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Early morning fog and mist lent a magical twist Thursday to streams of students hauling books from the old to the new La Conner Swinomish Library. The rumble of wheels along Morris Street from carts packed with books began three days of magic – the spell of the written word. Though not part of the Skagit River Poetry Festival itself, it seemed a fitting start. The festival, canceled twice due to COVID-19, brought in dozens of poets from as far away as Argentina and Scotland, hundreds of s...
The La Conner municipal code did not receive a complete facelift upon Town Planning Commission review at Maple Hall last Tuesday. But there are a few new wrinkles for the town council to consider. Perhaps the most significant development during the 90-minute public hearing, continued from Sept. 20, came when commissioners embraced town planner Michael Davolio’s proposal that they rule on conditional use permit applications and not the contracted hearing examiner. The idea floated by Davolio came near the end of the commission’s Oct. 4 mee...
Your community newspaper has the best photographers among small Washington newspapers. Sarah Walls and Ken Stern were awarded first place in the pictorial and general news categories and with Nancy Crowell and Marissa Conklin took all six places in this year's Washington Newspaper Publishers Association best newspaper contest. Weekly News staff won 34 awards Oct. 8. Bill Reynolds led with 11, including a first place for his personality profile of Tristen Nelson Holding the Baby Yoda balloon at...
The 0.02 inch of rain that fell Sept. 2 was the month's total precipitation and really a rain for the record. How dry was it? While five years this century have had less than one inch of rain, this was the only time less than one-tenth of an inch fell. Average September rainfall for this century has been pushed down to 1.9 inches. Fourteen years there has been less than 2 inches of rain, including 2016-2018 when between 1.3 and 1.6 inches fell. It rained 14 days in 2021. Last year's 3.2 inches...
It's so important to know how our legislators have voted when we are deciding whether to re-elect or re-place them. That is really important in our 10th legislative district this year. Clyde Shavers is running against incumbent Greg Gilday. With that in mind, you need to know that Gilday voted: “No” to prohibit carrying firearms on school property or school transportation, government buildings or government property, voter registration office or ballot counting. “No” to prohibit sale of high capacity firearm magazines. “No” to expand and...
The upcoming midterm elections are the most important of our times. Today’s radical Democratic party has orchestrated more damage to America in two years then our worst foreign adversaries could have ever dreamed of accomplishing. The list is long but includes the most obvious and immediately painful intentional destruction of our energy independence creating hardships on families just to heat their homes and fuel their vehicles. The destruction of our hard earned sovereignty by failure to finish the border wall and which allows an i...
Please don’t be fooled by the recent hit piece mailer on Dave Paul. It is full of lies. Lie 1: Crime is increasing in Washington. False. Crime has decreased significantly here. Certain types of crime increased during the shutdown: domestic violence, and robberies, but overall crime has decreased. Lie 2: Dave Paul is anti-police. False. Dave Paul co-sponsored HB 1785 to ensure state troopers receive a competitive wage. Dave secured state funding to upgrade Skagit’s 911 emergency communications system, improving the safety of law enforcement off...
Dear neighbors of the Snapdragon Flats development. It appears from the town council record that the developer of Snapdragon Flats is up to his old antics of being a rude and disrespectful neighbor. I lived through his rock removal during the COVID-19 pandemic and so I am fully aware of this property owner’s poor behavior. If you find yourself in the position in which legal relief becomes necessary due to this property owner’s behavior, there is a letter which is part of the record for the permits for this project outlining numerous issues tha...
I wish Ms. Fontenot would have sought accurate information before leveling broad accusations and innuendo left and right in her Oct. 5 guest column. Her tone of condescension is offensive. Our volunteers, on the Shelter Bay Community board or directors and its committees give of their time and expertise to us. They deserve our support. Let me add my support for our hardworking staff. I assume Ms. Fontenot studied Shelter Bay lease history before buying a home here and therefore knew to expect rent increases every ten years. All residents have...
We all know in our hearts that America's children are at risk. We all know in our hearts that if God made a girl, she is a girl; and if He made a boy, he is a boy. Please, please, let us pray for this country's children to be protected from those who are changing our children from the God given natural to that which is false and deeply harmful. Let us pray for forgiveness as a nation. We have lost our moral compass on many fronts. What was once celebrated is now condemned! What was once condemned is now celebrated! Those refusing to celebrate...
The election season is upon us. Ahead of your ballot arriving in two-plus weeks, are you contemplating a better voting system? The four candidates for District 10 State Representative positions were asked to get past two person primary elections. Read all their responses on page 8. We do make changes to our election systems, though slowly, over generations. Until 1865 African Americans could not vote. White women, mostly, gained the vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919. The passage of the Voting Rights Act universally protected...
Driving distances between charges (range), and charging station availability, are usually the biggest uncertainties people have about whether an electric vehicle (EV) will work for them. Both are improving fast. Almost everyone who owns an EV charges it at home or work. By charging during the workday, or overnight, you can start each day with the batteries at full capacity. However, most EVs won't need to be charged every day. In rural areas, American drivers average 49 miles a day. Practically...
