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Sorted by date Results 351 - 375 of 1887
No building permit has yet been issued, but excavation began at the 306 Center Street condominium project site last week to find the water table on the property so that paperwork could be completed for removal of contaminated soil. Following that initial dig, a soil removal plan was drafted and submitted, according to Town of La Conner Assistant Planner Ajah Eills. Public Work Director Brian Lease approved the plan and soil removal commenced, Eills said. That work was completed and by early Friday afternoon all equipment had left the site. The...
Four-term La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes chaired his final town council meeting Dec. 12, but it was a business-as-usual session with no celebration or reception. Hayes wouldn’t have had it any other way. “It’s just not my personality,” he told the Weekly News afterward on his reluctance to see the meeting morph into a retirement party. “Once something is done, it’s over,” he explained. “And we had a very long, grueling agenda to work through.” There was, however, mention during the meeting – which included a 20-minute executive session o...
It’s been said that an ill wind blows no good. In the case of the Skagit County Fire District 13 coverage area, which entails Swinomish Reservation and rural La Conner, a facsimile windstorm at the end of March is designed to do plenty good. Planning has started for a March 30 Emergency Operations Center Windstorm Disaster Exercise and unified command strategy. Captains Gary Ladd and Ted Taylor and Brad Reading of Shelter Bay summarized the training at the December commissioners hybrid meeting at the Snee-Oosh Road station last Thursday. ...
It’s often said that to everything there is a season. For La Conner’s emergency management commission, that means development of a comprehensive guide addressing all disaster scenarios. “We’ve been working on flooding issues hot and heavy for quite a while,” Town Administrator Scott Thomas said at the the commission’s Dec. 12 hybrid meeting. Now we need to develop a process and procedure for our (emergency management) plan.” Identifying groups within the community that will need extra assistancen is key. “How do we accommodate persons with di...
It was junior cheer night at Landy James Gym last Friday. And the La Conner High School girls’ basketball team gave both the youth cheerleaders and a large crowd plenty to applaud. Maeve McCormick scored a game-high 26 points, Shaniquah Casey filled the stat sheet with 16 points, six rebounds, six steals and two assists, Nora McCormick added six points and a half dozen steals and Jackie Lam finished with six points and eight boards in drubbing 1B Oakville 56-35 to improve to 5-2. Alyssa Forsythe and Laela Baker scored 10 points apiece for t...
The atmosphere was electric at the Dec. 11 La Conner School board meeting. Campus solarization options lit up the room. La Conner Town Council member MaryLee Chamberlain and resident Bob Raymond, of the Skagit Valley Clean Energy Cooperative, provided an update on local solar grant projects, including a feasibility study and analysis of energy consumption at the school district. They made a pitch, eliciting a positive board reception, for the school district to convert to electric buses. The two presented data that showed cost savings and envir...
Coming off his selection as the Skagit Valley Herald Boys’ Athlete of the Week, La Conner’s Brayden Pedroza provided Braves fans an impressive encore at Landy James Gym Friday night. The junior guard dazzled with an array of shots on his way to a game high 33 points, 10 of which came in the pivotal fourth quarter, to lead the hosts to a 69-51 non-league win over 1B Oakville. Pedroza found the hoop on slicing drives through the paint, mid-range jumpers, three-point bombs and at the free throw stripe where he converted five of six attempts. But...
It didn't just rain on the Swinomish Yacht Club's Lighted Christmas Boat Parade Saturday night. It rained hard after a gray day of steady rain. But that hardly dampened enthusiasm for what has become a beloved La Conner holiday season event. Downtown restaurants were filled with diners at tables with waterfront views. Folks wearing heavy coats and raingear and carrying umbrellas and glow-in-the-dark balloons on lighted poles made their way to the popular Swinomish Channel boardwalk, eager to...
It’s never too early to focus on the past. That was the credo embraced by new Skagit County Pioneer Association President Loren Dahl, who last week received confirmation that the Wesen family, which operates a centennial dairy farm in the Bow-Edison area, has accepted its nomination as 2024 Pioneer Family of the Year. The Wesens will be formally honored during ceremonies at the annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner next August. “It’s great to have this early,” said Dahl, whose next mission, with the association’s board of directors, is to choose...
It’s often said that crime doesn’t take a holiday. Nor did Washington state politics back in 1883. It was while Whatcom County lawmakers had gone home for the Thanksgiving holiday that Territorial Governor William A. Newell signed a bill lopping off Whatcom’s lower half and designating it as the new Skagit County. The bold action came just prior to Thanksgiving Day, which in 1883 was officially designated on Nov. 29 – the final Thursday of the month – by President Chester A. Arthur. The president’s proclamation had been issued after the T...
Seeing might be believing, but it’s collecting data that’s confirming. That’s the approach longtime resident and former planning commissioner Linda Talman is recommending officials take regarding remedies to La Conner’s downtown parking. A week after Town officials heard a presentation on mobile paid parking systems, Talman suggested to the planning commissioners that more information should be gathered before committing to a new First Street parking scheme. “We don’t have the data that we need,” Talman said at the planning commission’s...
During his appearance before the Leadership Skagit class recently, Swinomish Tribal Senate Chair Steve Edwards cited environmental protection and dealing with climate change as key priorities for his administration. Federal lawmakers, most notably U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), apparently heard Edwards as well. Murray, who met with Edwards and other tribal leaders earlier this year at the Thousand Trails RV Resort at Lone Tree Point on Skagit Bay, announced last week over $6 million in grants for infrastructure projects to improve climate...
