Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 1397
What is the process, procedure, requirements and schedule to make South First Street one way? First, it will not happen in a hurry. Town Administrator Scott Thomas, Planning Director Michael Davolio and Mayor Marna Hanneman’s responses to emailed questions indicate that the issue is complex and it will be some time before there is a decision and any new signage gets posted. Thomas wrote that “First, staff will define the problems that we hope to address” and noted it was not obvious to him, that while both parking and public safety were discu...
If the 30 residents at the Feb. 20 community mingle on what was billed as a forum to discuss parking on South First Street had their way, the clear sentiment was to improve safety in the downtown by making it a one-way street south of Washington Street, past the post office. At the start of the evening, La Conner Fire Department Chief Aaron Reinstra was asked to speak on safety from his perspective. He did. The data he shared showed that on average, a fire department vehicle was called to First Street twice a month over the last two years. But...
Voting in Washington state’s presidential primary is underway for voters willing to declare their party on their ballot. The ballot instructions state “The major political parties require voters to mark a party box” and then vote for a candidate from that party. The Democratic ballot lists Joe Biden, Dean Phillips, Maranne Williamson and uncommitted delegates. The Republican ballot lists Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump. Not voting is an option for those not supporting either party or any of the ca...
Lots of tourists stayed overnight in La Conner last November. The town council’s January packet summarizing revenues reported $9,464 was collected in hotel/motel taxes, above 2023 and the second highest ever. The visitors did not spend a record amount of money, though. Still, the $42,875 in sales tax was only 1.2% and $516 below last year’s total. It is the third highest January total reported to the town by the state’s Department of Commerce. The $4,281 collected for the Special Use Fire Tax was below 2023’s total, by $225. Residents were mo...
Boaters and campers tying up their boats or parking their RVs at the La Conner Marina will be paying 5% and 10% more starting in April. Port of Skagit Commissioners passed a resolution updating Marina moorage fees and “miscellaneous charges” at their Feb. 6 meeting. Staff recommended the increase. Director of Facilities and Marina Operations Brady Rowe reported it was based on a survey of moorage rates from the Ports of Everett, Anacortes, Bellingham, and the Oak Harbor Marina and considered the federal consumer price index. The Port has annual...
Black Press Ltd., owner of the Everett Herald’s parent company, Sound Publishing, is seeking a sale to new ownership as part of a corporate restructuring transaction, Black Press announced Jan. 15 and reported in the Lynnwood Times. That day Black Press obtained an Initial Order from the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver. The ownership group would include Canadian institutional investors Canso Investment Counsel, Deans Knight Capital Management and Carpenter Media Group, the Times reports. Carpenter has operations in Texas, L...
Some 50 area residents attended the Conway School community meeting Feb. 6 to gain more information about the Dec. 10 Olympic Pipeline gasoline spill near Conway and the ongoing cleanup, local media reported. Billed as an open house, residents could speak with the 25 experts from state and federal agencies and bp, the company managing the pipeline, answered their questions. A presentation was made at a Zoom online webinar Feb. 7. Questions and answers followed. Operational update Last week a sheet pile wall was constructed to build a...
Largest ever, that is the Town of La Conner $971,884 2023 budget surplus. Councilmembers opened their January packets to find that the $43,947 in sales tax revenue pushed the year’s total to $630,453, 3.5% and $21,272 above budgeted projections. It is the third straight year above $630,000, though $47,470 below the almost $678,000 collected in 2022. The Special Use Fire Tax was likewise flush, with the $4,345 pushing the year’s total to $61,350, 22.7% above the $50,000 budgeted. And while the hotel/motel tax on lodging finished 2023 47.2% abo...
January’s weather was full of extremes and records. There were four record lows for the day of the month: 10.4 degrees Jan. 12, 9.8 degrees Jan. 13, 14 degrees Jan. 15 and 16.4 degrees Jan. 16. The average daily temperature was below 20 degrees Jan. 12-14 and below 16 degrees Jan. 12-13. The month ended with three record highs for the day, Jan. 28-30, with 61.3 degrees Jan. 28, 64.3 degrees Jan 29 and 61.1 degrees Jan. 30. Jan. 27-31 the daily temperature averaged at least 54.4 degrees and was 58.6 degrees Jan. 29, when the high hit its r...
Monday's weekly La Conner Rotary Club meeting at the Farmhouse Restaurant was brightened from its bleak midwinter darkness by its guests and the occasion: The poster reveal for the 2024 Skagit River Poetry Festival. Artist Anne Schreivogl is championing October's biannual gathering with the title "A bird is a poem with feathers." Perched on the keyboard of a big black Underwood typewriter in the lower corner of the poster is a puff of a green bird. Swirling in the bright red commanding the cente...
The La Conner Drug Store opened for the last time Monday, Jan. 22, but there were few customers shopping and not much on the shelves to purchase – though that was a years long reality. Late morning, customers were trickling in to pick up prescriptions or transfer their accounts to Rite Aid, the new owner. There was the air of a failed garage sale that was devoid of bargain hunters because there were no bargains to hunt for. Resident Lysa Sherman wandered through with an armful of products, s...
This editorial is as timely and critical as when a version was published in 2022, during the last short session of our state legislature. It is updated. Your actions are still needed and needed today. Here is a nonpartisan issue that this community – and indeed, every resident in the state – can rally around in agreement: putting our Washington on standard time year round. That is right: legislation will ditch the semi-annual spring ahead fall-back scenario of artificially changing sunrise and sunset by moving clocks ahead an hour in March and...
It will be cold comfort to the family whose relative was found in the Swinomish Channel mid-day Tuesday, Jan. 23 but perhaps allow the start of a grieving and healing process. Employing a remote operated underwater vehicle supplied by the Seattle Harbor Patrol, staff from the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office located and recovered human remains during a low tide search. The remains were found in the Swinomish Channel adjacent to the south end of First Street. This was the same area of a low tide search conducted the evening of Jan. 10, when agency...