La Conner Planning Commissioners last week got a closer, on-the-ground look at long-range Port of Skagit plans for the northern industrial area of La Conner Marina. The five-members held a special Oct. 3 public meeting at La Conner Maritime Services, a well-established marina tenant eyeing future expansion to meet market trends. Port staff, including Executive Director Sarah Young, joined commissioners, residents and Town Administrator Scott Thomas on an afternoon walking tour of the La Conner...
Citizens can watch or listen to candidate forums for November elections for Congressional District 2 and state representative district 10 and district 40 through election day. Now available is the Dan Matthews versus Rick Larsen for Congressional District 2: lwvbellinghamwhatcom.org. For LD 40, Pos 2, Alex Ramel and Trevor Smith is also accessed at lwvbellinghamwhatcom.org. Lived-stream on Oct. 20 from 6-7 p.m. for LD 10, Pos 1 are Clyde Shavers and Greg Gilday: lwvwhidbey.org. The link will be published Oct. 19. Also lived-stream on Oct. 20...
The Town of La Conner’s streak of seven months of record setting sales tax receipts is broken, but barely. The $60,900 reported to the Town in September is $72 below last year’s. That is the second smallest drop among the Town’s September tax funds. While the month’s hotel/motel tax revenues of $26,546 was the second highest ever, it is $185 below last September’s record collection. Likewise, the $6,041 firetruck sales tax receipts are $15 below the month in 2021. Still, all three funds now exceed 100% of the year’s projected revenue wit...
Betty May Jackman Wilson left La Conner, Washington for her next adventure on her 95th birthday, September, 23, 2022. She was born at home in Dayton, Oregon in 1927 to May and Walter Jackman. Her family moved to McMinnville so she could attend school. They lived in the Methodist Parsonage until her father built them a house (hand digging out the basement at night after work). Betty loved music and was always singing; she sang in the school choir, played in the band and also played piano. Later...
The La Conner Braves had a point to make Friday night. Actually, they made 30 of them. Held scoreless all of 2021 and the first month of this season, the Braves broke the scoring barrier and got into the win column by defeating 1A Charles Wright Academy in non-league grid action in Tacoma. "It felt great to get the win," second-year head coach Charlie Edwards said afterward. "The teamwork was amazing. It was truly a total team effort." Quarterback Ivory Damien paced the victors with two rushing...
The La Conner High School volleyball team turned in another capital performance last weekend. Facing teams from larger schools, including undefeated 4A power Puyallup High School, the defending state 2B net champs placed first in the silver division of the Capitol City Invitational Volleyball Tournament in Olympia last Saturday, Oct. 8. La Conner went 1-2 in pool play, including a two-set defeat to Puyallup, before rebounding to sweep three straight matches in the tourney's silver bracket,...
It’s never too early to plan for a special event. That includes Halloween, even as an unseasonably warm start to fall saw temperatures reach the upper 70s throughout Puget Sound when the calendar flipped to October. Despite the summer-like conditions, there was no cold shoulder toward preparations for what has long been a favorite La Conner holiday. The La Conner Parent Teacher Student Association members are organizing this year’s downtown costumed Halloween parade. This year’s Oct. 31 parade is scheduled from 12-1 p.m. and coincides with an 1...
There was some interesting action on the dike path at Hayton Farms Game Range at summer's end. The large territorial grasshoppers have been digging holes to lay eggs in the top gravel. This has drawn in large orchid wasps which was interested in parasitizing the grasshopper eggs and larva. The wasps were searching the area for covered nest holes. They are large wasps with long needle-like ovipositor attached to the back of their abdomens. They penetrate the prey and lays an egg inside of its vic...
It is a rare day when you can be loud in a library. Saturday, in La Conner, was one of those days. The new La Conner Swinomish Library on Morris Street was the site of what was fondly dubbed "organized chaos that morning and afternoon." Noise, laughter and joy filled the spacious new facility, a long sought gleaming addition to the town's landscape. Enthusiasm was the word of the day, as it had been since Thursday when children, parents and grandparents began pitching in to move books from the...
Fishing and farming don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The Smokehouse Ditch Estuarine Marsh project on Swinomish Reservation, where restoration of critical salmon habitat is planned next to agricultural land the Tribe leases to local farmers, proves that. Near the SR 20 bridge north of La Conner, the site is one of several local estuarine areas – Similk Beach is another – considered for restoration. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D- Everett, visited Sept. 27, where he met with Swinomish and Skagit River System Cooperative leaders for an update on th...
Every year, September 21st is a day to remember. While there are 365 days in a year, each day presents us with different opportunities. That day I reflected on the 20th Anniversary of the United Nations Assembly declaring the day the annual International Day of Word Peace. The theme this year was Peace among Races. There are many events around the world to mark the occasion and create awareness of the Power of Peace. Some are large and some are small events. Everyone was asked to have a moment of silence at noon in their towns across the world...
