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It was a bursting-at-the-seams evening Friday, with the 3rd Festival of Tiny Trees drawing more than 70 guests to The Lux Art Center to bid on 18 decorative tabletop trees, six wreaths and 22 pieces of 4 by 4 art to benefit the La Conner Library Foundation. All auction sales and donations to the event, totaling $7,400, were matched one-to-one, thanks to a generous donation made to the Foundation for the new library building. With ticket sales and sponsorship, the event raised just over $13,000....
Sean Skiles owns Pioneer Market, which has been a family run business for generations. Change and growth go with managing a store in a close-knit community. One change the Market fully supports is reducing waste and assisting community groups. The La Conner town council passed an ordinance banning single use plastic bags at retail stores in June. August 1st was the start date, with a waiver period of four months, making January the deadline. La Conner is the only town in Skagit County to ban single-use plastic bags. A small pebble tossed in a p...
Last weekend was more than full in La Conner: Friday the girls basketball teams were home against Anacortes, the Library was shaking the branches of its tiny trees raising money for the new building and a roomful of locals landed in the social hall of the Methodist Church to discuss the “plane truths” of the coming 36 Growler jets expansion at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Saturday was even fuller, starting with La Conner Rotary’s Santa Breakfast of pancakes and photos and ending with Santa getting help from the town’s kids to light t...
“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” playing at the Whidbey Playhouse the next two weekends, is just that: the best of the options for holiday plays. It is simple, it is surprising, it pulls at the heartstrings and it offers the story of Jesus’ birth in a straightforward, unvarnished way. The Pageant is played by kids for kids. Bring your kids to see it. After it is over talk to them about it. Based on the 1971 children’s book of the same name, its stage premiere was at the Seattle Children’s Theatre in 1982. Back in the day – maybe now...
“Annie” opened to an almost full house at the Lincoln Theatre Saturday. The play has a great cast, is well directed and has singing and dancing and a live band. After getting applause, laughs and whistles throughout, it ended to a standing ovation. It is much better than cotton candy, though like it, it is all fluff, sweetness, light and artificial, a direct descendant of the comic that birthed her. But it is much better for you than cotton candy. Only our oldest old timers will remember the original “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip which b...
Marshall Randolph Keith, a resident of Skagit Valley for over 20 years, died with family by his side Thursday, November 29, 2018, at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, WA after suffering a stroke. Marshall was born on November 6, 1961, in Cincinnati, Ohio to Thomas Arbuthnot Keith III and Gloria Ann Carl Keith. He graduated from Wyoming High School in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1980 and went on to the University of Cincinnati, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon...
Thank you, Ken, Linda and Tony for informing us, with data and suggestions, about the Navy Growler Expansion at Whidbey Naval Air Base, (Weekly News, Nov. 28). It IS our civic duty to participate and let our voices be heard. A well-equipped military is appreciated but using well over 50 percent of y/our yearly government budget is expensive not only to our pocket books but to all the other missed opportunities our country could offer bringing us into a more productive and equitable society. It shows our priorities as a culture. Think of the...
Many La Conner School District voters and most of its students live in homes on land that the district does not tax. We were told the so-called Great Wolf Lodge decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 2013 is why more than 930 homes, mostly in Shelter Bay, were removed from the county tax rolls in 2015. That decision applied to Confederated Tribes of Chehalis Reservation vs. Thurston County. In that case, the tribe is the majority owner of the Great Wolf Lodge buildings that sit on its land. In 2008 Chehalis sued Thurston...
A conscientious, responsible Town Council, led by a determined Mayor Ramon Hayes, discharged its duties at its meeting Nov. 27. Early on Hayes warned the room, then full of people, “This conversation will be hard tonight. It will be a long meeting. I give you fair warning.” Council members came in prepared to cut $50,000 from the general fund budget, almost five percent. They did it by sacrificing Council and Mayoral items, reducing fire department expenses and shrinking their support for Art’s Alive. Hayes and the Council made a commi...
SOMEONE IS IN A HEAP OF TROUBLE: a person is not thinking straight and displaying bad citizenship, poor manners and worse judgment. Do they think they won’t get caught? What are they thinking? From La Conner Vintage, whose back door is behind the unwanted pile: “Please respect the non-profit Vintage Thrift/Consignment and Library Thrift stores that support our community by making your donations ‘resalable’ items delivered during business hours or specified donation hours.” – Photo by...
Some 80 La Conner area residents packed the Methodist Church’s social hall Friday night to see the documentary “Plane Truths,” about the coming 36 Growler jets expansion at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Several shared the truths of their experience of the jets currently flying overhead on a sometimes-daily basis. Filmmakers Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young led a discussion after the film. Young’s first question, “How do you hear the planes here?” drew laughter. Hands shot up into the air. Dick...
The renewed La Conner ring dike discussion brings longtime Town Council member Jacques Brunisholz back full circle. The retired La Conner High language teacher has often spoken forcefully – and continues to do so – on the need for construction of a dike to fill an open lowland gap on the north and east edges of town. In fact, it’s been a defining issue for Brunisholz, who campaigned on flood control and dike development when he made his first successful run for the Council more than a decade ago. Since then, Brunisholz has been a...
JUST ANOTHER SHIFT AS A ROTARY VOLUNTEER – During the work week she is Dr. Whitney Meissner, superintendent of the La Conner School District. Once a year, Shazam! and the good doctor turns into helper elf, escorting the town’s children up the stairs to visit Santa. – Photo by Ken Stern...
YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE AT WORK – U.S.. Rep Rick Larsen (D-Everett) did a good deed. Monday the Sunrise Food Bank had an extra volunteer on the food line, as Rep. Larsen spent the shift filling customers’ bags, boxes and buckets. In November the food bank served 1,019 people, giving out 12,219 lbs of food, an average of 3,055 lbs weekly and 10 lbs per person. Katha Stewart was Larsen’s trainer. – Photo by Ken Stern...
A TRADITION, IN MANY WAYS, CONTINUES: This is far from the first Vintage La Conner Rotary Club Santa Pancake breakfast for the Reynolds family. This year’s fourth generation edition includes Randall, 2, left, Ryan, 8, and parents Danielle and Brad, glad to have time with Santa. – Photo by Ken Stern...
