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The enthusiasm of the Art Circle artists holding their first exhibit at Beaver Tales Coffee and Tea this June is fueled by more than an intimate showing space, good coffee, a great hostess in co-owner Michelle Calvin and support of Margaret Hillard, La Conner Senior Center coordinator and group champion in her own right. The artists: Pam DeVries, Simme Bobrosky, Lisa VerSteegh, Annabelle Vergne, Roberta Gregory, Jan Vevoda-Aguero and Kaye Stephens, create in a variety of media, including...
Burning the Hedlund house to the ground Saturday was only the last straw and the least important fire of the day for the La Conner and Fire Districts 2, 13 and 17 fire departments. By the time the last of the piles of wood pallets were brought into the house and the last of the interior fires were started with a propane tank and torch at 1:15 p.m., the various firefighting crews had spent hours in every room of the two story structure, examining, fighting, putting out and being tested on a varie...
Continued bad news on the moisture front for 2023. Yes, May was dry. There has not been significant rain since a half inch fell May 5. Four of the five rain days came May 1-6, 0.59 inches of 0.64 inches total rain. The May 5 storm was the only precipitation greater than one-tenth an inch. This May, rainfall was 2.2 inches below, 70%, the century average. This continues local water woes. Skagit County starts the dry season with a 6.2 inch water deficit, at 8.6 inches to date, six inches below normal for this century. In 2022 May’s 2.4 inches o...
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Albert Einstein Thursday La Conner High School seniors graduate, 47 of them. Local merchants and institutions recognize them by sponsoring the seniors’ photographs on today's back page. Take a look at these young, confident, about-to-be adults heading into their futures. That future is our future, to be shared with them but so far shaped by us, the elders reading these words. The graduates step into a world not of their making nor choosing. As they start to make choices, we already hear them voic...
Whatever your politics and values, this year to date may have seemed generally gloomy, at least. Inflation stays persistently high, the potential of recession seems to be forever looming, wages are lower than the ongoing rising costs of everything, there is work but too few workers and then there is the persistent war in Ukraine, which appears as if it will never end. Here at home, until May, glorious May, 2023 has the general and overall feel of being cold and damp. And it has been, cold and at least gray, all the way back to the snows and flo...
The $36,016 reported in sales tax revenues to the La Conner Town Council in April by the state’s Department of Revenue is the second highest ever for the month, only behind 2022’s record $44,210 and only the second April above $36,000. The Special Use Fire Tax Revenues had a matching dip. The $3,594 was $802 less than last year but again the second highest total for the month. February was cold, which influenced tourist visits. It is early in the year to find trends in the reduced revenue totals. Overnight stays remained high. The $10,592 in...
Memorial day was Monday. This is the proper time to reflect on our "honored dead," as Lincoln called the fallen at Gettysburg. Any definition of patriotism has to start with love of country, followed by loyalty and sacrifice for one's homeland. And a hero? Add leadership, courage and bravery. These are the criteria for judging the life of Robert E. Lee. Award winning Civil War and Lincoln historian Allen Guelzo opens his 2022 biography, "Robert E. Lee: A Life," addressing the central issue of treason for one of the most iconic and central...
La Conner based Tomco Marine Group, builders of American Tugs, was bought by the Kadey-Krogen Group of Stuart Florida May 18. The 36 employees at American Tugs' 28,000-square-foot facility on Pearle Jenson Way will continue to build boats there, said General Manager Troy Olason Friday. The company is still recruiting after hiring eight employees this year, he said. It builds five models ranging from 36 feet- to 48 feet that sell for $595,000 to $1.7 million and has delivered more than 250...
Marna Hanneman will be La Conner 's next mayor, no contest. Hanneman, on the planning commission since 2015, was the only person filing to run for the office during the May 15-19 period. Council members Mary Wohleb, an incumbent elected in 2019, and Annie Taylor, filing for the position she was appointed to in 2021, will also be elected when they vote for themselves. No one filed to oppose them. The only locally contested race is between John Agen and Janie Beasley for La Conner School District Director Position 2, almost a repeat of the 2019...
The march of madness and meanness continues. Last week Montana, Nebraska and Florida’s legislators joined the stampede in outlawing gender-affirming care to teens and youths in their states. These laws will punish doctors and healthcare practitioners for assisting youth in developing into their genuine selves. Gender-affirming care is “age-appropriate care that is medically necessary for the wellbeing of many transgender and non-binary people who experience symptoms of gender dysphoria, or distress that results from having one’s gender ident...
Shelter Bay residents reelected Joe Hurley to their board of directors Saturday, May 20 at the community’s annual meeting. New on the board are Rod Proctor, who was appointed and served briefly in 2022, and Rick Parnell. The winners were overwhelming selected. Their totals: Hurley, 308; Proctor, 278; Parnell, 249. They beat candidates Jan Paul, 190 votes; Julie Peddy, 138; Marianne Remme, 90; and Larry Tagala, 87. Also newly on the board is Lawson Earl, selected by board members May 17, replacing Judy Kontos, recalled by the community in A...
Discussions are going on among La Conner residents advocating for development of a community garden at Jenson Field, as some are calling the property south of Pioneer Park and west of Maple Avenue Sybil and Tom Jenson sold to the Town of La Conner last September. When council voted to make the purchase, Mayor Ramon Hayes called it a gift: the $60,000 price was less than one-third its assessed value. At that council meeting resident Debbie Aldrich promoted the importance of green space and play areas for children after the loss of the Hedlin...
