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I am a border in Mexico. I am a border in Gaza. I am a child getting shot through a border fence as I play in the sand. I am a word. I am a phosphorous cloud. I am a sprinkling of stars. I am an echocardiogram. I am the smell of a pony. I am a poem with "promises to keep / and miles to go before I sleep." The Skagit River Poetry Foundation's biannual festival Oct. 4-5 at Maple Hall and other venues around La Conner inspired the above paragraph. The festival was attended Friday morning by over...
MOUNT VERNON - The four candidates for two county commissioner seats were tested with a lightning round question-and-answer format during a one-hour Skagit League of Women Voters public forum Monday night. Final grades on their candidacies will be issued by voters after mail-in ballots are returned. A large crowd of close to 100 squeezed into the Skagit PUD's Aqua Room for the briskly paced event, in which opening and closing statements by challengers Richard Brocksmith and Rylee Fleury and...
By Ken Stern OLYMPIA – Four Skagit County organizations won $2.8 million in grants, 5.6% of the $50.3 million the Washington State Salmon Recovery Funding Board awarded for 145 projects across the state to improve habitat for salmon, steelhead and bull trout, the board announced Sept. 30. Almost half ($21.6 million) was funded through the Climate Commitment Act and targeted restoration of shorelines and riverbanks – riparian areas – essential to salmon. Forested riparian areas create micro...
The Center Square — Incumbent Chris Reykdal and Peninsula School Board member David Olson found some common ground during Saturday’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction debate at the Bellevue Public Library. Both think the state’s funding model for public education is flawed. “Our state only spends about 3.1% of its GDP on education, and the national average is 3.6%,” said Reykdal, who is running for a third term. “Even with all the gains we made over the last seven or eight years, we still only barely got close to the national av...
The world is witnessing the start of year two of slaughters in Palestine. Hamas fighters started the killing Oct. 7, 2023, murdering over 1,200 innocents in their surprise attack. Since then the murder and mayhem has all been under the direction of the Israeli government and completely controlled and manipulated by its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. As horrific as the civilian death count is in Gaza – some 42,000 verified – the vast majority women and children, it is certainly an undercount, including only the found bodies and those dea...
As a follow up to last week’s editorial (“Let’s vote for president now”), let us call for a series of regional constitutional conventions in order to: (a) Let we the people be heard (b) Avoid anarchy and suppression of voices in the name of law and order (c) Instill hope for democracy to live by example here in the heart of the free world (d) Guarantee representation at the table of all people invested in this country by birth, by naturalization, by labor and by service for the common good. To “get real,” people and powers that be: Regional re...
Thanks for your review of “Arsenic and Old Lace” at the Lincoln Theatre. I just want to offer a clarification on names and dates associated with the play. Written in 1939, the play opened on Broadway in 1941 and was a big hit. Boris Karloff played the murderous brother Jonathan, who in the play keeps getting told by other characters that he looks like Boris Karloff. When Frank Capra prepared to make the movie, he asked for the play’s cast members to be given temporary leave so they could repeat their performances on screen. This was grant...
To our La Conner Community: To benefit others, the La Conner Kiwanis and the La Conner High School student body are asking for your help please. Together, they are sponsoring a volunteer-based Halloween blood drive on Tuesday, Oct. 29 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Landy James Gym on the school campus (last building on your right). Your donating will absolutely change and preserve a life! Search: bloodworksnw.org, then go to its donor portal and La Conner please. Please call if you have clinical questions: Dorothy, RN, 360-431-9234, or about...
I was so looking forward to learning more about the proposed revitalization of the industrial dead zone at the south end of town. I had submitted my two bits on the town survey and had great expectations. However, the turnout was not impressive and the acoustics in the room seemed to absorb the presenter’s voice. Granted, my hearing is impaired, but others also raised their hands stating they could not hear him. There was no microphone available. Unable to hear, I left. Perhaps I am unfairly comparing this event to the recent one at the Civic G...
The La Conner-based Skagit Valley Clean Energy Cooperative has changed its name to Skagit Valley Clean Energy Alliance. Its business structure has also changed. Rather than being a membership-based, non-profit cooperative like REI or Orcas Power, the SVCEA is now a non-profit 501(c)3 charitable organization. The goal of the alliance remains the same as the goal of the cooperative: Accelerate the use of renewable energy, energy conservation and related energy management technologies throughout...
The Concrete Herald is for sale, Publisher and Editor Jason Miller announced in the October editorial of his monthly newspaper. “After more than 15 years at the helm, I’ve decided to pass our hometown newspaper to its next caretaker,” his editorial starts. Interested? Call Miller at 360-630-4603....
A jigsaw approach was taken to solve the puzzle that is the old Moore Clark property at a Sept. 30 public forum. Attendees at the three-hour workshop at Maple Hall divided into three breakout rooms to brainstorm and then report to the whole group potential future uses for the former fish food production plant and adjoining parcels in what was once La Conner's bustling south waterfront industrial hub. The consulting team charged with drafting a plan for revitalizing the 4-acre area, which has...
The process to create community ownership of the La Conner Weekly News is moving forward following the Sept. 25 community meeting that drew more than 60 interested people. A small group from that meeting gathered Oct. 3 at the La Conner Swinomish Library to start the next steps of organization and fundraising. Andrew Ashmore has been spearheading the community effort, and he expects more people will offer to help or serve in some capacity. He said the meeting focused on creating an interim...
