Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1 - 15 of 15
Swinomish Police have asked those with security cameras along Snee Oosh Road to contact the department following a rash of recent mail thefts in the area. Tribal officers began fielding reports of suspected mail theft along the heavily traveled road on Swinomish Reservation in mid-April. Officers investigating those complaints found a substantial amount of discarded mail from neighboring streets off Snee Oosh. The area in question runs from State Highway 20 to Pull-N-Be-Damned Road. The thefts have some Snee Oosh and other La Conner area rural...
All the figures and details for the almost two acre Hedlin property on Maple Avenue that the Town of La Conner bought and then sold the same day this past March are complete. This third Weekly News story has additional figures from the Town and the settlement statements from the title company. Using Town figures, including staff time and easement paving costs for preparing the property for development, the profit is a little over $8,000, as Mayor Ramon Hayes stated in his column in the paper...
The nation’s crumbling infrastructure was suddenly a local story in your community newspaper last week. The page 1 headline blared “Shelter Bay water line break required boil water advisory.” Less conspicuously, without water constantly leaking, was the page 2 headline for the town council meeting: “Town Council reviews local infrastructure priorities.” All of a sudden, the rhetoric from the far-off other Washington has come home: water pipes on both sides of the Swinomish Channel are at the end of their lifespans. In 2018 La Conner replaced...
Many things have changed in our small town this past year, but the little Methodist church at the top of the hill in La Conner remains as committed as always to doing no harm, doing good and staying in love with God and our neighbors. At this time, we are celebrating the good news of vaccines providing a layer of protection for a significant number of members in some of our congregations. However, the church does not belong solely to those who are vaccinated. As the church, God calls us always to do things that are beneficial because we bear...
The City of Seattle is seeking a 50-year federal license for its Skagit dams, likely our last opportunity to require that Seattle help save Skagit salmon and steelhead from extinction. Over the past couple decades, Seattle has contributed roughly 59 times less per megawatt to Skagit fisheries than our local power utility. Now, Seattle has pulled our community into a contentious federal process in an effort to avoid an equitable contribution. We write to propose a better path forward. There are five federally-licensed dams on the Skagit system...
The nine homes sold in the La Conner area in April are almost double the five homes sold in March. They sold at a 12% average lower price, $430,000, Northwest MLS Services reported. The month’s sales are almost half of area home sales since two sold in January. For 2021, the 20 homes purchased in the La Conner area had a median price of $459,250. That is 4% of the 563 homes sold this year in Skagit County. In April, the 149 newly sold homes in Skagit County also sold for less, on average, $455,000, down 6% from March’s $485,550. The big...
Kathy Gowan is not the retiring type, after all. In a previous life the Rexville area resident was a labor delivery nurse. Now she has come out of retirement to join the corps of health care professionals who regularly administer doses of COVID-19 vaccines at La Conner Drug Store. “I didn’t want people to get COVID-19,” said Gowan, explaining her decision to renew her nursing license. “It took a while to get everything in order, but it was well worth it.” Local residents who stream into La C...
For decades it has been a tradition for the La Conner High School Alumni Association, the oldest active organization of its kind in Washington state, to hold an annual banquet each spring to honor that year’s graduating seniors. For the second year in a row, COVID-19 will trump tradition – though not entirely in 2021. La Conner alums are being asked if they would attend a banquet and program in September, by which time more vaccinations will have been administered. The fall banquet proposal, along with scholarship donation and dues p...
Out of tragedy, members of the La Conner Firemen’s Association have launched a new program to comfort those grieving the loss of loved ones. Association members and La Conner volunteer firefighters have begun providing blankets, gift cards, candles and other items that can be of use and help console families in their time of grief, Jaime Stroebel-Reinstra told the Weekly News last week. The grief relief project is based on one run by the Lake McMurray Volunteer Fire Department. Stroebel-Reinstra and her husband, La Conner Hook & Ladder Chief A...
In a short season, the La Conner High football team went a long way. All the way, in fact, to the top of league standings. Not too bad for a group some thought would be continuing a rebuild under new head coach Jeff Scoma. Instead, the Braves raised the roof and clinched the NW2B championship Friday night with their fourth straight win, a convincing 41-0 shutout victory as La Conner showed its mastery of the Wing-T attack Scoma brought with him from Bellevue. With the triumph, the Braves finished the ’21 spring campaign with a 4-1 mark. Five L...
The two-time defending state champion La Conner high volleyball team made the most of a season shortened due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns. Not only did the Lady Braves play four matches in five days during the last week of the month-long campaign, but they did not drop a single set. While capturing the league title in an undefeated season, La Conner did not lose a set in any of its 10 NW2B matches. The Lady Braves put an exclamation point on their modified 2021 spring schedule Saturday afternoo...
The La Conner high boys’ soccer team closed out a shortened spring season with a win in their longest match of the campaign Friday. Andre Knudson clinched a 2-1 Braves home triumph over Grace Academy of Marysville with a goal in the shootout round to break a 1-1 tie following 80 minutes of action and two five-minute overtime sessions. Knudson was mobbed by his teammates, who rushed onto the field from their sideline following his game-winner,. Braves’ goalkeeper Elijah Porter also came up big in...
I have a science background and love to compare environmental systems. Some systems may mirror others to some extent but many have unique relationships. Some people have a handle on what are called key species or perhaps apex predators. These species may be important to maintain environmental balance. Often new people with a science background come into a science field with an open mind and new ideas. A new college graduate moved into the Pacific northwest with a new career in marine biology. He was stationed on the coast near saltwater. He...
Tuesday, May 4 7:18 p.m.: Spring spurt – Report of several motorcycles driving at excessive speeds. Bay View Rd., Bay View. 7:58 p.m.: Someone’s knocking – Caller reported a banging on her door. Deputies contacted a female who said she knew the homeowner and was returning some items. The homeowner said she did not know the female and wanted her removed from the property. Caledonia St., La Conner. 8:25 p.m.: Providing backup – Deputies responded to assist Swinomish PD with the arrest of a subject. Pull and Be Damned Rd., G...
Beets are available year round. They are easily grown from seed here in the Pacific Northwest. Beets are a root vegetable that stores well and keeps well. This recipe calls for one large roasted red beet. I roasted a few beets a day ahead. Ingredients Roasted red beet, one large Valencia oranges, two small White balsamic vinegar, one tablespoon Salt, to taste Preparation Peel, slice and cube one cooled, roasted red beet. Cut into half-inch cubes. Splash on the white balsamic vinegar. Mix...
