organization's wide range of public service programs. That being the case, local tulip grower Leo Roozen is doubly esteemed by area Rotarians. Roozen received his second Paul Harris honor during the La Conner Rotary Club's annual dinner and auction at Maple Hall Saturday night. The chapter will contribute $1,000 in his name to their international...
The couple planning to open a martial arts studio and fitness club on Maple Avenue at Washington Street didn’t face much of a fight when the project went before Town Hearing Examiner David Lowell last week. Tracy and April Emmanuelson-Barnett received overwhelming support during a well-attended one-hour public hearing on their application for a permit to revamp the former COA building on Maple Avenue. It has been vacant for two years after having been operated as restaurants since the 1970s, a non-conforming use in a residential zone. Lowell s...
The challenges of balancing preservation of farmland, forest areas and wetlands with development of affordable workforce housing in Skagit Valley are many and abundantly clear. Solutions, though, are less apparent and more elusive – but sorely needed, and now. The Skagit County League of Women Voters brought attention to the issue, organizing a 90-minute public forum in Sedro-Woolley Aug. 21, emphasizing the challenge that has priced working families out of the valley and shrunk the labor pool. Some 100 people attended and more watched on Y...
It was a back-to-work Monday morning this week for La Conner High School volleyball team players and coaches. After a busy summer of team camps and open gyms, head coach Pam Keller, assistant Kamea Luna and a roster led by lone senior Addie Wigal were eager to hit the Landy James Activity Court hardwood by 9 a.m. "We're very young this year," Keller said. She guided the Braves to a state tourney berth last year in her first season as head coach. "But this is a very coachable group," Keller...
Remember “Eight Is Enough,” the popular 1970s TV drama? It’s now the new mantra for La Conner High School football, at least for the next two seasons. Faced with declining enrollment as the smallest Class 2B school system in Washington, La Conner school officials opted following the 2023 season and a series of community meetings to downsize the team to eight players. The Braves will play an independent eight-man schedule this season and next. They will not be eligible for post-season action. Playoff spots are reserved for 1B schools. Durin...
Classes haven't started yet but two La Conner High School students already have homework. Emmalin Goodman and Kellie Cayou-Lockrem will be providing feedback to school board members on the district's new cell phone policy, their first task as the board's new student representatives. "We value your input," board member John Agen told the panel's student reps. "We'd like to have you be the most engaged student representatives we've ever had." Board President Susie Deyo said that rather than assig...
A Woodinville contractor made fast work mid-month of demolishing a La Conner home gutted in a June fire. Greater Seattle Construction needed just two days, Aug.14-15, to knock down a North Fifth Street house destroyed in a June 19 blaze that sent plumes of black smoke wafting over town and produced noxious fumes that lingered in the neighborhood for weeks. Nearby residents, some of whom said their houses sustained smoke damage and others impacted by the foul-smelling air, lobbied town officials...
Some things never change – like the excitement when a Roberts-built boat is launched in La Conner. And for a few fleeting moments last Friday at La Conner Marina and on Swinomish Channel it was 1960 again as a classic 27-foot Roberts Express Cruiser was the center of attention while being lowered into the water. Its launching captured the imagination of onlookers gathered at La Conner Maritime Service. And for good reason. Salvaged 15 years ago from a dry storage marina on the Snohomish River a...
Music to one's ears can be mere noise to another's. To find harmony between the two, the La Conner Town Council discussed potential noise control at its Aug. 13 Maple Hall meeting, especially those related to the La Conner Live Sunday concerts amplified music in Gilkey Square. Administrator Scott Thomas raised the topic in his written report in the council packet. "As has been the case for several years, Gilkey Square has been frequently used for musical performances," Thomas began. "I am aware...
The annual Swinomish Back-to-School Bash, held as summer draws to a close, was again a cut above similar events held elsewhere. That was true both literally and figuratively. The three-hour Aug. 14 gathering at John K. Bob Ball Park had something for all student groups – school supplies, T-shirts and hoodies, general and specific campus and classroom information, school district calendars, snack foods, sno-cones and more. And there were free haircuts, provided by students from the Mount V...
The La Conner Rotary Club, noted for its steadfast support of literacy and education, will honor at its annual dinner and auction this Saturday someone whose family is often lauded in print for its remarkable success growing tulips in the Skagit Valley. Leo Roozen, whose father, the late Bill Roozen, was a La Conner Rotarian, will be the local club's honored guest at its major Aug. 24 fundraiser here. Billed as "The Magic of Rotary," it is 5:30-9 p.m. at Maple Hall. The Roozen family began...
Volunteering has paid off handsomely and repeatedly for Gary Ladd, the rewards proving every bit as valuable as a paycheck. "It's been fun," Ladd stresses, citing the sense of self-fulfillment realized from public service. Over the past decade, Ladd has lent his time and expertise to Skagit County Fire District 13, Skagit Bay Search & Rescue and the Shelter Bay residential community, filling a variety of roles for each. "I always had the spirit for volunteerism, but never had the time," said...