The Town of La Conner Planning Commission resumed it review of updates to elements of the town’s comprehensive plan at their Oct. 1 meeting in Maple Hall. The emphasis was on changes to the land-use and transportation elements. The downtown First Street switch to one-way southbound traffic came up, a change that went into effect today. “I, for one, am convinced that making First Street one-way will be a tremendous advantage,” Planning Director Michael Davolio said. Davolio and Assistant Planner Ajah Eills said that First Street traffic flow...
Port of Skagit Commissioner Steve Omdal died unexpectedly Sept. 28. Omdal was first elected as a Port of Skagit Commissioner representing District 2 in 2012. His motivation for seeking the position was to bring new ideas and a “for profit” business background to enhance the ability of the port to improve economic development opportunities for all Skagit County residents, Port Communications Director Linda Tyler said in a news release announcing Omdal’s death. Omdal grew up on a dairy and crop farm in Bow. The experience helped him embra...
Food for thought was on the agenda for the La Conner School Board's Monday luncheon meeting. Board members and district administrators met separately with two student groups over pizza to elicit input on campus topics ranging from attendance and preferred teaching styles to areas in need of improvement, class sizes and schedules and the new cell phone free zone policy. "It was really good feedback," board president Susie Deyo told the Weekly News afterward. "It was very positive. It's always...
A young team, same old results. La Conner, a longtime state 2B volleyball powerhouse, swept NW2B/1B net rival Concrete in straight sets at Landy James Gym last Thursday. The Lady Braves improved to 7-4 overall and 3-1 in conference action ahead of a Saturday road trip to Forks with its 3-0 home victory over Concrete (4-5), a convincing win marked by solid defense, crisp passing and strong hitting. The final line score was 25-16, 25-10, 25-13 in La Conner's favor. The triumph helped take the...
Unbeaten Lopez Island defeated La Conner 5-1 in an often-physical boys' soccer match at Whittaker Field Friday afternoon. The Lobos, displaying deft passing and a relentless attack, scored the contest's first three goals before Simon Bouwens got La Conner on the scoreboard by booting a line shot past the Lopez keeper less than two minutes before intermission. The visitors, who enjoyed a clear size advantage, added two unanswered goals in the second half. "They're a very good team," La Conner...
La Conner teams came away from an all-day trip to the Olympic Peninsula with a tie and two close, hard-fought defeats in non-conference sports action on Saturday. Freshman Kiana Jenkins scored La Conner’s lone soccer goal to salvage a 1-1 draw at 1A Forks in a back-and-forth matinee battle with the Spartans. With the tie, the Braves’ season mark moved to 3-2-1 going into Tuesday’s non-league home match with 1A Sultan. La Conner was 0-1 in NW2B/1B play entering the week after falling 4-1 in a conference test at Friday Harbor on Oct. 1. Coach Mad...
The Museum of Northwest Art will open its latest exhibition on Saturday, Oct. 12: "Peter Millett: Built Forms." Millett, a Seattle-based artist, has been exploring the mystery of common forms in his artwork since the late1970s. Curated by Greg Bell, Built Forms is the first major institutional survey of Millett's work, which spans decades of artistic practice and intentional engagement with forms in space. Millett was born in Evanston, Ill., in 1949 and grew up in the Chicago area. He attended...
"Wick Peth: 'The Original Rodeo Bullfighter' and the History of Rodeo in Skagit County" opens at the Skagit County Historical Museum in La Conner on Oct. 12, with an all-day reception from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A world-renowned Rodeo Hall of Famer, Peth was a pioneer in professional rodeo bullfighting. He elevated the sport with skill, athleticism, courage and finesse while protecting bull riders. The first rodeo in Skagit County was in the mid-1920s in the field of the Peth Ranch in Bow. Skagit...
More than 12 Northwest breweries will be pouring beer or cider in Maple Hall Saturday during the La Conner Chamber of Commerce's Brew on the Slough. Besides "the best of the region's craft beer scene," the CC Adams Band will be playing. Get started at 3 p.m. by buying a VIP admission at $50 and earning a more intimate tasting experience. General admission is $40, with doors opening at 4 p.m. The Chamber promises "the top names in Northwest brewing," including Boneyard Brewery, Pike Brewery,...
Hayes and Tate Matty and Oliver and Warner Bohnet-Knue clambered on fire trucks while firefighters and EMTs served spaghetti last Saturday at the McLean Road headquarters of all-volunteer Skagit County Fire District 2. Firefighters and volunteers shopped, cooked, served and cleaned up after hundreds of diners during the annual Spaghetti Feed, whose proceeds support the district's work. Every Thursday night at 6:30 pm these brave men and women practice deploying hoses, operating pumps and...
Skagit Fisheries presents the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, at the Lincoln Theatre, 712 S. First St., Mount Vernon. The Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group brings the Wild & Scenic Film Festival back with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by the film at 7 p.m. The Film Festival will feature short films that will delight the senses and inform our minds. Manieri Jazz and the Anacortes Public Library present Jazz Second Sunday Series featuring Greta Matassa Quintet at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, at the Anacortes Public...
Defending Washington’s election system against cyberthreats and misinformation campaigns has been a dominant theme in this year’s contest for secretary of state. This was the case again Oct. 1 when Democrat Steve Hobbs, the incumbent and Republican Dale Whitaker, the challenger, debated in Edmonds. Hobbs, of Lake Stevens, was serving as a state senator when, in 2021, Gov. Jay Inslee tapped him to be secretary of state after Republican Kim Wyman left to work for an election security post in President Joe Biden’s Administration. At that momen...
