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Although no longer billed as the Not So Impromptu Parade, the magic remained in place in La Conner last Saturday, April 9. Now titled the Tulip Festival Parade by its organizer and sponsor, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, the 2022 version was bigger than ever, back in full swing after a two-year pandemic induced hiatus. What’s more, the Town of La Conner’s Fire Department’s 1941 white truck started up First Street on time at 2 p.m. It led some 45 entrants, some of them, thankfully, last minut...
Cascadia Daily News The Skagit Valley Farm, a system of farm LLCs owned and operated by several farmers in the region, plans to fight a $267,000 penalty for violating water rights during last summer’s drought. The company, which operates on over 3,000 acres in Skagit County, irrigated around 348 acres of vegetable crops in the lower Skagit and Samish watersheds without water rights, according to documents obtained from the state Department of Ecology. Eight farms in the Skagit Valley Farm group will face penalties ranging from $6,000 to $...
John Leaver's name has been in the news a lot recently. In fact, he has been in the news consistently for more than two years. The former La Conner town council member took the initiative the first year of the pandemic, in the summer of 2020, organizing First on First as a volunteer promotion to bring La Conner residents to dine and shop on First Street Friday evenings when out of towners were mandated to stay home to stay healthy. That campaign morphed into a 2021 hotel/motel tax funds proposal for a $21,000-plus Love La Conner marketing icon...
My heart soared to read “New app helps students learn Lushootseed language” article (April 6 Weekly News). Although only a handful of paragraphs were devoted to the new native language learning program to be offered at La Conner schools, it was great and happy news in a nutshell. It was not stated but hopefully the program will be offered and encouraged at all grade levels. Perhaps it is because my career was in speech-language pathology that it grieves me when I too often read of indigenous languages being lost. This is happening with ala...
The latest “Love La Conner” design for Gilkey Square seems a better one; it is shorter and includes a place to sit and ponder the Channel, Fidalgo Island and the Swinomish Reservation across the water. The “Love La Conner” theme, however, confuses me. The designers apparently believe it is important to tell visitors to "Love La Conner." If the design doesn't include those words, visitors might not know that Loving La Conner is the right response. Many people who visit La Conner do leave loving La Conner, I’m sure. But, I imagine they end up lo...
Dear Editor, I found the statement by Marna Hanneman, chair of the planning commission, that she found it a “difficult thing to go against the staff report” (Weekly News, April 6) absolutely stunning. The planning commission, as well as town council members, need to reset their thinking to realize they are called “staff” for a reason – they work for you! Just because Scott Thomas, town administrator, and Michael Davolio, town planner, feel they need to preserve their own jobs by carrying out Mayor Hayes’ pro-development agenda, doesn’t m...
On February 8 the Town of La Conner paid the City of Anacortes $6,940 for reconciliation of the water bill from 2020. The real amount owing was $3,068. Anacortes owes La Conner $3,872. The problem was that the city’s finance director failed to recognize that the former mayor committed the city to follow the Gray & Osborne study of 2005, which allocated customer records based on the number of accounts, instead of number of gallons of water usage. With 8,295 accounts in the water system, mostly in the city, it makes a big difference. Secondly, he...
I believe it was Rahm Emanuel former chief of staff for President Barak Obama who coined the expression, “never let a crisis go to waste”. In other words make it work for you politically. Well, so now Joe Biden is using the war in Ukraine in a way that is really quite cynical and insulting to the people of America and really the world. He is using this horrific event that has cost untold thousands of lives to further his green agenda by first very falsely claiming that all of our inflation and high gas prices are due to “Putin’s war” which is p...
The past seven years have transformed the relationship between the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Skagit County and local tax districts like the La Conner School District, Fire District 13 and the La Conner Regional Library. As the Swinomish Senate prepares to announce its 2022 voluntary contributions to these partners, this is a good time to reflect on their importance to our shared community and all that we have achieved together. History could have turned out very differently. After a 2014 federal court decision removed close to a...
Born April 22, 1953, Ben passed away recently at the age of 68 at his cabin on Quiet Cove in Anacortes, WA. He leaves behind his loving daughter Ariel Munsey Pankievich (Ernie) and beloved granddaughters Amelia and Olivia; stepchildren Erin Cuda (Tracy), Tialen Kelley (Ann) and Ian Kelley (Erica); step-grandchildren Nathan, Zach, Matt, Nicholas, Lauren and Nils; and sister Kim Klock (Pat) and her children Justin and Sara. Ben grew up in Tacoma, WA, with his parents Bennett and Donna-Rue Munsey...
History is all around La Conner but is not always recognized. Take, for example, the paddle boarders spotted in growing numbers each summer on Swinomish Channel and nearby Skagit Bay. While an outdoor sporting activity with one of today’s highest percentages of first-time participants, standup paddle boarding (SUP) dates to 3,000 BCE. Few are as enthusiastic about the sport as La Conner resident Jen Cram, who took up paddle boarding nearly a decade ago. In 2013, Cram took a yoga class in w...
