Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 434 - 458 of 1887
La Conner quarterback Ivory Damien accounted for more than 200 yards in total offense, including a 79-yard first period scoring strike to wideout Logan Burks, but the visiting Braves still fell 48-6 to NW2B grid foe Coupeville at Mickey Clark Field Friday night. Coupeville prevailed on the strength of superior roster depth and a punishing ground attack led by Mike Robinett, who ran for three touchdowns and was effective all night on inside blasts. The Braves also hurt themselves by yielding six...
The drive to reinstate student public service hours as a La Conner High School graduation requirement intersected Monday with a concrete example of the level of community support enjoyed by the school district. School Board members at their 75-minute Sept. 25 hybrid meeting expressed appreciation for a donation of 11 ukuleles by the La Conner Arts Commission to the elementary music program. Board President Susie Deyo cited the commitment demonstrated by the group as a prime reason of the great value for everyone when students engage in the...
Soroptimists are optimists – and with good reason, especially in La Conner. Members of the local chapter daily express appreciation for the widespread community support received for their multiple service projects. Their global volunteer organization provides women and girls access to education and training needed for economic empowerment. “It’s totally amazing what we get in donations,” Diane Goetz, co-president with Margaret Hillard of La Conner Soroptimists, said of the merchandise stocked at the chapter’s Vintage La Conner thrift store. Go...
La Conner Schools Finance Director David Cram is confident the district’s new fiscal game plan is headed in the right direction after declining student enrollment and loss of COVID-19 emergency funds forced severe budget cuts for the 2023-24 academic year. Now Cram is hopeful the district’s transportation department can likewise get past some bumps in the road in the form of a bus driver shortage that has plagued La Conner Schools since the start of the calendar year. “We’re definitely in need of drivers,” said Cram, whose expanded role this...
The sands of time have shifted from the hourglass to poly bags that will soon be strategically placed along the La Conner waterfront ahead of king tide season. Facing an Oct. 1 deadline to install sandbags and ecology blocks in areas prone to flooding, the La Conner Town Council last week approved purchases of equipment and barriers designed to thwart the high-water damage that plagued the town last December. The council, acting upon recommendations of the Emergency Management Commission, gave Public Works Director Brian Lease the go-ahead at...
Contributions to local firefighting by retired Skagit County Fire District 13 Commissioner Larry Kibbee won’t soon – if ever – be forgotten. That is because Kibbee’s name will be associated with improvements at the district’s Snee-Oosh Road firehall. The district’s new firefighter and EMT residential units will be dedicated in honor of Kibbee’s service and showcased during a Sept. 13 public open house 12-2 p.m. at the Snee-Oosh station. “It will be a two-hour event,” district fire chief Wood Weiss said, and will include building tours, i...
The Wahkiakum School District lost its two-year legal challenge seeking increased state funding for campus building and maintenance projects Washington state’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled Sept. 7. La Conner Schools officials feel the southwest Washington district’s pain. “It was too bad that they lost,” La Conner School Board President Susie Deyo said during the local panel’s 45-minute study session Sept. 11. The district had donated $3,000 to the Wahkiakum district’s legal battle. “All together, they raised about $100,000,” Deyo said. The...
The Lady Braves soccer team gained a win in town last Thursday. Lydia Grossglass and Maicy Bowles scored goals and Josi Straathof and Annika Keith recorded key saves for a home non-conference victory over Forest Ridge Sacred Heart High of Bellevue. The La Conner girls’ soccer team (2-2) was slated to open league play at home Tuesday opposite Friday Harbor. Boys soccer The Braves soccer team, meanwhile, played NW2B power and defending state champion Friday Harbor on nearly equal terms at home Friday afternoon. The Wolverines, with the wind at t...
Friday Harbor converted three straight second quarter La Conner turnovers into touchdowns, securing a convincing 41-0 NW2B grid triumph at Whittaker Field on Thursday. Quarterback Whiley McCutcheon threw a pair of scoring tosses to Triston Bremer and ran for another TD – all in the final 5:14 of the opening half –to break open what had been a closely fought defensive battle in the league opener for both teams. With the win, Friday Harbor improved to 2-1 overall. La Conner, fell to 0-2 after a 28-12 setback to 2A Evergreen of Seattle. The tea...
The new-look La Conner High School volleyball team, beset with heavy graduation losses, produced quite familiar results at NW2B foe Concrete Thursday night. The defending state 2B title winners forged a straight-sets triumph in their league debut, after successive setbacks to tough 1A net programs Lynden Christian and Meridian and a 3-1 loss to a talented 1B Neah Bay club Wednesday at Landy James Gym. Neah Bay swept NW2B Coupeville, a team La Conner is expected to vie for conference top honors, during its long two-match road swing from Cape...
There's no doubt Marna Hanneman has the resume to be La Conner's next mayor. Having served nearly a decade on the La Conner Planning Commission, a key advisory panel focused on land use and historic preservation, Hanneman comes with relevant academic and professional credentials. She holds a degree in business administration from the University of Maryland and has enjoyed wide-ranging careers in marketing, property management and insurance. And not to be overlooked is her long managerial stint...
Short-term rentals have been the talk of the town. That isn’t going to change anytime soon. The community can participate at a 6 p.m. open house Oct. 17 at the La Conner Civic Garden Club. Encouraging input on revising short-term rentals regulations is the goal. The La Conner Planning Commission has been reviewing the issue this summer. “We want to hear from as many people as possible,” Assistant Planner Ajah Eills told the Weekly News Friday. “The Town is totally neutral on this.” Short-term rentals are permitted in La Conner’s commercial...