CONWAY — Last week’s weather paused cleanup operations of the December Olympic Pipeline gasoline spill east of Conway. By Jan. 20 excavation of impacted soil at the spill site north of SR 534 resumed. This update is from United Command press releases. SR 534 will be closed in both directions at the site in the near future for a period of four to six hours while a temporary sheet piling wall is installed to isolate the eastern bank of Hill Ditch and allow response crews to dig out the remaining impacted soil and sediment and replace it with clea...
Mayor Marna Hanneman called a special meeting of the La Conner Town Council for Friday, Jan. 26 at 1p.m. held through Microsoft Teams. The meeting purpose is: discussion of the 2021 and 2022 state audit conducted by the Office of the Washington state Auditor. Contact Town Hall by 9 a.m. Friday for the link or for phone access: 360-466-3125...
Town of La Conner residents have two weeks to offer their two cents – or perhaps exceedingly more valuable recommendations – as possible amendments to the town’s comprehensive plan – and the development code, too. Submittals made through Jan. 31 are free. More important is the schedule, for proposals through January are considered this year, in the 2024 cycle by the staff, planning commission and council. Stay awake. This is important for the future of anyone planning to stay or move into La Conner. The Washington state Legislature mandate...
New Town of La Conner Mayor Marna Hanneman chaired her first town council meeting yesterday, Jan. 9. The council packet she received the week before included a memo from Town Administrator Scott Thomas. Its first point summarized for council the town’s need to plan for 124 housing units by 2045, required by the state’s Growth Management Act. Thomas writes “Of these units, 92 are expected to be occupied by low to moderate income families.” Looking at the data, 82 units, 66%, are to be priced for people making less than 80% of the area median...
You might have woken to rain today, Wednesday. Cold temperatures and snow will follow, the National Weather Service predicts. Snow is likely Thursday, with up to half an inch accumulating at the Burlington airport after a possible low of 31 degrees Wednesday night. Thursday may reach 38 degrees but it may drop to 15 degrees overnight. If it snows, the forecast is for less than one-half inch. Friday the high may reach 26 degrees. It may be partly sunny and snow. It may snow early Saturday morning and turn to rain. The high will be around 32....
CONWAY — SR 534 opened to two-way traffic Monday morning, making it easier for parents to take their children to Conway Elementary School. Traffic had been restricted since the Olympic Pipeline vault gasoline leak Dec. 10. Cleanup crews have been at work at nearby Bulson Creek (Hill Ditch) and in the vicinity. Temporary closures may occur as flaggers facilitate truck movement in and out of the response area. Conway Hill Road has returned to one-way westerly traffic the unified command coordinating the spill response reported Jan. 7. A...
Finally, rain, lots of it. December's rains were near record high, 4.6 inches, and 2023's first month of precipitation exceeding the century's average. Rain fell 10 of the first 11 days, totaling 3.1 inches; another 0.9 inches was in the last week. It rained 23 times, with only a two days break at most. Half an inch came down Dec. 1 and another 0.8 inch Dec 9, the month's highest one-day total. The 12 days of over 0.2 inches totaled 4.2 inches of precipitation. Total rainfall in 2023 was 22.4...
CONWAY — Crews cleaning up the Olympic Pipeline gas leak southwest of SR 534 in Conway cut down 289 trees Dec. 27-28 in order to remove underlying contaminated soil, the cleanup project’s unified command reported in a Dec.29 update. The area borders the west edge of a farm field and east shoreline of Hill Ditch. The trees were to be handled by a materials recycler BP spokesperson Pam Brady told the press last week. Approximately 8,324 gallons of gasoline have been recovered through the 29th. Approximately 25,326 gallons were discharged fro...
The coronavirus is still here and lurks in La Conner, in nearby movie houses, in dance halls and auditoriums and wherever people gather and however they travel. The year ended and 2024 began with Weekly News staff and freelancers, critical people all, sick with cases of COVID-19 It can happen here. The national Centers for Disease Control’s mid-December data showed about 19% of adults are up to date on COVID-19 vaccines through Dec. 23, 2023. For RSV vaccination, about 17.5% of adults are vaccinated. Almost 45% of Americans adult have gotten t...
December was frosty and frozen 4-Jan La Conner Community combats wave of saltwater flooding 4-Jan Flood damage cost estimate $1.8 million 11-Jan Council creates emergency management commission 1-Feb Center Street condos a go 15-Feb Marna Hanneman will be next La Conner Mayor 24-May Festival celebrates author Tom Robbins 6-Sep Earthquake rattles La Conner Sunday 11-Oct 29 newspaper contest awards for Weekly News 11-Oct Blessing the La Conner Swinomish Library 18-Oct Town's short-term rentals...
The 88 homes sold in Skagit County in November was a drop of 22.8% from 2022. The La Conner school district market had seven home sales close, the same as last year, bucking the statewide trend. The two homes sold in the town of La Conner, as reported last month, on Maple Avenue and Benton Street, went for $725,000 and $1.25 million, respectively. Three of the Shelter Bay home sold for under $461,000 so our market’s $565,000 median monthly sold home price was just below the county’s median price of $575,000. The 88 homes sold are the third mon...
A smattering of Channel Cove residents took new Home Trust of Skagit Director Felicia Minot up on her offer to meet and greet them at the complex's community room Dec. 16. Each of the four residents that came out between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. could have taken a box of donuts home and boxes would have remained. Minot was hired to replace Jodi Dean in November, who retired after overseeing the completion of five owner-occupied homes on the property's north edge last summer. Many of Channel...
