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In the longest Town Council meeting in at least a couple of years, democracy was both patient and in action Sept. 25. Mayor Ramon Hayes laid out a firmer 2019 budget that included significant reductions in hotel-motel tax grants. The Town will use $40,000 from that fund to repair the Maple Hall elevator, estimated at $155,000. Funds are also budgeted for shoreline restoration at the waterfront park. The La Conner Chamber of Commerce’s allocation was reduced to $43,000 from 2017’s $74,000. By the meeting’s end, $17,000 was restored. Hayes ackno...
League of Women Voters of Skagit County Joining with the League of Women Voters of Skagit County and the Skagit County Dispute Resolution Center, the Oct. 6 culminating day of the 2018 Civil Discourse series was made possible by support from Skagit County Board of Commissioners, EDASC Foundation and Skagit Publishing. Led by independent dispute resolution professional Mary Dumas the fifty-person group explored the topic of homelessness in Skagit County. Participants explored the many...
MAKING A TOOL ON THE FARM – Farmers still make things as well as grow crops and raise livestock. Adair Orr, blacksmith, was celebrating his art for an attentive audience at Gordon Skagit Farms Saturday, part of this year’s Festival of Family Farms. – Photo by Ken Stern...
Millions were glued to their televisions the past couple weeks, tuned into the Kavanaugh confirmation drama. But perhaps a more representative example of American democracy took place before a dozen people at the Dewey Beach Community Hall Thursday night. That’s when members of Home Rule Skagit, including greater La Conner resident Rick Shorten, and Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen outlined respective arguments related to Proposition 1 – the bid to establish a charter form of government in Skagit County. In truth, there was little a...
Author Richard Haines, a frequent visitor to La Conner, has written about the impact a major earthquake would have here. In his book, “Sudden Loss: Earthquake Realities,” Haines depicts the terrifying local consequences a big quake and subsequent tidal waves could inflict, including destruction of nearby historic Deception Pass Bridge. The Haines account is a novel, a work of fiction. Or is it? Readers say that beyond character development and a lively story line, Sudden Loss: Earthquake Realities illustrates the importance of being pre...
COAL HAS FUELED OUR PAST – Well over 200 people flowed into the Museum of Northwest Art last weekend for the exhibit “Surge 2018.” Speaking to 76 people at the opening were Dr. Jon Riedel, National Park Service, and Roger Fuller, Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, describing changes in estuaries, flood risk, glaciers and sea levels. Carol MacIlroy, director of Skagit Climate Science Consortium, the exhibit’s co-host, discussed SC2’s relationship with MoNA. Photo: “Image...
Nothing is more normal than twin sisters having different points of view. And almost all of us want love and to be loved. A lucky few of us are talented singers and attractive. Almost none of us, however, are joined at the hip, literally, with our twin. Daisy (Ireland Woods) and Violet (Sophia Price) Hilton are. This true-life story, told through the 1997 musical “Side Show,” is Theater Arts Guild’s fall production at the Lincoln Theatre. It is more musical than theater, with great singing, dancing and production values. So suspend your disbe...
Barbara Koenigs, 84, a longtime resident of the Skagit Valley, died in the early morning on September 30, 2018. Barbara and her husband opened and ran Cafe Pojante in LaConner in 1985. Extended obituary at http://www.kernfuneralhome.com There will be a short burial service at Bayview Cemetery Wednesday, October 10, at 1:00 pm. A memorial is being planned for a future date; anyone interested in attending should RSVP at [email protected]... Full story
To the Editor: At the September 25 meeting, the Town Council voted to pay the City of Anacortes $5,114 for reconciliation of the operation and maintenance (O&M) portion of the 2017 water bill. By my calculations, La Conner only owed Anacortes $3,050, a difference of $2,064. The accounting for Capital expenditures is never reconciled. Anacortes made three mistakes. They assigned some charges to Regional (us) when they should have been assigned to Retail (city). For county taxes they charged us the full amount instead of reducing the amount by...
The recent article about the Swinomish totem poles was of great interest to me, as I was there when the original poles were dedicated in 1938. I was eight years old and with my parents and sisters had driven up from our home in California to visit my grandfather, Andrew “Carpenter” Johnson, at the family farm on Beaver Marsh Road. One Saturday during our visit the party line telephone in the kitchen rang, and the caller told us that Eleanor Roosevelt would be in La Conner that very afternoon. My mother dressed my little sisters and me in our...
The La Conner Weekly News has organized a forum of District 1 Freeholder candidates for Oct. 18 in Maple Hall. The county ballot measure, Proposition 1, asks you to approve the election of freeholders, or delegates, for the purpose of developing a Skagit County Charter. Voters might pass this. Separately, voters are picking 21 freeholders in the three county commissioner districts. Seven will be from District 1, Commissioner Ron Wesen’s district. Confused? Asleep? Not to be bothered? Be careful: If you and your fellow voters approve the f...
The Skagit Valley Food Co-op opened in a Presbyterian church basement in Mount Vernon in 1973. When newly transplanted University of Michigan graduate Todd Wood arrived in 1975 the store was at Second and Pine. He was soon volunteering. In 1978 he became one of three part-time staff members. For most of his 40 years at the co-op he has been its general manager. This co-op, and Wood, embody “Cooperatives – the Future,” this year’s international co-op month’s theme. Under Wood’s stewardship, the co-op leased 5,000 square feet on the north...
There was a bit of excitement Saturday morning at Pioneer Market. Manager Barry Whipple scuffled with a shoplifter. She did not go quietly into the Sheriff’s vehicle. Whipple was bit on his left bicep before she was subdued. The call came into the 911 office at 8:32 a.m. A Skagit County Sheriff’s SUV with lights flashing and siren on soon pulled into the market. “The shoplifter got a little crazy,” said Whipple. “She is probably on her way to jail. She really went berserk”, he said. Whipple sto...