All wasn’t lost when the new-look La Conner High School girls’ soccer team dropped two tough non-league tests to open the 2023 campaign. First-year coach Maddie Huscher was encouraged by her club’s effort in an 8-1 setback to North Mason and 7-0 shutout defeat at Northwest House of Seattle last week. “It was tough competition playing a team not in our division,” Huscher told the Weekly News after the road trip to Northwest, “but it was a great learning experience. We played on a turf field, something we aren’t used to.” Huscher said the team’s...
C.J. Edwards reeled off a 53-yard touchdown run, Ivory Damien delivered a 45-yard scoring strike to Tommy Murdock and the La Conner High School defense recovered five fumbles, but the Braves still fell 28-12 to Evergreen of Seattle in their grid opener at Whittaker Field Friday night. The difference, even more than the Wolverines' 16-point margin of victory, was in roster depth. Evergreen is a 2A King County program that rolls out 57 players. The 2B Braves, by contrast, suit up 20, two of them f...
Among its many devotees, the annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner is always a winner. Especially by the staff and volunteers at the Skagit County Historical Museum. This year was no exception as proceeds from the annual picnic in August allowed the La Conner Civic Garden Club and Skagit County Pioneer Association to contribute a total of $4,000 to the museum last week. The joint contribution by the organizations to the museum was approved during the association’s board meeting at the Skagit City School Building on Fir Island Friday afternoon. T...
Despite perfect late summer weather, thoughts of potential natural disasters – earthquakes, tsunamis, wildland fires and more – were on the minds of those visiting John K. Bob Ball Park on Swinomish Reservation Saturday afternoon. Emergency management staff and volunteers from throughout the region shared information and provided take-home items for use during major disaster events. The four-hour Swinomish Disaster Preparedness Fair, coordinated by the tribal emergency management dep...
A master storyteller, La Conner author Tom Robbins lent his name to another well-received work here Saturday. Only this time he did so not with his pen, but with his mere presence. And it had everything to do with fun rather than work. That's because a large crowd – many dressed as characters from his best-selling novels – descended on town for a festive, sun-splashed afternoon celebrating the La Conner wordsmith's decades-long mastery of wit, wisdom and eclectic thought. The timing cou...
Hard work and perseverance paid dividends for La Conner Schools ahead of the Labor Day weekend. District officials learned Friday that their application for a 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant to support the Braves Club after-school program has been approved. Past proposals had not been selected. The award recommends funding of up to $450,000 annually for five years, for a total of $2.5 million, a district news release states. A final funding level decision is expected in mid-September. “After three years of applying,” school board p...
The vibe coming out of the Pac-12 Conference this summer couldn't have been more grim. But a La Conner High School alum is providing a rare bit of good news, especially in her hometown, ahead of what will be the final year of the Conference of Champions as it is known. Ashley Watkins, a 2017 La Conner grad, has been elevated to director of football operations at Washington State University, the youngest sports administrator to serve in that capacity within the Pac-12. Her promotion was...
After slogging through a spring and summer beset with budget woes, La Conner Schools officials and staff shifted gears last week to focus on what they do best – create priceless memories for local students and families. The 2023-2024 year launched with a soft-start half-week of instruction beginning with Aug. 29 Braves Day orientation activities. Building principals Heather Fakkema-Hovde and Christine Tripp said Braves Day, which provided a relaxed atmosphere for students to meet teachers and advisors, obtain class schedules, pose for photos an...
Another day, another dollar. More than a familiar lament, it was truly a way of life for one of La Conner’s more famous – or infamous, depending on your political leanings – native sons. Hulet M. Wells, born in 1878 on a farm near town, toiled in hayfields as a young man for a buck a day. He also worked variously as a railway section hand, postal worker, street paver, logger, miner and shingle weaver. And that’s just to name a few. But his eventual calling was that of a labor activist, a role that led Wells in 1912 to run for mayor of Seattle...
First term state lawmaker Clyde Shavers (D, Oak Harbor) brought plenty of energy to a downtown La Conner appearance last Thursday. And for the 10th District Democrat it was a case of substance matching style. That's because Shavers also brought with him to the 75-minute afternoon stop at Ravens Cup Coffee & Art Gallery on First Street a detailed update on clean energy legislation and policy measures both in Olympia and around the country. His audience, primarily founders of the La Conner-based...
Some people, no matter how dire the situation, always see things with a glass half-full perspective. And then there's Tom Robbins. The acclaimed La Conner author, who famously quit his gig at the Seattle Times by calling in "well," has during his more than 50 years here earned repute as a joy hunter, always seeking and cherishing life's "cup runneth over" moments. That tireless devotion to optimism, regularly punctuated with wit and whimsy, will be saluted during "Tom Robbins Day" festivities in...
When saluted by La Conner Rotarians Saturday night at Maple Hall, Mayor Ramon Hayes didn't speak at length about accomplishments that have marked his unprecedented four terms in office. He instead chose to focus on a task left uncompleted until that very moment, when he was presented the Paul Harris Fellow recognition, a $1,000 contribution to the national Rotary Foundation in Hayes' name. Hayes, who is bringing his 16-year tenure to a close, used his remarks to shift attention from himself to f...
La Conner leaders continue to develop a saltwater flood mitigation plan before king tide season this fall. They will meet Sept. 1 with representatives of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe at their south end property to discuss placing flood barriers there. La Conner Town Councilmember Rick Dole relayed the news to council, which met after the commission concluded its business Aug. 22 in Maple Hall. Town Administrator Scott Thomas reported discussions have begun with north end business owners for...