It is a tough choice for the residents of our little town – the citizens of La Conner – to make. The community was given a gift, nearly, when Sybil and Tom Jenson sold the Town of La Conner a half-plus acre of property under Pioneer Park and west of Maple Avenue. Residents now have to discern, discuss and debate the best way to use that sliver of land. The top choices are keeping it as a green space – organized into a community garden, as some are advocating – or building starter homes for first time buyers. This could sprout into a tiny ho...
The Lincoln Theatre joined with the Skagit River Poetry Foundation to host an informative and inspirational evening with the Valley premiere of the film, "The Healing Heart of Lushootseed" last Friday. This is a personal story, in part, of the extraordinary life of Vi Hilbert, a dynamic elder of the Upper Skagit Tribe and her quest for 83-year-olds "to heal a sick world" through music, her response to the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. It is directed and produced by Jill K. La Pointe,...
CORRECTION: The Weekly News has updated and corrected this story, below, by deleting the final two paragraphs that incorrectly stated that attorney Paul Taylor’s statements were “mistaken” and he “erred” in his stating “that the Defendants herein voted to approve the Resolution to bind the Community to the proposed terms set forth by the Swinomish Tribal Authority without an appraisal as required by the Master Lease on Wednesday, April 19, 2023” and that “the Defendants passed a resolution accepting the ten-year increase in rent without an...
As publisher of the Weekly News, I will be on a panel discussing “The Future of Local Journalism: Is It Important to Our Democracy?” Monday May 15 at the Mount Vernon high school. In the United States, where our Declaration of Independence holds as self-evident truth “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” self-evident also is the press’ central, fundamental role in the functioning of our democracy. Newspapers are baked into society's governance, hammered into the Constitution in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respect...
Before Tom Hanks rode through post-Civil War Texas on his rescue mission bringing the 10-years old Johanna to her grandparents south of San Antonio in the film “News of the World,” there was Paulette Jiles’ 2016 novel. Her protagonist, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, was older than the century, having been born in 1798. He had first seen war in 1812 and lived through it again in 1846 in Mexico. Kidd was old, 72, and thoughtful and wise, not merely because he had experienced war three times, but because he was a printer in an era when every lette...
You are right to remember April as dreary, damp and cold. What it wasn’t was wet. The 1.7 inches of rain was the fourth year in a row of under 1.7 inches of moisture and the seventh driest April since 2000. Rainfall was 37% below the 2.7 inches average for the century. While rain came down 19 days, 11 times it was less than 0.1 inch and 15 times less than 0.2 inches. The most rainfall was 0.34 inch April 16, one of three days of over 0.2 inches of precipitation. When it rained six of seven days April 20-26, that was only 0.64 inch and the 10 of...
“IT’S A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!!” Matika Wilbur, “Tsa-Tsique,” shared the news in a group email last weekend. Less than two weeks after launching her photography book, “Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America” to the world on the Swinomish Reservation, it reached number 11 in its initial week for hardcover nonfiction and will appear in the May 14, 2023 issue of The New York Times Book Review, the Times website states. The Swinomish and Tulalip tribal member is on a book tour, returning July 6 to Seaport Books in La Conner. Monda...
Tulip Valley Farms operator Andrew Miller filed for dismissal of all claims made by Spinach Bus Venture Group, owners of Tulip Town, in Skagit Superior Court April 25. His 15 page memorandum of law filed in support of his motion again cites the 2019 operating agreement the then partners signed: “Any Member or Manager may engage in or possess an interest in other business ventures of every nature and description, independently or with others, including but not limited to, the ownership, financing, or management, employment by, lending to, or o...
Photographer and writer Matika Wilbur, "Tsa-Tsique," introduced her epic photography book "Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America" to the world before a full room of over 160 people in the Social Services Building on the Swinomish Reservation last Tuesday night, April 25. Emcee for the evening Michael. Vendiola, education director for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, was absolutely right in exclaiming, "I am really excited to have her here. She could have done this anywhere, i...
Shelter Bay resident Jan Henrie wants another day in court, continuing her lawsuit to stop the five Shelter Bay Community board of director officers from making financial decisions and to remove them. Meanwhile, the board approved a lease agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community April 19. Henrie’s March motion for injunctive relief in Skagit Superior Court was denied April 14. She filed a motion for reconsideration April 24, alleging Judge Laura Riquelme’s denial of her motion was “contrary to law, that substantial justice has not b...
The permit for a 300 square foot billboard on Cedardale Road on the east side of I-5 at the Conway exit was approved by the Skagit County Planning and Development Services Department April 18. Staff found the application met all requirements in Skagit County’s code and comprehensive plan and the applicant provided “adequate analysis of and mitigation for the specific adverse environmental impacts of the project,” planner Kevin Cricchio wrote. The applicant received a SEPA Mitigated Determination of Nonsignificance. Cricchio approved an admin...
It is time to decide to run for mayor or a town council seat in La Conner or for school district director, Fire District 13 commissioner and cemetery district 1 positions. Filing by mail for elected offices has started. File online or in person May 15-19. Get a Skagit County candidates guide with information on office qualifications and candidate filing instructions at the Skagit County Elections website. Offices without a fixed annual salary have no filing fee. Voting for the primary election closes at 8 p.m. Aug. 1. Only races with three or...
Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, LLC did not meet the state of Washington 's April 14 deadline to remove its Hope Island fish net pens from Skagit Bay. After the state Department of Natural Resources ended the company’s leases in November, it faced a December deadline to pull all its infrastructure. In January Thurston County Superior Court extended until April fish harvesting and removal of equipment from the firm’s Hope Island and Bainbridge Island fish farms, granting a preliminary injunction against the DNR. In a statement then, Cooke called the...