Sultan had trouble guarding one McCormick. Defending two proved impossible. Maeve McCormick scored a career-high 25 points, collected 11 steals and dished off a team-best three assists while Nora McCormick added 12 points, two steals and a pair of rebounds as La Conner breezed past the 1A Turks 48-28 in non-league high school girls’ hoops action at Landy James Gym Friday night. Each of the McCormick sisters delivered two perimeter treys. The home team led wire-to-wire, bolting to a quick 8-0 first quarter lead, to record its second straight h...
Brayden Pedroza has impressed La Conner High School basketball fans in the season's first couple weeks with his ability to defend, pass and score. They aren't alone. Pedroza has made an impression with his stellar play throughout the county. The junior guard was named Skagit Valley Herald Boys' Athlete of the Week after having scored in double digits in La Conner's first three contests. Pedroza scored 23 points against Oak Harbor, 18 opposite Sedro-Woolley and a game-high 25 in the dramatic...
The La Conner Braves basketball team are true road warriors. The team followed its convincing 65-44 NW2B/1B triumph at Orcas Island Dec. 5 with another all-day trip on Saturday – this time to 2A Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula and likewise requiring a ferry ride. It was neither smooth sailing on rainy, wind-swept Puget Sound nor in the Buccaneers’ gym for the travel-weary Braves, however. Kingston was able to withstand another big scoring night by La Conner’s Brayden Pedroza, the Skagit Valley Herald Boys’ Athlete of the Week, to post a 64-56...
There was a time when La Conner’s parking problem was inverted to its present situation. When downtown Mount Vernon was lined with clunky parking meters, La Conner had little need for either a paid or timed parking system on First Street. Many storefronts here were boarded up – some year-round– before La Conner morphed into its present state as a popular destination. Change has been the defining feature over the course of 50 years. Now, with seemingly every parking space in the town’s business district contested during peak tourist season,...
La Conner's favorite tourist had a unique solution for the town's vexing parking problem during his visit here last Saturday. World renowned toymaker Santa Claus parked his large sleigh and reindeer atop Maple Hall, managing to avoid damage to the building's solar panels, while greeting local children downstairs and recording their carefully crafted Christmas wish lists. The jolly white-whiskered global goodwill ambassador was the featured guest at the La Conner Rotary Club's annual Pancake...
First Street parking issues were discussed in detail at the Nov. 28 Town Council meeting. But perhaps lost amid a one-hour presentation on potential future paid parking options for the downtown business district was a brief plea by Councilmember MaryLee Chamberlain to revisit the concept of one-way traffic on increasingly congested First Street. Chamberlain suggested that dealing with downtown traffic flow should be addressed “before we venture into parking.” “We need to have this discussion. We can look at all the pros and cons,” Chamber...
Location, location, location. It’s not just the familiar real estate mantra. It’s also a key element as La Conner’s Emergency Management Commission crafts long-term disaster preparation strategies. The six-member advisory panel discussed best methods to publicize the locations and primary functions of La Conner’s network of emergency shelters at its Nov. 28 hybrid meeting. A map listing La Conner’s various shelter locations, suggested by Councilmember Rick Dole, drew the greatest support. Dole, council liaison to the commission, offered h...
New La Conner High School boys’ basketball coach Lance Lopez said before the season tipped off that two goals for his team were to be competitive and draw large crowds to Landy James Gym. He achieved both in just the Braves’ second home date. La Conner (1-2) fought back from an early double-digit deficit to edge 1B power Lummi 62-58 in overtime Saturday night. The Braves, trailing much of the contest, forced the extra session when Corran Eisen took a side inbounds pass from C.J. Edwards and drained a long three-point jumper as time exp...
She was the driving force behind the La Conner High School girls' basketball team's convincing 63-36 non-league home win over Lummi last Saturday. But outside Landy James Gym, Kim Williams can't drive at all. The eighth grader is too young. But Williams had license to motor down the lane and from baseline to baseline against the Lady Blackhawks, delivering a game-high 26 points, including a trio of outside treys. Making her second career varsity start, Williams shot 11 of 22 from the floor and...
After just one meeting, Town staff and representatives of KSA Investments are agreed on 80 per cent of the design revisions La Conner’s planning department requires for a proposed three-story apartment/condo project at 306 Center Street. But reaching consensus on the remaining 20 per cent could literally be a tall order. At issue is a planned elevator shaft that planning staff finds exceeds height restrictions. The developer, according to Planning Director Michael Davolio and Assistant Planner Ajah Eills, has countered that state building c...
A few hours after completing the La Conner Turkey Trot, Jaime Stroebel-Reinstra was keeping a brisk pace as a volunteer server at the Waterfront Café's community Thanksgiving Day meal. She and others – including her own family members – who pitched in to help with the annual fundraiser for local charities were kept busy throughout a three-hour early afternoon shift last Thursday. "We had more reservations and more people this year than ever before," Waterfront Café co-owner Marla Vallee told...
Mingling pays off in La Conner. The proof is in the long-term results from an October forum on short-term rentals. Residential input on short-term rentals at the Civic Garden Club building – referred as “a mingle,” by Town officials – produced much-anticipated planning department recommendations. The staff report was well received at the Nov. 21 Town Planning Commission hybrid session at Maple Hall by community members concerned that the green light for inclusion in town neighborhoods could be given. That possibility appears highly unlikel...
The La Conner Town Council has paved the way for smoother rides around town. The panel during one of several public hearings at its Nov. 14 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall unanimously approved formation of a transportation benefit district to generate revenue for maintenance of streets, sidewalks and crosswalks. The council, by state law, serves as commissioners of the district, which operates as a separate entity. The next move, said Town Administrator Scott Thomas, is to decide how the revenue will be raised. A one-tenth of one per cent...
