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The Town of La Conner won’t be caught with its pants down while drafting rules regulating adult businesses. Its Town Council last Tuesday unanimously adopted a six-month emergency moratorium on development applications within commercial, commercial transition and residential zones while controls addressing adult-oriented businesses are enacted. The action stems any attempt to locate here before specific regulations are adopted. “The moratorium,” planner Michael Davolio said, “will address anything that might come up in the interim.” Restricti...
Tyrone McLeod has been a builder much of his life, the elaborate ramp he installed at a Morris Street home across from The Slider Café is a prime example. He has built even more goodwill here over time. That was much in evidence Friday when La Conner service organizations held a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to benefit McLeod and his family, which last winter lost to fire the house he had labored five years to build on Swinomish Reservation. The event raised several thousand dollars with...
The Coupeville High School baseball team stole a win at La Conner last Thursday. Not that the visiting Wolves eked out an unexpected NW2B/1B triumph. A veteran Coupeville lineup, ran wild on the basepaths –19 stolen bases – and prevailed 12-2 over the youthful Braves, who averted a shutout when Kenai Zimmerman delivered a bases-loaded two-run single in the third inning. La Conner, falling to 1-7, kept within striking distance up until the game's midpoint. The Braves received a solid start fro...
La Conner High School hurdles standout Tommy Murdock took top honors in his races at the Skagit Showdown Meet in Sedro-Woolley last Wednesday. Students from various sized schools competed, but Murdock was clearly in a class by himself. The junior swept the boys' 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles, hitting the finish line in 0:16.02 and 42.00, respectively. The reigning state 2B hurdles champ placed a strong third in the 100-meter dash, clocking an 0:11.46 finish, behind Carsten Reynolds (0:11.17)...
A La Conner High School student group is proving you can play around and learn at the same time. The school’s extracurricular theater arts program group is presenting Neil Simon’s popular comedy “The Odd Couple” with six shows at the Bruce Performing Arts Center starting this Friday at 7 p.m. Performers include Jack Dougliss, Eleanor Drews, Gabe Barnett, Jonathan Gonzales, Rachel Haley, Madoc Hiller, Olie Phillips, Emily Smith and Josi Straathof. They are also gaining valuable math, carpentry, team-building and public speaking skills as they...
The 36th annual La Conner Kiwanis Not-So-Impromptu Tulip Festival Parade Saturday did not lay an egg. That chore was left to the Easter Bunny, who did his usual egg-ceptional job at Pioneer Park a few hours before the downtown serpentine, which many onlookers afterward ranked among the best tulip parades since the late Kiwanian Luke Long first invited his Nile Temple cohorts to march down First Street without a permit in the 1980s. Parade spectators included some who started in the Park at the...
While historic preservation is a major concern of the Town of La Conner Planning Commission and planning staff are intent on fending off any future character-changing developments that may arise. Adult businesses locating here is one. Town planner Michael Davolio and Assistant Planner Ajah Eills have repeatedly cited court decisions ruling those businesses can be regulated but only if specific parameters are on the books prior to permits being sought. Without regulation beforehand, adult business proposals must be treated the same as other ente...
Divide and conquer is usually a winning strategy. But it didn't work this past winter for foes of the La Conner Middle School girls' basketball program, which split into two teams and collectively won 18 of 20 contests with one squad going undefeated in its 10 games. Coaches Joel Hingston and Ryan Pino weren't surprised at that level of success. "This is a very good group," Hingston, who teaches Spanish at La Conner Schools and works summers as a hornet hive remover, told the Weekly News....
Home or away, it didn't matter. Matching up with Friday Harbor and Orcas were tough tasks last week for the La Conner High School baseball and softball teams. The Braves (1-6) fell 16-1 at Friday Harbor last Tuesday and were defeated 20-4 by the Wolverines in a rematch at home Friday. The boys dropped a 11-6 decision at Orcas Saturday afternoon. The Lady Braves (0-9), whose roster features several first-year players, lost 21-1 at Friday Harbor April 4 and came up short 9-4 at Orcas Saturday....
Four artists, including La Conner's Eve McCauley, painted vivid word pictures describing the career journeys each has taken during a 90-minute discussion at GalleryW on North First Street Thursday night. McCauley was joined by Susan Cohen Thompson, Heather Martin and gallery co-owner Don Wesley for a briskly paced Q&A session that dealt with the artists' perspectives on creativity, motivation, commercial pressures and means of measuring professional success. Wesley and Parisa Sadeghi opened the...
Spring break was no vacation for a cross-section of Swinomish youth. Pre-teen and high school-aged tribal students sacrificed sleeping in and lounging in front of the TV to take part in a four-day conference at the Swinomish Gym designed to build self-esteem and develop lifelong leadership skills. It was hosted by Swinomish Health Programs. By all accounts it was time well spent for the large percentage attending all four days. They were introduced to the Gathering of Native Americans (GONA)...
For decades the odds were stacked against Native American students succeeding in the U.S. educational system. Statistics bear that out. La Conner Schools faculty and staff reviewed the data during a special program featuring Dennis Eller in late March. Eller is a member of the Cherokee Nations, an administrator at Thomas Jefferson High School in Federal Way and a doctoral candidate. “I had better odds of becoming a starter in the National Football League,” Eller said at one point of his 75-minute presentation, “than I did of earning a docto...
