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This lush, alluvial plain we call home, the Skagit Valley, is the site of the 19th Festival of Family Farms this weekend. A dozen farms are participating. Cows, blueberries, shellfish, pumpkins, apples, alpacas, cheese, gardening demonstrations, and flowers – it couldn’t be more diverse. But they have one thing in common: they are farms; farms run by families. Each year, rain or shine, more and more people line up for hayrides, harvesting, music, food, animal exhibits, and more. They a...
La Conner High government students tuned out reality TV for an hour-long segment of real politics Friday morning. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Arlington, came to campus to address voting rights, adding a lawmaker’s perspective to a unit taught by social studies teacher Erin Lisser. “He’s here,” Lisser quipped, “to tell us if it’s really like House of Cards,” citing the popular political drama television series. Larsen indeed did some shuffling during his La Conner appearance to cover a broad range...
La Conner’s Janna Gage always looks forward to going back in time. But even for someone so engaged in history, there’s no time quite like the present. That’s because Gage, who is the face of Seaport Books on the La Conner waterfront, has plenty of reason to smile these days as the most recent recipient of the Skagit County Historical Society’s Heritage Award. The presentation – which came as a total surprise to Gage – was made during ceremonies at the historic Skagit City School...
Our one, archetype, cultural story is achieving the American Dream. That hope was on full display at the Lincoln Theatre Saturday as a spirited and talented cast performed “Stand and Deliver” before an appreciative and understanding audience, as diverse in age, class and ethnicity as I have ever experienced. See the show and join the crowd. Johnny Landin offered a determined to succeed Jaime Escalante, the Bolivian emigrant turned high school math teacher, who rides into Los Angeles’ Garfield High and insists all his performing below grade...
October is international co-op month. Co-ops in countries across the world, in big cities and rural counties, are celebrating their successes in serving their members. They are championing their example of getting along: mutual cooperation. They are offering an alternative model of business ownership: equal equity. And they are proving that a different ownership structure – democratic governance – works. In Japan, 91 percent of farmers belong to co-ops; 95 percent of New Zealand’s milk is from co-op dairies. Over 36 percent of D...
When I returned to Cincinnati from La Conner in March, having decided to buy the Weekly News, the first thing I did was call the commercial loan department of my credit union. With a loan, the paper would buy the paper, about two thirds of it, over time. My introduction “I have been a member of this credit union for over 20 years. I am buying a weekly newspaper in Washington state. Will the credit union consider my loan application?” Scott’s reply: “Yours would be our first loan in Washington. We primarily make loans on property purchases. But,...
On Sept. 27 I attended the Anacortes City Planning Commission meeting. The planned Sharpes Corner traffic circle was on the agenda, and several of us were interested to hear if any of the public comments echoed our personal sentiments. Unfortunately, public comment was limited to the narrow topic of “environmental mitigation”, not the project as a whole, although one courageous woman – armed with lots of data and experience – was able to express her concerns. The traffic circle “solution” to the congestion problem at Sharpes...
Monday, September 25, Soroptimist La Conner held their annual Textile Stash Sale at Vintage La Conner. Major THANKS to everyone in the community who supported this sale by donating some of their “stash” and/or shopped with us during the sale. Your generosity helped to make it an even greater success than the previous year. Proceeds from this sale will be put right back into our community to provide needed services. We are ever mindful and very appreciative for our customers and others within our community who provide the items that we sell in...
In November we will be electing three Port of Anacortes Commissioners. This is an important opportunity to move the Port forward with vibrant capable new leaders. For Position 2, I am supporting Jon Petrich. His experience as project manager and lead vessel operator for National Response Corporation guarding our local waters from oil spills gives him unique qualifications and knowledge of the environmental issues facing the Port and all of us who love the Salish Sea. He has solid grounding in budget issues with his degrees in finance and...
Sometimes a business is exactly what it says it is, no matter its legal structure. That is That’s Knot All Artists Co-Op’s story, in the Pier 7 building on First Street. The store sells a variety of art by the 13 artists renting space and sharing in the store’s management and decision making. The artists rotate staffing the store; each is responsible for a thirteenth of the shifts monthly. Lisa Judy, not the artists, own the business. Karin Silvernale, a mixed media artist emphasizing monoprinting, was working last Saturday. She prefers Judy...
