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Locally baked bread is again available in La Conner. You can buy 1.75 pound “Skagit Wheat” sourdough loaves and a variety of cookies from Rachael Sobczak in Gilkey Square 4-8 p.m. Friday during the Shop Local Shop Late. This pop up sales event is typical for Sobczak’s Rachael and Bread company, which she likens to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or farmers market model rather than a brick and mortar store. But more unusual than her pre-order subscription purchasing system is the heart of her bread recipe: the 100 year-old sourd...
Last Wednesday the attendance record was broken at the sixth annual March Against Addiction at the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. Due to the pandemic, everyone had to be in a vehicle to participate. A staging area was set up on the SITC’s ball field. Participants drove up to a check in booth where they were given a T-shirt with the motto “This Has To Stop” on it. This year’s design was by Ricardo Lopez. A NARCAN booth was onsite as well, distributing revival kits. Some participants taped p...
On Wednesday, August 19, I drove through hell. The day started well enough. I woke up in a lovely pine forest near Mount Shasta. The night before, I had watched the sun set on the mountain and the stars come out. By breakfast, the mountain was enveloped in smoke. As I left the Siskiyou mountains, the smoke thickened, darkened and filled the wide Sacramento Valley. After Redding, I can usually see the Sierras about 25 miles on the west, to my left and the Coast Range about 20 miles to my right,...
While the COVID-19 pandemic has been tough to swallow, tap water in La Conner will still flow uninterrupted. Town Council members last week amended a municipal ordinance to reflect Gov. Jay Inslee’s emergency proclamation suspending water shut-offs for failure to pay. The state measure, which was issued last spring and is intended to “help preserve and maintain life, health, property and the public peace,” has been extended three times in response to the ongoing COVID-19 threat. The local ordinance, which includes a repayment plan for water...
Skagit County passed 1,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus Aug. 28 with 17 more positive test results over the weekend, for 1,020 cases reported Aug. 31. There were 86 new cases in the 14 day period ending Monday, as reported on Skagit County Public Health’s website, with 92 people now or formerly hospitalized, 629 recovered and 22 deaths. There were single digit case counts the last nine days, Aug 23-31, ranging from no cases Aug. 23 to eight cases on Aug. 29. Higher positive test results were reported at the Skagit Valley College t...
While 588 primary ballots were left uncounted by staff at the Skagit County Office of Elections after the Aug. 4 election, only 36, 6%, came late from the post office, David Cunningham, deputy auditor and elections supervisor told the Weekly News Tuesday. Errors from 552 citizens left their votes on the table, with the largest portion, 337, 57%, having ballot signatures not matching the on-file records. No signatures were on 215 ballots, 37% of the uncounted total. If counted, the election turnout would have been boosted to 49,067. Counted ball...
Back to School is always a time of new beginnings. No more so than this year as La Conner campuses prepare for distance learning models at least through the fall term. La Conner teachers and staff begin in-service training today (Wednesday) with much focus placed on mastering the on-line instructional platforms students and families will access starting Sept. 14 when structured remote learning classes are launched. School principals last week shared with staff their respective daily schedules for the fall semester, a blend of live small and...
Ghosts may be invisible, but that is not the case in La Conner. After all, the Ghost of Tom Joad can be seen all over town and on social media. That thanks to Tillinghast Drive resident Rick Dole, a U.S. Navy veteran who in retirement has launched a project blending his varied interests in auto mechanics, history and photography. The Ghost of Tom Joad is the name Dole has given his vintage 1928 pickup, a converted Model A “Fordor” sedan, which he keeps in perfect running order for regular pho...
Meteorological fall arrived Tuesday, as it always does, on September first, but it journeyed here through the month of August. Its progress was daily measured, for weeks, by the ever lengthening tree, house and building shadows, cast by a sun no longer quite as high in the sky. That sun has retreated south from the northern most advance it forayed into in June. The incredibly long days starting with dawn before 5 a.m. are once again a hope we will have to wait to seek out in 2021. How fast my summer went, and now how far behind us are the...
Letters praising the most corrupt and incompetent president in my seventy-five years compel me to speak out after a long silence. I no longer have clients to lose and the people I care about agree with me. I can now be brutally honest and I will be. Donald Trump was never prepared for public service and never expected to have to serve anyone but himself. His candidacy was another of his many cons, intended to resurrect his failing brand. A climate of hateful ignorance and the aid of a brutal dictator wanting to sow chaos in our democracy swept...
