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Being one of the many retailers in La Conner, a major thank you goes to the La Conner Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber created a thoughtful virtual tour of the downtown stores. It is a great virtual promotion: If one couldn’t physically shop the stores in town, they could “visit” them via their websites. Then came the overwhelming surprise of countless small bouquets of locally harvested flowers put at the closed doors of establishments throughout town, with a message; “We are blue without you.” Later, a drive through town found those same deli...
Both Sacred Heart Catholic Church and La Conner Methodist Church have signs on their doors reading “Church Closed.” Most of us recognize that is a sensible decision: large gatherings are just what we do not want at the moment. The loving thing right now is to keep our distance, lest we transmit the virus. So if we cannot gather because of the coronavirus, can we still offer Eucharist – thanking God as a gathered community? First, God is everywhere and the risen Christ is not limited by space. The presence of the risen Jesus among the com...
The first time I saw Helen Price Johnson was at a League of Women Voters salad supper. The evening featured not only salad but also the Island County Commissioners. Each commissioner gave a presentation to League members about issues, concerns and victories s/he felt were appropriate at the time. I remember being struck by Helen’s sensibility and leadership style. Her command of topics and the way she demonstrated that was stressing that although many issues were tough and critical to our way of life, working together was (and still is) essenti...
One of the joys of owning a small business is you become friends with the people you serve. The only sorrow is that COVID-19’s impact causes us to feel we are rearranging financial deck chairs on the Titanic. Handling the rising waters is easier some days than others. Last Wednesday started with a fish. Swinomish elder Connie Allen and son Scott received the gift of a salmon and popped by the clinic bright and early to share it. From her minivan to my hand landed a great big fish. Our clinic happily has hundreds of our Swinomish neighbors as p...
To the La Conner and Swinomish area communities: As your local Fire Chiefs we have been working closely together to ensure the safety of our first responders and citizens during this crisis. We would like to thank all of you for helping keep our first responders safe. Your commitment to staying at home, social distancing and minimizing travel has allowed the number of COVID-19 cases to stay relatively low. We know also that our local businesses have paid a huge price by having to sacrifice the Tulip season. Unfortunately, we are still going on...
Humans have seen troubled times before, but perhaps never quite like this. Certainly, World War I and World War II had huge global impacts, but not as quickly, nor as indiscriminately, as this world-wide pandemic. There is a lot of talk now about future changes, and what the New Normal might look like ... . Perhaps, first, we should take a hard look at the Old Normal – endless wars, political instability, escalating climate destruction, desperate refugees, homelessness, racism, mutual religious intolerance and millions living in...
We are not halfway there yet. We might not know or see or experience the halfway point. With luck, perhaps, it will pass, we will get past it, without realizing it. Patience. How hard that is, to be patient, whether we are three or 33 or 93? Of course, once we pass 13, we are challenged to be mature role models and to set an example for others. So here we are. Let us count the days. It is 51 days since the Skagit County commissioners declared a public health emergency; 44 days since Gov. Jay Inslee closed restaurants and then the next week,...
COVID-19 has been called an invisible enemy. Fire District 13 personnel can attest to that following a recent local emergency call. “We had a confirmed asymptomatic COVID-19 case this week,” Fire Chief Wood Weiss said during the district’s video-conferenced April 23 meeting. “Neither I, nor anyone else, would’ve expected that call to have been COVID-related. There was no fever, no coughing.” Weiss told the Weekly News that he couldn’t answer specific questions related to the call, citing HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountabilit...
Once upon a time, before COVID-19, so many aspects of life, then taken for granted, added to the flow of our days: Economic opportunity. Operating schools. Open small businesses. Social “non-distancing.” Abundant “non-essentials.” Relative ease. In my new “flow,” I am working for a Seattle hospital managing care and seeing the strength of colleagues, but also, while working from home in LaConner, feeling challenged by the anxiety that adapting and social distancing brings. Because the horizon of a safe return to “ease” is elusive, I quizzed mys...
