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Last week the Federal District Court in Seattle entered a final decision in a case brought by the Swinomish Tribe against BNSF Railway and ordered the railway to pay $395 million to the tribe for illegal trespass across tribal lands from 2012 to 2021. This amount represents the net profit the railway made while it intentionally violated limitations contained in an easement agreement the railway signed in 1991. While the decision will likely be appealed and litigation will continue, it reflects t...
While observing vote counting "is like watching paint dry," Skagit County Elections Manager Gabrielle Clay told an audience of about 25 Monday evening at a Skagit League of Women Voters forum, the entire ballot preparation and vote counting and certification process is intricate and takes months from start to end of an election. Once voters cast their votes, a red-yellow-green step process streamlines the checking and counting of ballots. Clay reviewed a three step process for voting: Read the...
I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. – Henry Thoreau, in “Conclusion” chapter, “Walden,” 1854 This issue is the 364th I have printed as the Weekly News publisher. It finishes my seventh year here. Next week, issue 365, begins my eighth year as owner of the La Conner Weekly News. It has been a great run. “Best job ever” has long been my mantra. I am blessed to ha...
June 20, 2024 -- The La Conner Town Council will hold a special meeting Monday, June 24 that will consist of a council retreat from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. The retreat, at the Waterfront Café, is open to the public staff reported at the June 18 council meeting.. Mayor Marna Hanneman called the meeting today, Thursday, June 20. The June 25 town council meeting is canceled. The Town of La Conner posted its Notice of Cancelation at the same time today. Information: 360-466-3125, https://w...
The $46,949 reported in sales tax revenues to the La Conner Town Council in May by the state's Department of Revenue is the second highest 2024 monthly total, but below 2023's May collection by $1,123, 2.3%. The special use fire tax revenues were similarly down, 4.2% below May 2023, now $4,594. Hotel/motel tax collection was $11,740, 7.6% behind 2023's record May total, but also the second highest 2024 month. The May totals represent March collections and are typically the last low, pre-tourist...
Summer doesn’t arrive for another eight days, but it sure looked and felt like summer this past weekend. After two Sundays of overcast skies and rain pouring down, this week the La Conner Live Gilkey Square concert band Adrian Xavier & Ska Island and listeners were blessed with sun, blue sky, a mild breeze and temperatures almost to 70 degrees. May Sundays all summer long be warm, but not climate change induced too hot. Next Sunday it is Skagit favorite Chris Eger Band. Concerts start at 1 p.m. through Sept. 8. Bring your lawn chair. There is a...
Washington State University alumni will tell you that their classmates have fascinating careers and are doing wonderful things in every part of the state. As if to prove how varied these callings and careers are, in 2023 WSU Press published the "Evergreen Collection," essays detailing accomplishments of graduates and faculty first printed in Washington State Magazine over the last 20 years. The Skagit Valley is represented by the Roozen family and their Washington Bulb Co. The succeeding generation of ownership, after founder William, are all W...
An inch of rain May 21 led a total of 2.2 inches of precipitation over nine days and pushed the month’s total to 2.9 inches. That provided seven of the 10 days of measurable downfall. It is a marked contrast to last year’s 0.6 inches of rain. May’s rain total is 31% above the century average. This is the seventh wettest May since 2000. The six wetter years were each 3 or more inches, with only 2020’s 3 inches in the last 10 years. For the year, the 15.3 inches of rain is half an inch above the average for 2000-2024 and 8.6 inches, 78%, above 2...
Does director Alex Garland’s provocatively titled film “Civil War,” depicting exactly that in a near-future United States needlessly throw gasoline onto flames in a 2024 America that need no fanning? A newsreel playing in the background mentions the president (Nick Offerman) is in his third term. The U.S. Constitution limits presidents to two terms. Something is wrong enough that the nation is at war with itself. There is purposefully no background, no explanation. An improbable California-Texas secessionist alliance is battling the feder...
The Town of La Conner seeks consultants to create a master plan, the first step for development of the 3-acre industrial area west and south of its S. Third Street parking lot below the town hall to Caledonia Street. It posted a request for qualifications May 22, with a June 18 submittal deadline. The RFQ timeline lists town council review and approval for July 23 and signing the contract July 25, eight weeks from now. The plan completion deadline is Dec. 31, 2024. Funding is from a $30,000 state of Washington Community Development Block Grant...
The monthly La Conner Rural Partial County Library District monthly board meeting Tuesday, May 21, proceeded pretty much like most small governmental district board meetings, from starting with approving the April meeting minutes to experiencing small glitches with new board management software used in the meeting. The April inancial report included the library’s receiving $113,139 from Skagit County, its property tax allocation for the first half of 2024. The assessment rate is 0.32% . Sarah Rabel, the library foundation director, was u...
While the 32nd Museum of Northwest Art’s Annual Art Auction is at the museum June 8, more than 300 of some 418 pieces of art can be viewed in person in its galleries or online. People are already making silent auction bids for those 388 works of art and another seven special experiences ranging from a glass blowing class to wine, and some pieces have been purchased. At the June 8 event, 30 pieces will be auctioned live. Additional funds will be raised through the “golden raffle,” with the winner getting her choice of almost any art item. The a...
