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Town revenue golden for ’24 The Town of La Conner’s $58,133 in November sales tax receipts raised the year’s total above $600,000, 98.5% of the 2024 budget. As in the past three years, the town will again exceed its sales tax revenue goal after December is reported. Hotel/Motel tax revenues have already beaten the budget by a larger amount in 2024, at $187,102, 33.3% above the $140,400 projection. November’s totals were $20,919, almost 10% above 2023 and the second highest November total ever, same as the month’s sales tax revenues. The same...
What happens when you are plucked from your life in India and sent to England to live with an unknown reclusive uncle? That's the answer we find in this charming tale of "The Secret Garden: The Musical," brought to Mount Vernon's Lincoln Theatre by the Theater Arts Guild. Set at the turn of the century and opening in India with the 10-year-old orphaned and spoiled Mary Lennox (Evangeline Essex-White opening night), having lost both her parents during a cholera epidemic. This complex, nuanced...
News scoop: Santa's advance schedule of early La Conner visits has been leaked to the Weekly News. Parents, are these times on your calendar? Saturday morning Santa will be posing for photos at Maple Hall when the Rotary Club of La Conner holds its annual Santa Breakfast, 8-11 a.m. Dec. 7. Breakfast is $10 and $5 children, with those under 5 eating free. There is no charge for photos, but donations will help support the La Conner Rotary Club's literacy initiatives. In past years this was a...
Another high-rain month in November, 4.8 inches worth, with 1 inch falling the first two days. The 0.9 inch storm Nov. 1 was the highest single-day amount. Fourteen days in a row of rain Nov. 9-22 dropped 3 inches, with most of it, 1.9 inches, Nov. 17-22. The month's last large rain event was 0.4 inches Nov. 25. Seventeen of the 20 rain days were 0.1 inches or more. Six were at least 0.36 inches. Five years since 2015 November has had at least 5.6 inches of rain. Ten times since 2011 at least...
There is a Chinese saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For the 13 year old Mary Agnes Coyne, her three-thousand-plus mile journey to America from County Galway, on Ireland's western central coast, starts with the hardest, most reluctant step of all: being kicked out of her parents' house, and for the worst of all reasons: falsely accused of being a whore by her mother in the aftermath of her half-brother Fiach's attempt to rape her in her bed. If there is a...
Summary: Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the vast Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish. Digging deep within, Mary Agnes discovers strength and worth as she re-defines what it means to belong while grappling with the clash...
Like parents or counselors for a 900-member family, Mayor Marna Hanneman, the La Conner Town Council and staff, primarily Town Administrator Scott Thomas and Finance Director Maria DeGoede, are wrestling with short, medium and long term funding needs as they advance the town’s 2025 $8.4 million draft budget. Hanneman reflected on the challenges of the past five years in her Nov. 12 budget message: the COVID-19 “pandemic, flooding, extreme weather events and the highest inflation in half a century.” Hanneman, Thomas and DeGoede discussed the p...
DAWN OF A NEW LA CONNER DAY – The sun will not shine brightly on the Rainbow Bridge at 7:46 a.m. for some time, as it did on Oct. 11, but any morning and any time one walks La Conner's boardwalk is a good time to be out. Every day we can pause and reflect on where we are and what possibilities are before us....
State Sen. Ron Muzzall’s (R-Oak Harbor) lead in state Legislative District 10 increased by 104 votes as Snohomish County election office staff worked Monday. His margin over Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair is 2%, 51.3% to 49.3%, and 1,562 votes. Island County’s approximately 10,000 ballots being counted are all in LD 10. If St. Claire’s ratio of 54% to 46% in the counting holds, she will gain 800 votes. To win, she must win by 800 votes in the Skagit County LD 10 precincts. There are probably not enough votes in the pool of some...
Looking pretty good: La Conner's $65,990 in October sales tax revenue was $387 above 2023's and only $658 below 2022's October record high. These are August's funds, reported by the state's Department of Revenue on a two-month time lag. The $542,101 total for the year is 89% of 2023's estimate. It is almost certain that the town will beat it forecast of $609,181. This is the fourth month in a row that sales tax revenues are above $60,000. When sales tax revenues are high, so is the fire...
And the rain kept falling as October turned to November, with another inch Nov. 1-2. That more than matched the previous six days, 0.8 inches Oct. 26-31. Yet it was not the month’s wettest week: 2.5 inches came down Oct. 14-21. The 1.2 inches Oct. 19 was the most rain; 2 inches fell Oct. 18-21. But rain has been common in October this century. The 4.2 inches of precipitation is only the ninth wettest of 11 years of 4-plus inches of rain. Six of those years have been since 6.1 inches fell 2014, the wettest year since 2000. This year’s rainfall i...
Fans of the movie “Legally Blonde” will know to wear pink to NITE Theater’s production of “Legally Blonde: The Musical” which opened last Friday and plays at the Lincoln Theatre weekends through Nov. 24. Bring daughters and granddaughters to this spirited, upbeat and nonstop fast-paced, energetic show. From the opening number “Omigod You Guys,” there is a 20th century feminist fairy tale vibe. This is also a group journey, with the Delta Nu sorority sisters, a portion of the ensemble cast – youthful, primarily female and all confident – fil...
State Sen. Ron Muzzall's (R-Oak Harbor) has won reelection to his state legislative district 10 senate seat His margin is 2.1%, 51% to 48.9%, and 1,849 votes against Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair after Snohomish County election staff reported totals Saturday. He has led since the third day of tally reports. The election offices in the three-county district estimate 2,650 ballots remain to be counted. Most, 1,800, are in Skagit County but LD 10 precincts are only in the southwest portion of the county. There are some 750 uncounted...
