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The history of snow geese in the Skagit Valley is a tangled and complex story of unintended consequences from human intervention. In her story, "Washington's Runaway Snow Geese," for Biographic magazine, Rebecca Dzombak offers a detailed and balanced view of the past and potential future for these winter visitors in our valley. The story is illustrated with images and video by photographer Nancy Crowell. View it at www.biographic.com/washingtons-runaway-snow-geese...
CORRECTION: The Feb. 15 version of this story incorrectly reported that the 1986 La Conner Town Council took legislative action in passing an ordinance and later made a legislative amendment to the Town's Comprehensive Plan in paragraph 4. The story below has been revised with the correction that the legislative action the council took was “passing a motion.” Posted Feb. 17. The Center Street condominium project proposed by Brandon and Katie Atkinson is closer to construction. Last Wednesday Town of La Conner Hearing Examiner David Lowell den...
What laws govern billboards in Skagit County? Exactly what kind of billboard is being proposed by the 76 gas station owners east of the Conway exit? The answers to those questions are one reason the county revised its “Notice of Development Application” for a proposed billboard east of Conway and extended the comment period to Feb. 24. Residents of La Conner will not be surprised that one person probing these questions is Linda Talman. “There was so much misinformation about the proposed sign,” she told the Weekly News. “A lot of it was contr...
Amanda Bourgeois, a strong advocate for equity in education, has resigned from the La Conner School Board, citing schedule conflicts with her new employment. “She has a new job,” board President Susie Deyo said during the panel’s study session on Monday, “and felt she just didn’t have the time anymore. It’s with deep regret that we accept her resignation, but we have to respect her wishes. “We really tried to twist her arm,” stressed Deyo, who credited Bourgeois with providing keen insight on multiple topics during her three years as a boar...
Bob Abrams can literally draw upon a lifetime – at 93, a long one, at that – of sharing highlights of a colorful career as an animator with Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera and Disney, among others. Fondly known as the "Disney Artist" around La Conner, his home for the past 15 years, Abrams will recount his illustrious times in the entertainment and media industries during a special one-hour program at the La Conner Swinomish Library next Wednesday. Abrams, a Pittsburgh, PA. native who hit the big ti...
Presidents’ Day, Feb. 20 Bank: Closed Buses: Regular service Library: Closed Post Office: Closed Schools: Closed Town Hall: Closed County government offices: Closed Trash Pick Up: Yes Honoring our highest hopes...
Dear fellow citizens. Help, please, by paying attention to your state government and taking a stand to keep public records public, available to you – and to the journalists and activists. Tell your legislators and Attorney General Bob Ferguson that the documents created by legislators elected to serve citizens must be seen by citizens and not blocked behind a legislative privilege they claim and desire but does not exist. What do legislators tell us all the time? That they work behind the scenes, that they meet day and night – sometimes in clo...
Dear Town of La Conner residents, On behalf of the Skagit Community Band, I would like to thank the fabulous La Conner audience that came to our concert on Friday Feb. 3 at Maple Hall. It was truly a night to remember. When the power went out and I asked the band what they wanted to do, they said “Let’s go on.” That is when the magic began. The band scrambled to fix the situation by getting out stand lights and cell phones. The audience offered flashlights and offered to stand behind members to illuminate their music. It was the affir...
My post office (“small” 3x4 inch) box rates have been creeping up, especially in the last few years, from $60/year to $75/year and now $210/year. When I Googled “average post office box rates,” it said a small box averaged between $5.50/month or $66/year, to $38.33/month and $460 a year. So La Conner fits in between. However, we residents who live inside the town limits don’t qualify for home delivery and therefore are forced to rent a P.O. Box. Those who live outside town limits get free delivery even on Saturdays which isn’t an option for...
The 10th legislative district has one of the largest populations of veterans in Washington state. Island County, for example, has more veterans per capita than any other county. Between Island, Snohomish and Skagit counties, the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs reports over 72,000 veterans in our region. Our veterans return home and continue to serve our communities as our friends, neighbors and colleagues. They buy a home, start a family and reintegrate as heroes living among us....
What is more American than farmers on their farms? They were the first colonizers, clearing the land, putting down roots, both literal and figurative, forging the future out of the sweat of their brow, the force of their will and the strength of their imaginations, planning and plotting an ordered world as much out of their hopes for tomorrow as from steering a plow. Who was right behind farmers, chronicling, championing, challenging and questioning their every move? Some romantics might list journalists, maybe ahead, maybe just after the clerg...
J. J. Wilbur will remain a busy man. Wilbur, who serves on the La Conner school board and as a Skagit County Fire District 13 commissioner and chairs the Swinomish Tribal Community Port Commission, was re-elected to the 11-member Swinomish Senate in Sunday balloting. Wilbur survived a strong challenge from Cathi Bassford, a tribal housing and utility board member and elder programs supporter who has served as Swinomish kitchen manager for nearly 20 years, serving special event meals for...