Memorial Day this year was cool and gray. That did not prevent people from gathering with family and friends. Outside picnics might have been few, but lots of folks celebrated, boating, home barbecuing and going out in the many ways we do on holidays. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration reported record numbers of passengers at the nations’ airports. In greater La Conner scores of people attended services at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery and the Swinomish Cemetery to honor departed military, pioneer and family members. That is how l...
In preparation for becoming interim superintendent of the La Conner School District, Dave Cram took the oath of office during the district’s board of directors meeting Monday and he did not stop there. The school board methodically and unanimously passed seven resolutions authorizing Cram to sign documents, invest funds, pay bills and designating him as agent and auditing officer and more. Board President Susie Deyo told Cram, “You are official. On July first, you have all the authority of the school district. Have fun.” Deyo had first recogn...
The 2023 lawsuit brought by then-resident Jan Henrie against the Shelter Bay Community’s board of directors executive committee may be considered by the Washington Court of Appeals. Skagit County Superior Court Judge Laura Riquelme granted the defendants motion to stay the proceedings before May 10 pending the outcome of the defendants’ request for a discretionary review by the appeals court. The judge agreed with the defense that the case involved “a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opini...
The Shelter Bay Community voted to continue Wendy Poulton, Pat McGarry and Monte Hicks as members of its board of directors at its election and annual meeting Saturday, May 18. Poulton, with 307 votes, and Hicks, with 273, were reelected. McGarry, with 294, had been appointed in February. All will serve a three-year term that starts July 1. Julie Peddy came in fourth, with 170 votes. She fills the position of reserve director. The board has until July 17 to fill Jan Paul’s seat. She resigned in April. That term ends June 30, 2026. The c...
When the La Conner Swinomish Library Board of Directors named Jean Markert the library’s director in 2022, it did so despite Markert’s lack of a library science degree and required state certification. La Conner is not alone in operating a library without a trained librarian. “Unfortunately, it is not unusual for rural libraries in Washington (and nationwide) to have library staff or library directors who are not certified librarians. Rural areas are notoriously challenged to recruit and retain certified librarians,” Washington Library A...
If there is fault to be had and people to be held accountable for the state auditor’s staff finding shortcomings in the oversight of the La Conner Rural Partial County Library District – for that is what the library’s official name is – that fault lies with all the Skagit County commissioners for the years and decades of a lack of vision and leadership that has allowed all residents countywide to languish with antiquated, piecemeal and completely underfunded and understaffed independent municipal and partial county library districts. It is no...
A state accountability audit of the La Conner Swinomish Library for the years 2020-2022 found serious faults in some of the district's practices and procedures. "District operations did not comply, in all material respects, with applicable state laws, regulations, or its own policies. Additionally, the District did not provide adequate controls over safeguarding of public resources in most of the areas we examined," the Washington State Auditor's Office summarized in its report. The Auditor's...
Washington snowpack at April’s end was called “snow drought pervasive” for much of the state in the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s May 1 monthly Water Supply Outlook Report. It cites the mid-April statewide drought emergency declared by the Department of Ecology due to low snowpack and below normal water supply outlook for much of the state. NRCS staff measure the statewide snowpack at 71% of normal, with pervasive snowpack deficits persisting for most basins. The North Puget Sound basin snowpack is 61% of median slightly above t...
Candidates seeking elected office faced a deadline last week to toss their hats into the ring. Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen, a Republican, is running for re-election. His challenger for the District 1 seat is Rylee Fleury, an independent, who has a Hope Island address. Wesen has registered with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. Fleury has not. Nor has he provided a phone number or email address District 1 covers western Skagit County north and west of the Skagit River south fork and west of I-5, generally. District 2...
Bounce back. The $42,671 reported in sales tax revenue to the La Conner Town Council in April by the state’s Department of Revenue is the second highest ever for the month, behind 2022’s record $44,210. It topped March by $8,741. These are February sales: the state Department of Revenue reports on a two-month lag. Hotel/motel April tax collection was $10,165, 4% behind 2023’s record total but significantly higher, by 48%, than March’s report. Similarly, the $4,255 in special-use fire tax revenue was $141 below the record 2022 collect...
Daily rain the last week of April, 24-30, totaled 1.7 inches at the Washington State University weather station on Memorial Highway. One inch fell April 28 and 1.25 inches came down April 28-30. It was 64% of the month's rainfall of 2.6 inches. While that was 3.7% under the century average of 2.7 inches, it was almost an inch more than in 2023 and the first year of over 2 inches of April rain since 2019. Still, this is the second month in a row of below-average precipitation. March's two inches...
Some 13 people shared their views on the Town of La Conner's half-acre Jenson field property with Mayor Marna Hanneman Saturday at the La Conner Swinomish Library. Most had started the discussion nine days earlier at a town-organized community mingle April 25. This time Channel Drive residents Dave Buchan and Susan Macek and Pull and Be Damned resident Dana Heald came and added their perspectives. Buchan shared his concern over the dramatically declining enrollment in the local school district,...
The Washington state Department of Health announced a recall of Gibson Farms, Inc. bulk organic walnuts April 30. They were joined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in advising people to stop eating organic walnut halves and pieces sold in bulk at several stores in Washington because of possible contamination with E. coli bacteria. The Skagit Valley Food Co-op posted its own announcement on May 2. It does not use Gibson Farms walnuts in its deli or bakery foods. The Department...