Tuesday night’s first vote counts put Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair in the lead for Washington’s legislative district 10 Senate seat with 50.1% of the vote. Incumbent Senator Ron Muzzall (R- Oak Harbor) trailed at 49.8%. Almost 44,000 ballots were counted in the district of three counties. St. Clair led in Skagit County with 56.4% and in Island County with 56.1%. Muzzall has 58% of votes in Snohomish County. While St. Clair leads in Skagit County by 762 votes, her districtwide lead is 153 votes. Incumbents Skagit County Com...
Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair’s lead has shrunk to 61 votes against State Sen. Ron Muzzall's (R-Oak Harbor) after Wednesday’s vote counts were announced. She leads 50% to 49.9% but there are still some 135,500 ballots to count. An estimated 64.5% of ballots in the three county district have been counted by totals posted by the county election offices. St. Clair leads by 808 votes in Skagit County and by 3,008 votes in Island County, while Muzzall leads by 3,755 votes in Snohomish County. About 52% of district residents live in Isla...
State Sen. Ron Muzzall's (R-Oak Harbor) has taken an 574 vote lead after 58,567 ballots were counted Thursday in Island, Skagit and Snohomish counties Thursday, the counties included in Washinton’s 10th state legislative district. He now leads Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair 50.4% to 49.5%, 32,603 votes 32,029 votes. Other LD 10 and Skagit County commissioner incumbents continue to hold comfortable leads for their offices, ranging from 53.7% to 64.5%. Of the 80,400 estimated ballots to count in Island, Skagit and Snohomish c...
State Sen. Ron Muzzall's (R-Oak Harbor) leads by almost two percent, 50.9% to 49%, and 1,458 votes in the race for his state legislative district 10 seat against Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair after the first week of counting ballots in the 2024 general election. He gained an additional 884 votes after 12,161 ballots were tallied Friday and Saturday (only Skagit County staff worked a shift Nov. 9) in the district, which also includes part of Snohomish County and all of Island County. There are an estimated 32,500 ballots to count...
The most dramatic and, indeed, catastrophic events can begin almost imperceptibly, as a glacial ice sheet melting away or 2023 becoming the hottest year on record, adding to the list of prior years being the hottest ever. For Eilish, a scientist working for a technology company in a bit-in-a-future Dublin, Ireland, the election of rightest nationalists two years before the start of Paul Lynch’s haunting Booker Prize winning 2023 novel is that event. As “Prophet Song” opens, everything is normal for this mother of four, her oldest son a high...
NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND - Naval aviators Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay Evans, the flight officer, and Aviator Lt. Serena N. Wileman died when their EA-18G Growler crashed near Mount Rainier Oct. 15 during a routine training flight. Both were 31 and from California. The U.S. Navy released their names Monday after family were notified. The Growler aircraft from Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130 crashed east of Mount Rainier. Search and rescue teams were first dispatched from NAS Whidbey Island to...
More rain than average fell in September, with the 1.6 inches of rain Sept. 25 almost as much rain as most Septembers have gotten this century, an average of 1.9 inches. For the month, 2 inches fell in just six days; the 0.2 inches on Sept. 14 was the only other precipitation greater than a tenth of an inch. After no rain the first nine days, it rained four of the next five days, with four events under 0.01 inch. The 2 inches of rain was the ninth year of at least 2 inches of precipitation....
The world premiere of “Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers” is one of the many highlights of the 12th annual Friday Harbor Film Festival this weekend, Oct. 25-27. The 16 full length documentaries and 21 short films are shown twice on five screens at three venues. “Fish War” covers over 50 years of indigenous tribal fishers fighting to secure their treaty rights with legal battles ending in the U.S. Supreme Court and now the fight to save salmon. “Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers” producer Philip Grabsky is coming from London for question and answer sessions. T...
Total turn around. The $68,591 reported in sales tax revenues to the La Conner Town Council in September by the state’s Department of Revenue is the highest ever for the month, $5,315 above last year’s, and the second highest total in 2024. After below normal collection totals four of the first five months this year, sales taxes the last three months total $203,359, 42.7% of the year’s total and putting the town on course to meet this projected income for the year. Likewise, the $6,798 firetruck sales tax receipts are a record for the month...
Great staff, great results: The La Conner Weekly News won 37 WNPA best newspaper awards at the annual Better Newspaper Contest of Washington's community newspapers, a bit short of doubling last year's total of 21. More individuals, 14, won in more categories. Weekly News staff swept first, second and third place five times, including art reviews, art features and general and topical columns. Bill Reynolds led with 11 certificates, with first place for a news and an education story. He shared...
By Ken Stern OLYMPIA – Four Skagit County organizations won $2.8 million in grants, 5.6% of the $50.3 million the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board awarded for 145 projects across the state to improve habitat for salmon, steelhead and bull trout, the board announced Sept. 30. Almost half ($21.6 million) was funded through the Climate Commitment Act and targeted restoration of shorelines and riverbanks – riparian areas – essential to salmon. Forested riparian areas create micro...
The Concrete Herald is for sale, Publisher and Editor Jason Miller announced in the October editorial of his monthly newspaper. “After more than 15 years at the helm, I’ve decided to pass our hometown newspaper to its next caretaker,” his editorial starts. Interested? Call Miller at 360-630-4603....