Patience is about to be rewarded at Fire District 13. The long-planned modular residential unit for firefighters and emergency medical technicians was scheduled to be delivered to the Snee-Oosh Road station this week and is expected to be ready for use in March, commissioner John Doyle said during the panel’s Feb. 9 hybrid meeting. The unit’s ramping and decking, required for permit approval – plus utility hookups – should be completed within three weeks, he reported. Doyle and commission chair Bruce Shellhamer voted to approve payment...
In the film “Cool Hand Luke,” actor Strother Martin, famed for his role as the sadistic warden, delivered one of Hollywood’s most iconic lines. “What we’ve got here,” Strother’s character tells Paul Newman’s Luke, “is a failure to communicate.” Town of La Conner officials are taking steps to avoid having those words directed at them. Three weeks after communication strategies were addressed during a forum at the La Conner Retirement Inn, La Conner planning commissioners and Council Member MaryLee Chamberlain followed up with a 75-minute ro...
Most residential energy consumers spend about 10-20% of their home electric budget on lighting. Significant changes in lighting technologies have made it possible to cut your lighting energy use by more than two-thirds while simultaneously improving your overall comfort and light quality. The tungsten filament incandescent lamp, which most people think of as a “standard light bulb,” was introduced on a large scale in the early 1900s. People have become so used to these lights that most Nor...
The La Conner Emergency Management Commission seeks applicants. Apply by 4 p.m. Feb. 28. Information and applications are on the town’s website. Send applications to [email protected]; mail to Town of La Conner, PO Box 400, La Conner, WA 98257; or take to Town Hall, 204 Douglas Street. Source: Town of La Conner...
Help stuff the bus in the fight against hunger Feb. 25, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Bring non-perishable food donations and non-food life essentials, including laundry soap, hygiene products, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, etc. Located at 130 East Fairhaven Avenue, Burlington. Source: Skagit Transit...
Skagit County will host a community meeting for Samish Island residents Monday, Feb 27, 6-8 p.m. at the Samish Island Community Center, 11292 Blue Heron Road, Bow. Topics include community flood preparedness and flood and emergency response. The county commissioners and staff from Planning & Development Services, Public Health, Public Works, the Department of Emergency Management and the Sheriff’s Office will respond to community questions. Source: Skagit County...
La Conner High School construction class students are building their skills by following a blueprint that addresses the area's housing crunch. The 10-member class, taught by instructor Daniel Castillo, is constructing a small house the students plan to turn over to a tiny home village in either Burlington or Bellingham at the end of the school year. "This is a great chance to serve our community while affording the students an opportunity to build their carpentry skills," Castillo told the...
It was an up and down night for La Conner High School basketball teams at Coupeville to end the regular season Feb. 7. The girls team improved to 17-4 overall and 7-1 in league action with a convincing 48-22 triumph despite resting Skagit County leading scorer Ellie Marble, who is nursing a lower back strain in advance of bi-district playoffs this week. With Marble, a 6'-0" senior power forward scoring at a 22.0 point per game clip unavailable, coach Joe Harper's charges did much of their...
William Slater, known variously as Bill, Billy or Weeyum, lived among us here in the lower Skagit River area some forty years. He hailed from the other coast, an estuary that had been famously spoiled. Bill taught art for a while in New York City at Hunter College and said he hated it. He had befriended some abstract expressionists of that time and place and was scheduled to debut at one of the city's most illustrious galleries. And just as his star was rising, he bailed. After a good long...
Morning coffee, afternoon tea and better St. Patrick's Day potatoes are now on tap in greater La Conner. Cruser Coffee, 313 Morris Street, is a new source for your morning joe. Nicole Cruse owns and operates a stand with the same name on Memorial Highway near the Mexico Café. Cruse likes the pace of her second location. "In the stand you only get two-minute interactions with people," she said. "They want quick, quick, quick get me out the door." Here, she is enjoying getting to know her...
Before there was a Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, there was a La Conner Tulip Show. And before the tulip show here, there was a La Conner Rose Show. Plus a fall dahlia show. All because, as the late Philena Dunlap noted 40 years ago this August, La Conner has long had the good fortune of having "a group of women who were dedicated in their desire to work together for the benefit of all in the town they loved." That tradition took root with the founding in 1909 of the Civic Improvement Club of La...
The Manieri Jazz Endowment of the Anacortes Public Library presents six stages of live jazz March 3, 6-10 p.m. in tandem with the First Friday Art Walk. Seattle jazz vocalist Kelley Johnson is at the Rockfish Grill, 7-9 p.m. She performs with John Hanson, piano, Michael Glynn, bass and Victoria horn player Kelby MacNyr. Seattle vibraphonist Susan Pascal is at Pelican Bay Books, 7-9 p.m. Her band: Brian Monroney, guitar, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop. At the Brown Lantern, 7-10 p.m. is Deep River Blues Band, a three piece band fea...
“Prelude to a Kiss” opens Feb. 17 at the Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon, produced by the Theater Arts Guild. This romantic comedy begins with a chance encounter when Rita, a beautiful, bohemian, eccentric bartender, meets Peter, an attractive, bright, slightly geeky publisher. Despite her secret fear of the world and hesitancy to invest in joy, the two fall in love and marry. Then, at their wedding reception, another chance meeting between Rita and a frail Old Man completely alters the course of all three lives. “Prelude” is about how we show...