Physical therapy dates its origins to ancient Greece and Hippocrates, widely recognized as the Father of Medicine. Much about physical therapy has changed in the ensuing 2,500 years – especially in the past few weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak. Specialists at Balance Point Physical Therapy in La Conner have joined local medical clinics in embracing telehealth methods to treat patients during the statewide “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” emergency. Conditions resulting from the COVID-19 out...
The spring sports season at La Conner High went from being virtually cancelled to being resumed virtually. La Conner teams are using technology to remain active and take part in virtual competitions even as schools across Washington state are closed for the rest of the academic year due to the coronavirus outbreak. It was initially thought the La Conner High spring sports calendar wouldn’t flip beyond a just-for-fun mid-March scrimmage between the school’s baseball and softball teams, tho...
Jared Fair, the new director of the La Conner Regional Library, has been manager of the Yakima Central Library and Southeast Libraries, 14 libraries in that district’s system. A native of Yakima, he returned with a master’s degree and went to work in the library. Fair is married and has three children. His wife, Heidi, grew up on a farm in Wyoming. She has a degree in restaurant management but now manages the family: Thorin, nine, a Legos lover and budding engineer. Amelie, seven, colors and...
Five months after a crossroads election that saw the defeat of two La Conner School Board incumbents, the district panel has elected to continue down the path of change. The board on Monday chose Amanda Bourgeois to fill the Swinomish director district seat vacated by Marlys Baker’s move to Mount Vernon earlier this year. Baker had upset longtime board member Janie Beasley last November. Beasley was seeking a return to the board, but members without comment voted unanimously in favor of Bourgeois in a roll call vote during a 45-minute v...
COVID-19 reported cases in Skagit County may reach 320 by May 1. The 11 cases reported Sunday raised the total to 304 people with the coronavirus. Five positive cases tested Monday brought the total to 309. Forty people are hospitalized; 10 have died. Active cases total 121 and 188 people have recovered. All data is from the County’s Public Health Department. Fewer than 10 people have tested positive in the 98257 zip code. Doubling time is 28 days from 150 cases March 29 to 304 cases Sunday, when 11 cases were identified. Cases have i...
La Conner has gone digital to get the word out on social distancing. The Town has placed a rented electronic reader-board at the roundabout entrance to La Conner that implores weekend visitors to ‘stay home, stay safe” and maintain six-foot distancing while here to help curb spread of COVID-19. That’s not all. The Town Public Works Department last week implemented two other measures which, like the digital reader-board, were advanced during recent talks with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office de...
Would you like to help the scientific community improve their (and our) understanding of the transmission and impact of COVID-19? There are easy (and anonymous) ways to do that by answering a few simple questions about how you feel each day and adding your information to that of thousands of others. The broader the participation in these crowd-sourcing data activities, the better our understanding of the incidence and prevalence of COVID-19 in our local communities and in the general population: information that is vital to understanding risks...
Add La Conner Schools and the Town Public Works Department to the list of recent local theft targets. Burglaries occurred at the school transportation shop and La Conner Public Works garage a week ago Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, said Sgt. Jeff Willard of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office La Conner detachment. The Sheriff’s Office is reviewing video evidence in each case, Willard told the Weekly News on Monday. “We have been able to identify a vehicle and license plate and are in the process of identifying a subject seen on (the publi...
FLOWER FAIRY DELIVERS GOOD TIDINGS...
In April 17, 2020, Lisa Marie Wilbur qualt-to-sah made her final journey. Lisa was a strong native woman with great faith and strong teachings from her elders. The legacy of her Wilbur and Charles families was embedded in her character and her spirit. Lisa was born on June 10, 1955 in Mt. Vernon WA to Claude Wilbur Sr. and Marie Charles. She was raised with her brothers and sisters on the Swinomish Reservation. She attended La Conner Schools. Lisa was always a Daddy’s girl. She was the one that...
Did you know that Shakespeare did some of his best work during a pandemic? And he even referenced it in his work. “A plague on both your houses” are Mercutio’s dying words in Romeo and Juliet. Now, I am a totally ADHD person dealing with the challenges on self-imposed, government mandated (common sense) isolation. So, I am finally sitting down and finishing my play, “MAX TO THE MAX.” I’ve had staged readings with theatre companies in Vancouver, BC, and Santa Rosa, CA, gotten notes from friend...