Ellie Marble has been a central figure in La Conner High School’s last two state 2B Volleyball championship runs. So, it seems only appropriate that Marble would verbally commit to attend and play volleyball at Central Washington University after her 2023 graduation. Marble, a 6’0” junior outside hitter and the Washington State Coaches Association 2021 2B Player of the Year, announced her choice of the Ellensburg campus on social media last week. At Central, she will play for a top-flight NCAA Division II program guided by head coach Mario...
A major fire struck downtown Friday Harbor Thursday morning. The next day the town’s high school baseball team, the defending NW2B2B/1B champions, was equally hot. The Wolverines (5-0 in league) opened their April 8 conference game at La Conner with three consecutive line drive hits, setting the tone for a convincing 13-0 triumph. The youthful Braves (1-4) were coming off a ten-run victory the week before over Concrete. But Friday Harbor made sure the home team did not win a second straight game. “Friday Harbor,” coach Jeremiah LeSourd conce...
Does the glory of the tulip fields make you want to dance? For those who feel like jumping for joy at the sight of the brilliant colors, this year’s Tulip Festival poster immortalizes that feeling. Camano Island artist Jack Gunter painted the 2022 Tulip Festival Poster to represent the enthusiasm and sheer pleasure of the Tulip Festival resuming after two years of COVID-19 pandemic slowdowns. There is a formula for a successful tulip poster that sell copies by the hundreds or thousands. The m...
Drive the roads surrounding La Conner, and you’ll see, depending on the season, everything from brussels sprouts and fava beans to berries, wheat and barley. You’ll also find half a dozen farm stands and farm stores, at least two wedding venues, and four of the county’s largest “seasonal events:” Tulip Town and Roozengaarde in the spring, the Gordon Skagit and Schuh Farm Stands, U-Pick and traditional autumn activities in the fall. Whether and how to define and develop rules for these “agritour...
One could say chili and chowder are the two most popular soups year-round. But who is making the best in Skagit Valley this month? This important question was answered at the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce’s chili and chowder cook-off April 2 at Farmstrong Brewing Co. Thirteen contestants handed out samples of chili and chowder in small plastic cups at the Saturday afternoon Skagit Valley Tulip Festival kick-off event in Farmstrong’s beer garden. Tickets were $15; the price did not stand in...
For Fire District 13 commissioners, it was numbers that told the story of how 2022 is shaping up. The biggest one is $300,000 in funding support from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. Commissioners approved an interlocal agreement during their hybrid meeting Friday, April 8. Other numbers shared by District Fire Chief Wood Weiss tracked falling COVID-19 cases in the district, while calls for service – including those for patient transports – rising. Positive COVID-19 cases on Swinomish Reservation were under three dozen over...
Bobbie Scopa has enjoyed a long career in firefighting, but her tenure as a Fire District 13 Commissioner could hardly have been shorter. Scopa has reluctantly stepped down five months after being elected. District 13 Commission Chairman Bruce Shellhamer read aloud during the three-member panel’s monthly hybrid meeting Friday morning an email from Scopa explaining her decision to resign. Scopa cited what she termed unforeseen circumstances that have led her to move outside the fire district, whose coverage area is adjacent to the Town of La C...
Sunday, April 3 1:29 p.m.: Guns make noise – Several reports were made about a loud explosion and then gunshots in the Milltown area. Deputies contacted an individual, who owns the property, and they admitted to doing some shooting. Skagit City Rd., Conway. 3:03 p.m.: Was it cashed? – Possibly fraud involving bitcoin.. A market, Morris St., La Conner. Tuesday, April 5 12:11 p.m.: Family heirloom left – This was an abandoned fifth wheel trailer and the registered owner was deceased. Snee Oosh / Reservation Rds., Greater La...
Town of La Conner park commissioners met last Thursday with landscape architect Curt Miller to discuss his preliminary design for developing the new Maple Avenue park at Talbott Avenue. Commissioners and Miller are on a fast track to meet a May 3 application deadline for funding from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program through its Recreation and Conservation Office. The April 7 meeting at the Civic Garden Club brought the five commissioners, Town Administrator Scott Thomas, planner Mi...
One of my Alaskan friends introduced me to this pie. Then I noticed one of my Alaskan cousins was making it. Then one of my husband’s cousins, who is part Alaska native, made it. It seemed like a massive thick fish pie. Each of their pies had a few basic ingredients and varied by the thickness of the layers of ingredients. I started this in the morning so that the rice and boiled eggs would be ready for the assembling. The key ingredient came to me as leftover baked salmon given to us. I used on...
