Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1 - 13 of 13
The La Conner Weekly News recently profiled the two candidates competing for the La Conner School District’s Director District 2 position on the Nov. 5 election ballot. Marlys Baker and Janine Beasley are both members of the Swinomish Tribe and presumably reside on reservation trust land that by law is exempt from property taxes. Among the many responsibilities of a school board member is establishing and approving special levy taxes voted on by school district residents and paid by district property owners. Regardless of which candidate is ele...
Dear Editor: Thank you for the article about the Soroptimist sewing project. I want to voice my appreciation to those club members for their outreach to these women who face what in this country we consider a monthly cost and for them a time of shaming and fear of “showing.” I was very impressed with what is included in the kits and how they are hand delivered. It is a wonderful way to show our sympathy and love for women elsewhere. Also, my appreciation to the Anacortes chapter and all others involved in this very touching support. Joyce Swa...
To pay attention, that is our endless and proper work. – Mary Oliver I have served on several school boards, beginning when my daughter was in the first grade. She’s now 42, her youngest is in the first grade and, oddly, this is the first time I’ve written a candidacy profile. I find myself with little to draw upon, facing a situation where I must focus on myself. I prefer to focus on others – learn from them; work with them toward building . . . something. What I do know is governance is a messy business. You will never make eve...
Tim Eyman’s last hurrah may be Initiative 976, on the ballot this fall for you to decide on reducing “car tabs” – vehicle taxes to $30, period. A yes vote does that, and more, reducing vehicle taxes statewide by $4.2 billion dollars over six years. This is a caveman proposition, another attempt to drive a stake through the heart of government, ignoring the fact that Washington’s population, now over 7.5 million, grows at over 100,000 people annually in good economic times, as it has steadily grown for decades. Combined state and local v...
John Agen learned to think on his feet while quarterbacking a no-huddle offense for a La Conner High league championship football team his senior year, in 1973-74. He later refined his research skills while a student at Whitman College and the University of Washington, where his studies in Business Administration led to a wide-ranging sales career. Now Agen hopes to parlay that background, with keen interests in finance and health, into a seat on the La Conner School Board. Agen is facing...
Ten Genuine Skagit Valley members got a combined prep talk and introduction to the program’s vision of making the Skagit Valley’s agricultural products as well known as Napa Valley wines at a rollout training Oct. 10. That’s consultant Duane Knapp’s hope for the branding program the Port of Skagit is championing to increase recognition, value and sales of agricultural goods regionally, initially – and globally in the future. The path to local agriculture’s future viability lies through a joint promise growers embrace in taking up the re...
Social media chatter about the look of the town’s roundabout led to a Saturday work shift at Tulip Town. Writes Debbie Galbraith: To clarify the back story, the discussion about the condition of the roundabout was actually started on social media. When Town Manager Scott Thomas replied to the comments, stating that it takes resources to maintain everything in town, Shelter Bay resident Annie Skinnell responded that she would be happy to organize a work party to make the round-about “a point of...
“Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical,” playing at the Lincoln Theatre, is an enchanting and whimsical adaptation of Dahl’s book, “Matilda.” While maintaining the original storyline of having a tremendously dysfunctional family whirling around amid the clarity of their brainy, magical girl, it also included surprising nuances: the sandwiched scenes of Matilda telling a story to an entranced librarian; the entrance of bilked Russians taking down the used car salesman father. The play was obviously a theatrical achievement for META. With a cast of 4...
The Skagit County Historical Museum is sporting a new look these days. With its popular “Hometown Teams” exhibit running through Nov. 10, the museum in La Conner has scheduled another highlight event featuring a sports theme. It’s Nov. 2 fundraiser “Party Like You’re in the Hall of Fame” at Maple Hall reprises gathering supporters – fans – a year after celebrating its golden anniversary there. The inducement this year: The museum will induct its first two sets of Hall of Fame members, an idea akin to hitting the ball out of the...
For 18 years, from 1986-2003, artists and art lovers came to now legendary annual art exhibits at The Barn on Dick Reim and Lavone Newell Reim’s Skagit City Road property. They showcased the most talented Skagit artists of that era. Newell-Reim and local photographer Cathy Stevens are close to publishing their book on, and titled, “The Barn Shows.” Naturally, the threesome invited artists and art lover friends back to Reim and Newell-Reims’ Skagit City Studio and Gardens last weekend to preview...
Sea level rise and storm surge caused by the changing climate disrupts salmon and shellfish harvesting that indigenous people have depended on from time immemorial. The impacts on the culture are physical to the environment, physiological to the individual and psychological to individuals and community alike. A $360,000 two year grant to the Health Department of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will advance work the tribe has done and support the creation of tools that other indigenous communities...
Elaborate costumes will conceal the identities of those celebrating Halloween here next Thursday. But there’s no hiding the fact there will be plenty of fun for those partaking of the local holiday festivities. Oct. 31 looks to be a boo-tiful time for kids and adults alike, both in La Conner and on Swinomish Reservation. Festivities kick off at 3:15 p.m. with the parade and always popular downtown trick-or-treating. First Street transforms from a tourist mecca into a gateway for Halloween e...
Michelle Havist is the new general manager of the La Conner Weekly News. Havist, who keeps the Sunrise Food Bank humming as its director, will bring her management and marketing skills down the hill to the Weekly News. As a volunteer for the Food Bank, she created a new website and brought them into the 21st-century digital world. The board recognized the gem they had and asked her to become its director when Susan Widdop retired in September. Havist was likewise recommended to the Weekly News...
