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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...
Lawyers for the five Shelter Bay board of directors sued by then-resident Jan Henrie in 2023 will be in Skagit Superior Court Friday morning, May 10, asking that the lawsuit be moved to the Court of Appeals. Henrie’s suit alleged malfeasance and failure in these board members’ actions and conduct for their passing an “invalid budget in violation of both the Shelter Bay Community bylaws and the Revised Code of Washington.” The defendants, Wendy Poulton, Elaine Dixon, Monte Hicks, Joseph Hurley and Louise Kari, have not contested the case’s...
Residents of the Shelter Bay Community elect three members at their annual meeting in May to serve three year terms on the eight member board of directors. The board convening in July 2024 will look very different from the eight members that ended their terms a year ago, in May 2023. If Wendy Poulton wins reelection, she will be one of three returning elected board members, with Monte Hicks and Nancy Shimmeall. No longer serving are Louise Kari and Elaine Dixon, who lost election. Joseph Hurley resigned in July and Dan McCaughan resigned in...
Shelter Bay Community residents are in the process of voting for three members of their board of directors. There are four candidates: Julie Peddy seeks a seat. Monte Hicks, Pat McGarry and Wendy Poulton are current board members. Hicks and Poulton were elected in May 2021. McGary was appointed in February 2024. Voting is online via Vote HOA Now, by mail using election packet ballots or in person 10:15-10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 18, at the annual meeting. Results will be announced after 1 p.m. If Peddy wins, she will take office in...
Last Saturday some 13 people – mostly La Conner residents, along with Channel Drive and Pull and Be Damned neighbors and the Home Trust of Skagit executive director – met Mayor Marna Hanneman at the La Conner Swinomish Library for her monthly community check-in. There were mostly familiar faces around the conference room table. These residents have attended Hanneman’s earlier library gatherings, as many of them joined in town-organized community mingles on short-term rentals, First Street parking and the town-acquired Jenson property. That...
Representatives of the bedrock of American democracy – libraries and newspapers – discussed “News & Media Literacy: Informed or Influenced?” at a forum organized by the League of Women Voters of Skagit County Monday evening, April 29 at the PUD building in Mount Vernon. Skagit Valley College librarians Elena Bianco and Libby Sullivan spoke first, sharing slides and offering the same questions they present their students in class. “How do you know where information is coming from?” Bianco asked. “Anyone can have a website.” There are few r...
Skagit County voters are casting over 70% yes ballots and overwhelmingly approving proposition No. 1, Continuation of Emergency Medical Services Levy, in the April 23 election. After the third vote count Monday, April 29, 70.8% of votes, 19, 912 are yes, to the 8,192 no votes. The 91.5% yes vote in Shelter Bay was the highest among greater La Conner precincts. Swinomish precinct voters cast 87.6% yes; Snee Oosh votes were 82.1% yes and the La Conner vote was 80.5% yes. The March Point precinct was voting the levy down, 7 no votes to 6 yes...
Any registered voter interested in becoming a county commissioner, state legislator, statewide executive office holder or U.S. congressional representative or senator has to make her decision and file with the Skagit County elections or Secretary of State offices the week of May 6-10. The western commissioner district 1 and central county commissioner district 2 positions are the only countywide offices on the ballot. The filing fee is $1,413. The Skagit County PUD (Public Utility District) commissioner No. 2 position, also central county, is...