It started as an impromptu event. Then it became not-so-impromptu. These days the La Conner Kiwanis Skagit Valley Tulip Festival Parade on First Street is among the most visible and highly anticipated signs that spring – if not just around the corner – is certainly in the local zip code. This year's serpentine is 2 p.m. April 8. Participants are to gather 30 minutes prior to start time at the La Conner Marina's south basin parking lot. It started in 1987 with the late Luke Long, a La Conner Kiw...
Since COVID-19, the Zoom communications platform has been the next best thing to being there. And for Shelter Bay residents, it was even better than that Sunday night. Over 200 of the community’s homeowners logged onto a one-hour Zoom-only town hall addressing the April 12 recall election of Shelter Bay Board Director Judy Kontos. The start was delayed about 15 minutes to accommodate increased participant capacity, which drew more than twice the number of people who regularly attend monthly in-person meetings at the Shelter Bay clubhouse. It a...
Should the Town of La Conner’s new Emergency Management Commission have five or six members? Town Council tabled adding a sixth person last week. An alternate might be added, though. Resident Linda Talman nudged officials toward that compromise position during a lengthy discussion. Mayor Ramon Hayes proposed adding a sixth voting member after Jamie Throgmorton applied. Her background makes her an asset to the commission. Town Administrator Scott Thomas was tasked with drafting a resolution modifying membership. Former council member Bill S...
New La Conner School Board of Directors Loran James and Kim Pedroza hit the ground running last week in a two-hour marathon meeting. James and Pedroza were appointed last month to fill sudden board vacancies. They did not have the luxury of taking time to get up to speed. And despite the length, it was a relatively fast-paced session. New ground was presented midway through in the form of a 30-minute presentation and proposal by Morgan Brown and Jen Willup of the Between Two Worlds indigenous science class to develop a native food medicine fore...
Back in the day, PF Flyers claimed its sports shoes could make athletes run faster and jump higher. La Conner's Tommy Murdock does that regardless of what footwear he laces up. The Braves junior, a reigning state hurdles champion, took top honors in three events at an NW1B/2B track and field meet hosted by Mount Vernon Christian Wednesday afternoon. Murdock, as expected, swept both hurdles events at Mount Vernon. He won the 110s with a 0:15.81 clocking and captured the 300s in a 0:41.51 finish....
Growing pains aren't easy, but the La Conner High School baseball team's coaching staff takes solace knowing the youthful Braves are getting stronger. Last week's NW2B/1B action at Darrington and at home against league leading Mount Vernon Christian are examples. Both games ended in the loss column, but the Braves played on equal terms save for one bad inning in each outing. Darrington rode a 13-run second frame to an 18-7 triumph on Thursday. MVC also parlayed a big second inning – the H...
The afterglow of a stellar high school basketball season continues to shine for two La Conner High School seniors. Ellie Marble and Josie Harper have received Girls’ 2B all-state recognition from two national digital sports outlets. Marble was tabbed by SBLive, a technology partner of state associations, coaches and administrators, for first unit all-state honors. Harper was a second team selection. Both Marble and Harper were first unit All-State choices of Prep Girls Sports, a major source of in-depth hoops news and coverage, team r...
Just months after stepping down as transportation director at La Conner Schools, Kim Pedroza is back, the newest member of the district’s board of directors. Pedroza was selected by board members last Thursday to fill the unexpired term of Lynette Cram, who the Town of La Conner director district seat when her husband, David Cram, became deputy superintendent of finance, human resources and operations. This director position is on the ballot for a full four-year term in November. Retired Dunlap Towing tugboat skipper and former La Conner F...
A Weekly News unsung hero is singing her swan song as chief administrator of the La Conner Library Foundation. Susan Macek, whom this newspaper heralded in 2019 for her tireless fundraising efforts to build the new La Conner Swinomish Library on Morris Street, is stepping down Friday from the helm of the not-for-profit entity she has piloted for almost a decade. "It's nice to be able to hand off the baton," said Macek, who looks forward to traveling with her husband, Dave Buchan, while...
History and mystery abound in equal measure at the Limedock Building on North First Street. The La Conner Planning Commission, upon recommendation of Town planner Michael Davolio, opted last Tuesday to take no immediate action on a proposed conversion of second floor office space into two new residential units at the aged – if not officially historic – waterfront structure. The plan includes external work: the addition of two gabled dormers on the roof and a ground level coffee shop as a gateway to the building’s commercial ventures. But quest...
The high tide of last week’s Town of La Conner Planning Commission meeting on future sea level rise came when Assistant Planner Ajah Eills calmed the waters– make that, concerns– raised by troubling data gleaned from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “By 2070, if we do nothing,” Eills initially cautioned while sharing statistics, “the town will be underwater.” She then offered solace. “These are kind of scary numbers to look at,” she said, “but that’s without mitigation, w...
Bigger isn’t necessarily better. La Conner High School’s Tommy Murdock proved that statement beyond doubt Friday, punctuating it with an exclamation point by sweeping the hurdles events at the Bedlington Twilight Track & Field Meet in Lynden, where the reigning State 2B champion fended off challengers from larger schools. Murdock, competing against 1A-3A hurdlers, cruised to twin wins in the 110s (0:16.23) and 300s (0:41.46), a feat all the more impressive when you consider he had done the same just two days prior at an NW1B/2B League meet at...
Former La Conner High School state golf title winner Emma Worgum is back on the links after a superb fall freshman season with the Western Washington University women's team. Worgum and the Lady Vikings placed ninth out of 15 teams entered in the spring opener Fujikura Invitational Tournament hosted by Cal State-San Marcos in Vista, CA. earlier in March. Worgum tied for the second best finish on her team and was 40th overall by carding a two-day score of 160, shooting 80 (8 over par) each...