“The Barn Shows: 1987–2003, In Their Own Words,” cuts deep and indelible swaths, like a glacier, forever marks on our shared cultural history. Lavone Newell-Reim and Cathy Pearson Stevens have beautifully documented this major Skagit Valley legacy – seventeen years of Barn Shows on Fir Island. Initially inspired by an exhibition titled “Summer Harvest” organized by artist John Simon, the Barn Shows were led by artists’ visions forming a shared cultural mandate and fueled by the ethereal yet undeniable spirit of Northwest School ar...
Dear Mike: A “truly decent man” would never lock children in cages. (In response to Aug. 26 letter – ed.) Kathy Rodenberg Seattle, Washington...
At last week’s town Council meeting, the Mayor, Administrator and four of the five Town council members rushed through (in my opinion) an extension of the current contract for police services with the Skagit County Sheriff. The extension covers Dec. 2020-Dec. 2021 at a cost of $331,097! In return the town receives 80 hours of “police service” a month! However, the contract provides that the Sheriff will patrol south to Conway and north to Bayview – within those 80 hours. Mine was the sole voice to question the value of service we recei...
On behalf of the members of the Rotary Club of La Conner, it is my pleasure to thank all those who participated in our virtual auction through advertising, buying and donating. Your generosity makes it possible for us to continue to support literacy in La Conner, Guatemala and Honduras, feed hungry children in La Conner, provide books for La Conner preschoolers through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, give dictionaries to every La Conner third grader, give scholarships to La Conner high school seniors, provide leadership opportunities to...
“Through This Valley:” Clayton James, Ed Kamuda, Ruth Pumphrey and Christine Wardenburg Skinner. i.e.gallery, Fri-Sun 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and by appointment: 360-488-3458. This exhibit focuses on four artists of the Skagit Valley, Christine Wardenburg-Skinner, Ruth Pumphrey, Clayton James and Ed Kamuda. Most exhibits at i.e. are conceived of and scheduled six months to a year ahead of time. We had been planning a showing of some of Ed’s plein air paintings for about nine months. Kamuda looked to So...
The Museum of Northwest Art’s 28th Annual Art Auction – and for the first time online – kicks off next Wednesday, Sept. 9. Silent auction bidding starts Sept. 10 and the live auction and online program are Sept. 12. This year’s theme is “Fund the Future for the Future.” The funds raised “support future exhibitions, preserve the Permanent Collection and help to continue transformative art education programs” the Museum’s auction webpage states. To register and view the online auction catalog go to http://www.monam...
Monday is Labor Day, the holiday marking the end of summer. In the old days we would pause, barbecue and rejoice in the gains working people have made for us in the workplace and society, advances brought by generations of struggle against oppressive bosses and governments actively aligned against them. Today the unions barely breathe. They are not even a shadow of their old selves. Their struggle is to survive in a world dominated by corporate wealth and the influence it purchases in the halls of government. We still need solidarity in the...
Monday, August 24 10:13 a.m.: Happens weekly – Political signs stolen. Dodge Valley Rd., Greater La Conner. 12:21 p.m.: Resident or tourist? – Yellow dog with no tags running loose by the public restrooms. N. 3rd / Morris Sts., La Conner. 4:53 p.m.: High, dry, legal – Report of a boat parked and obstructing the view of traffic. Deputies located a legally parked boat that did not present a traffic hazard. McLean / Beaver Marsh Rds., Greater La Conner. 7:39 p.m.: Overly vigilant – Caller reporting a white truck...
Defunding the police was never an issue in La Conner this summer. The question instead was whether the Town could afford a three per cent hike in its law enforcement services contract with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office amid fears of falling municipal revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A 4-1 Town Council majority approved $331,097 for 2021, closing the books on a month-long discussion at its Aug. 25 meeting, Councilmembers Bill Stokes and Jacques Brunisholz had earlier said there were obstacles to contracting with Swinomish, a move t...
Use cooked cubed chicken breast. Add the vegetable of choice. This recipe cooks quick, so use a quick cooking vegetable. I used sugar snap peas we grew. Ingredients Chicken breast , 2 cups, cooked and cubed Olive oil, 2 tablespoons Honey, 3 tablespoons Soy sauce, 3 tablespoons Garlic, 3 cloves Black pepper, to your taste Sugar Peas, 6 Preparation Heat the oil in a pan on medium high setting. Add the cooked cubed chicken. Season with black pepper. Chop the garlic cloves and add. Toss and lightly...
