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Articles from the October 30, 2019 edition


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  • Festivals young and old and local

    Ken Stern|Oct 30, 2019

    The Seventh Annual Friday Harbor Film Festival just finished. It gets better as it grows, and it was pretty good last year. That was last week. Next week the 35th annual Art’s Alive opens with a reception Friday at Maple Hall. You are invited. The planners behind Art’s Alive, the Town of La Conner’s Art Commission, chose the theme “Celebrating Skagit Valley’s Art Legacy” to connect back to the early days of Art’s Alive, when venues up and down First Street hosted art. In those first decades community volunteers planned, hosted, executed, cleane...

  • Swinomish Tribe needs to pay on school bond

    Oct 30, 2019

    The Superintendent of the La Conner Schools is sending a letter to the Swinomish Tax Authority that does not call for the Swinomish to pay anything for the bond that built the middle school. The Swinomish people voted for that bond. They should pay about $243,000 for their share of the $1,500,000 debt service. Why the School Board tolerates this practice is beyond me. Perhaps it is time for new blood on the board. Sincerely, Dan O’Donnell La Conner...

  • ABIGAIL FAY DUNN WILLIAMS

    Oct 30, 2019

    Abigail “Abby” Fay Dunn Williams of La Conner, WA, our family matriarch, got her wish to “fly away” to her Lord on Sunday, October 6, 2019. Abigail was born in Culver City, CA on Feb. 16, 1922, the second of four daughters, to Will A. and Alma Fay Dunn. Her childhood was filled with adventure and she regaled us with stories of rubbing shoulders with movie stars, her momentous trip around the world with her family in the 1920s and then, the years of the Great Depression. She had fond memories of growing up with her three sisters and a menager... Full story

  • Council plants seed for 'Rock' to sprout homes

    Ken Stern|Oct 30, 2019

    The potential of “The Rock,” the eight lots on the hill above Maple Avenue west of Hill Street, finally getting developed brought citizens, realtors, the property owners and Everest developer C.J. Ebert to the Oct. 22 Town Council meeting. Planner Marianne Manville-Ailes called it “a big deal for La Conner” in introducing the topic to Council. She told them Ebert was the first developer proposing to develop all eight lots. Realtor Kirby Johnson, brokering the property, summed it up: “It has...

  • 2020 Town budget shrinks

    Ken Stern|Oct 30, 2019

    While La Conner’s 2020 proposed budget is smaller than last year’s, with reduced expenditures, revenues are even smaller. Just over $1 million dollars, tapped from the general fund balance, plugs the operating budget shortfall. The estimated $4.7 million in revenue will be 3.7% below 2019 and the $5.7 million in expenditures is 12% lower. Mayor Ramon Hayes submitted the preliminary budget to Council Oct. 22 and they had a special 5 p.m. meeting to discuss it. Revisions will be made before Council approves the budget at its Dec. 10 meeting.” Adm...

  • WW II POW tale told at high school Nov. 5

    Anne Basye|Oct 30, 2019

    If you’re moved by the story James H. Keefe III shares next Tuesday at the La Conner High School Auditorium, you can thank Patty McCormick. The retired LaConner Schools bus driver was browsing the Mount Vernon Goodwill store with her daughter Emily when she found a framed photograph of a man in uniform, inscribed ‘great flying with you – the Tigers’. “I always wonder how family pictures end up in secondhand stores,” she told the Weekly News. Curious, she took her purchase out of its frame and found the name James H. Keeffe, Junior. Google...

  • La Conner High volleyball team digs support from fans

    Bill Reynolds|Oct 30, 2019

    The defending State champion La Conner High volleyball team extended its unbeaten league winning streak to eight matches with a straight-sets triumph over Mount Vernon Christian at Landy James Gym last Thursday. But everybody came away feeling like a winner because the night was also an opportunity for the large crowd on hand to play a role in the fight to cure breast cancer. Over $700 was raised during the Lady Braves’ annual Dig Pink/Senior Night Match to help give more women access to p...

  • Fall colors

    Oct 30, 2019

    THE VALLEY’S FALL COLORS IN FULL VIEW – Blue mountain majesties were missing from this otherwise patriotic field of blueberries and perfectly timed snow geese taking flight, or landing, or both. Another typical autumn day in the Skagit Valley. – Photo by Nancy Crowell...

  • Vote now! Six days left

    Ken Stern|Oct 30, 2019

    Now is the time to cast your ballot. Help get all ballots counted quickly: • Vote and return your ballot now • Sign your ballot envelope • Mail your ballot by Nov. 2 Get voting information and register to vote at VoteWa.gov or contact Skagit County Elections: 360-416-1702, [email protected] Election drop boxes nearby: La Conner Regional Library, 614 E. Morris Street. Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Social Services Building, 17337 Reservation Road. Ballots must be in drop boxes by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 You can...

  • 'Pray the Gay Away' coming to Lincoln Theatre

    MaryRose Denton|Oct 30, 2019

    Inside the community hall of Mount Vernon’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church gather a group of thespians, singers and dancers. It is a mid-week run through of “Pray the Gay Away,” with only five more rehearsals before opening night. The scene being worked on as I entered was one of the more serious and pivotal to this musical, examining the controversial practice of gay conversion therapy. It is being billed as “a serious musical comedy” with a musical score reminiscent of the pop ‘80s sound mixed with soulful ballads, “a full-blooded mu...

  • 'Addams Family' more a hoot than howl

    Ken Stern|Oct 30, 2019

    Timing is everything. “The Addams Family” opened last week, a perfect fit for Halloween. It runs through Nov. 17 at the Whidbey Playhouse. Elders of a certain age will recognize the characters, their dress, mannerisms, voices, personalities and tell-tale musical score. Director Stan Thomas is picture perfect in conjuring up the 1964 TV show based on Charles Addams mid-century New Yorker cartoons. Turned into a musical in 2010, Thomas, producer Andrew Pierzchala, the costumers, production team and cast bring this 21sr century version to Oak Har...

  • Your public libraries are being threatened by corporate interests

    Joy Neal|Oct 30, 2019

    La Conner Regional Library and other public libraries provide open access to books, materials, programs, technology and first-rate customer service. Public libraries are unique institutions because they exist solely to further the common good and to serve you regardless of how you look, what you believe, where you were born, what language you speak, who you love or any other way that you identify. Public libraries are far more than buildings with books. As technology and the internet have transformed the way we live, work and connect with one...