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In what became a perfect weather day Saturday, 28 people combined the best of the Skagit Valley, riding their bikes to three organic farms that provide produce to the Skagit Valley Food Co-op for the co-op’s eighth annual Bike to Farm Tour. The bikers meandered just over two miles from their Edgewater Park gathering site to Skagit Flats, Andy Ross’ farm on Kamb Road. Ross was peppered with questions as he stood out standing in his two-acre field of various lettuces, facing the dismounted bik...
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. That was a refrain heard often last weekend by those singing the praises of vintage vessels and vehicles headlining the 18th annual La Conner Classic Boat & Car Show. But, as the large crowd that strolled the Port of Skagit’s La Conner Marina south basin parking lot can attest, yesterday’s stylish boats and cars can be remade to look brand new. Cool cars and boats displayed on sunbaked pavement, coupled with Beach Boys hits and other Golden Oldies blastin...
We just want to thank you for your editorial last week. We realize that your comments could cost you some readers, but we hope not. It is so discouraging to think about the dysfunction going on in our government and you reminded us that we have to risk polarizing our friendships in hopes that we will help our friends realize the difference between “opinions” and “facts.” Sincerely, Bob and Margo Conrad...
My name is Christi Malcomson and I am a third-grade teacher here in La Conner. Many of you may not be aware that our La Conner teaching staff is entering a negotiation period for salary compensation for the next school year, 2018-2019. The Washington Supreme Court has ordered legislators to amply fund basic education including competitive salaries to keep and support our teachers. This legislation was further reinforced in April by allocating an additional $1 billion for teacher compensation. When our teaching staff learned there was an...
A teacher who works down from the hall from me in the La Conner school district recently said, “Honestly, I am invested, and I love what I do, but I am run down and exhausted. There aren’t enough hours in the day. I don’t know if I can continue teaching at La Conner, when I can go 15 miles to another school district and make at least five figures more than I am making now. (My colleague would make $12,000 more a year teaching in Stanwood.) I buy so many supplies for my students out of my own pocket. It simply isn’t fair to my own family....
Last week was the Pioneer Picnic honoring the Valley’s first European settlers. This weekend is Swinomish Days, a tribal celebration that gathers natives from states regionally. Three Swinomish canoe families are back from this year’s canoe journey, the “Pull to Puyalluip.” Some 110 canoe families, from as far away as Alaska and the Columbia River, participated. And, in late July, in the space of one day, an orca was born and died in the south Salish Sea. The orcas were here first. In our complex ecosystem, the three southern orca pods are the...
Supporters of Home Rule Skagit brought 3,333 petition signatures to the Skagit County’s Elections Office Friday calling for a November vote on creating a charter to update Skagit County’s form of government. Once 2,800 signatures are certified, this fall’s ballot will ask the voters whether, for the first time in the County’s 135-year history, the people who live here should form their county government. The charter is like a constitution for the county. The measure will list the names of citizens volunteering to be freeholders, or delegat...
HAVE PAINT, WILL DEMO – Carey Sorensen, a member of the Salish Sea Plein Air Painters, was the closing demonstration painter at the Aug. 4 Art Walk’s pop-up gallery at the Tillinghast Seeds Complex. The group, which paints throughout Skagit and lower Whatcom counties, displayed, and sold their art. They anchored the eastern Morris Street end of the special, invitational art walk. Volunteers with the La Conner Library Foundation poured wine for donations for the new building. – P...
For much of Thursday, the skies above La Conner were filled with Navy jets and drizzle. But below the cloud cover, goodwill filled Pioneer Park. A true pioneer spirit – one marked by food and fellowship and alluded to in the invocation and benediction offered by Rev. Marcella Baker of La Conner United Methodist Church – shone through well before the sun finally appeared in early afternoon. Fittingly, one of the main highlights of the 114th annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner was...
