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Home Trust of Skagit Director Jodi Monroe and Melissa Luke, executive assistant, are spreading the word that homeowners are needed for the five homes that will be built in their Channel Cove development near Caledonia Street and Maple Avenue. They met with seven interested people July 10 in Mount Vernon to introduce their program. Monroe is an enthusiastic proselytizer for home ownership, which she notes “is the number one way in the country to build wealth.” They’re not from the government, exactly, but her nonprofit is here to help, she says,...
Our house fronts the school playfields, so there are few people in town more directly affected by the Corps than we are. Although we understand that the length and intensity of the Corps practices can be annoying to some people, we found the experience a very positive one. The dedication, talent, tenacity, and grit shown by these amazing young people was very impressive. Talented musicians to begin with, these young people endure 12-hour days of intense physical activity (comparable to Army boot camp) to perfect a 15 minute routine. And they...
Susan and Casey, Thank you for supporting our Wednesday night “book club” at Nell Thorn’s these past several years. We are grateful for the many magical birthday celebrations we had at the communal table you religiously reserved for us. You have always demonstrated the value of community and the importance of celebrating with each other. We will forever cherish that. Enjoy the next chapter! We will miss you dearly. Rene’e Matthews And the Wednesday Night Book Club Casey and Susan: Thank you for so many years of sweet pleasure – at the Wil...
Dear neighbors on Rainier and Talbott streets, On Saturday, July 13 at 4:30 p.m., I witnessed the tenant at 525 Rainier shoot a rifle at my cat. He was on his back porch and shooting toward his back fence. There were no less than 5 small children within the trajectory of his aim. The deputies who responded, informed me that because of the way the town code is written, discharging a pellet rifle within the city limits would be only a civil matter. I hope that no small pet or child has to suffer an injury before a pellet rifle is considered a...
Dear La Conner: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you... It has been two weeks since Nell Thorn landed in the skilled hands of her new ownership, and there are already murmurings of deliciousness... Two years ago we realized that we needed to offer the good ship Nell for sale. It took us a year to have the courage to list her and just about another year for her new captain and us to find one another, thanks to Mark Hesch. Casey and I each made our way to La Conner when we were nineteen years old, brimming with enthusiasm and happiness to be in this...
On June 7, the school board received a vote of no confidence against Superintendent Meissner from our unions. We met with union leadership to better understand their concerns; we value their perspectives and have listened deeply. The board has also been listening to other voices and perspectives in our community. One of the board’s main responsibilities is to hire, supervise and evaluate the superintendent. We believe that this situation presents an opportunity for all of us to learn and grow, including the board. We also believe in our c...
The La Conner School District Board of Directors met Monday for their usual bi-weekly study session, but only the schedule was normal. The meeting was held in the first floor board room instead of the District’s second floor meeting room. Director Susan Deyo called in from out of town by phone and Director Brad Smith was absent. And over 30 people, school staff, area residents and a few children attended in response to organizing by school unions’ members. While the agenda was proscribed, with no public comment period, the audience clearly hop...
Danny Hagen stays in shape the old-fashioned way. The 6’-6”, 255-pound La Conner High assistant basketball coach is no stranger to the gym, but his workouts this time of year are done without benefit of the modern sports equipment found in health clubs and fitness centers. That’s by design. Hagen opts instead to break a sweat each spring and summer with heavy stones, large poles and hefty hay bales. In a way, he was born to exercise that way. Hagen reconnects with his Celtic heritage by compe...
It was as much a homecoming as a picnic for those who gathered at the historic Skagit City School Sunday afternoon. Among the large group on hand was a number of Skagit City Community Club alumni, several with La Conner ties – Peter Goldfarb and Chip Hall, to name two – who were chief advocates for preservation of the landmark school on nearby Fir Island before recent major restoration by contractor Chad Fisher was realized under ownership of the Skagit County Historical Museum....
Kitty Pippen once said she was first drawn to textile arts as a girl in China, watching the local women mend and design their clothes. She lived a life as a creative artists, but didn’t begin her quilting career in Japanese fabrics until the age of 70. In her last 25 years she gained legendary status as a textile artist, taught, and was author of several books. She spent her final years living at the La Conner Retirement Inn. This month Pippen’s work is being exhibited in the “Remembering Kitty” show at the La Conner’s Pacific Northwest...
A 36-year tradition concluded in late June when Tulip Town on Bradshaw Road in Greater LaConner was purchased by Spinach Bus Ventures. Since founders Tom and Jeannette DeGoede opened Tulip Town 1983, its colorful plantings, Peace Garden, murals of tulips in the Skagit Valley and Holland, and gracious owners have attracted hundreds of thousands of fans. Tulip Town has been on the market for two years and Tom DeGoede died June 2. The new buyers “are all local, they know farming and I think they a...
If you were alive then, reflect back on July 20, 1969. Were you watching NASA’s, and our, moon landing? I was 14. My siblings and I were on the porch, our house’s TV room. My very smart older sister wanted to be an astronaut – while still in high school. She majored in physics and then earned a Ph.D. What a different world we lived in in 1969. Most adults could not have imagined – made up – that anyone would claim the moon landing was staged. Almost everyone, maybe even the libertarians and the communists, was in unison that l...
Who are the patriots and the heroes: the guys with guns and blue uniforms, more so in Washington, D.C. than Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, or Washington state’s skinny attorney general and the Citizens of Ebey Reserve who got Bob Ferguson’s attention and gained him as their ally? The right political cartoonist will draw Ferguson as David with his slingshot taking on the U.S. Navy, Goliath. Ferguson and COER filed lawsuits July 9 in federal court, halting at least temporarily the Navy’s plans to add 36 EA-18G Growler aircraft at the base....
Two lawsuits were filed July 9 against the U.S. Navy’s expansion of Growler jet operations at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Attorney General Bob Ferguson, for the state of Washington, asserts a failed environmental review process for the expansion which “unlawfully failed to measure the impacts to public health and wildlife in communities on and around Whidbey Island” and historic properties on the Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve, according to a press release from his office. The Citizens of Ebey Reserve filed suit the same da...
