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As predicted, Santa Claus made two stops in La Conner Saturday, posing with kids for photos at Maple Hall while the La Conner Rotary held its annual Santa Breakfast Dec. 4. Rotary Club President Marty Pease and her trusty elves estimated at least 130 meals were served, evenly divided between adults and children. The kitchen ran out of food and stopped serving by 10:45 a.m., ahead of the 11 a.m. ending time. It is not known how much hot chocolate was consumed. Santa did not leave until every child that wanted to whisper in his ear did so....
Meet Katie Hayton and her siblings, Amy Schwab and Dan Senff. They, and their spouses, are the new owners of the La Conner Country Inn. Sales papers were signed Dec. 1, Hayton told the Weekly News in an interview Sunday. The new owners know La Conner real estate and business well. Their grandfather owned the Second Street block the Country Inn is on and the AGA grocery store on the Swinomish Channel at Morris Street. Seaport Books, handmade la conner and other businesses are in the enlarged and...
How different La Conner and the western Skagit Valley is because a community newspaper is delivered to about 1,000 readers weekly. Stop, really, and consider how rare that is, how special and important at the end of 2021. You have your local weekly newspaper in your hands. Do you know how many people in Skagit County or the 39 counties in the state of Washington can say that? A lot fewer than could in 2020 or 2015 or 2010 or the year 2000. The La Conner Weekly News is a rare bird because hundreds of newspapers have gone out of business the...
I want to pay homage to your entire working community (of journalists), to tell you that the Pope cares about you, follows you, esteems you and considers you precious. Journalism does not come about by choosing a profession, but by embarking on a mission, a little like a doctor, who studies and works so that the evil in the world may be healed. Your mission is to explain the world, to make it less obscure, to make those who live in it less afraid of it and look at others with greater awareness, and also with more confidence. It is not an easy...
A wonderful thing happened to our neighbor and the Weekly News proofreader, Eileen Engelstad, last week, though she did not realize it until after the fact. She had to skip her Nov. 30 work shift, called to superior court in Mount Vernon for jury duty. Oh my god. How much fun is that? How stuck was she? Read her column on the right side of the page and find out how much she learned about citizenship and democracy and how we are all in this together. Yes, the people you are in the grocery store with might be your fellow jurors or judging you if...
Like many others, last month I received a summons for jury duty. Since it was the beginning of the holiday season, with upcoming events and obligations that are important to me, I did not want to have an uninvited intrusion in my life. My immediate reaction was to plead for a release from jury duty. In fact, when I returned the initial papers I “mentioned” my advanced age, 77, in hopes they would deem me unfit. Much to my chagrin, I received another letter from Skagit County Superior Court, this time welcoming me into service, thanking me for b...
The rest of the story Recently the town posted a green announcement on the property on Center Street in the back of Sliders – raising alarms in town – because of the scope of the oversized proposal and the shoddiness of the application. Since then many letters have been written – ten of them posted on the town website through Dec. x. The deadline for the letters was Dec. 1 but that doesn’t matter. After the deadline, the mayor called four of the citizens who wrote letters. He told one that she didn’t need to send her let...
Lloyd Michael Jennings, 86, a lifelong Mount Vernon resident, died peacefully at home on Sunday, November 28, surrounded by his family. Lloyd Michael Jennings was born April 13, 1935 in Sioux City, Iowa to Lloyd Louis Jennings and Elma Hazel Mayer Jennings. When Lloyd was 2, the family moved out west to Mount Vernon, Washington. Lloyd and his three sisters had a very typical 1940s childhood, enjoying car rides to get ice cream, movies on Saturdays, and bike rides through the farmland with...
La Conner students are getting their jabs in. Not in terms of any verbal disputes or playground scuffles, but instead when it comes to receiving voluntary vaccinations intended to help protect against the spread of COVID-19. According to school officials, about one-fourth of La Conner students have been vaccinated since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization at October’s end for use in children five to 11-years-old. “Looking at our registration platform, I can see that we hav...
Ellie Marble was thankful for a “real season” this fall after the 2020 volleyball schedule was scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, replaced by a shorter, modified spring campaign. It was only fitting, then, that the La Conner High junior outside hitter would emerge as the real deal in a real season that saw Marble and her teammates do something really special – go undefeated and win the State 2B Tournament without dropping a single set in Yakima. Along the way Marble recorded her 1,0...
The La Conner High School girls’ basketball defense never rested in three straight wins over non-league opponents opening the 2021-22 season last week. The team romped past 1A Lynden 70-40 on the road Wednesday, then debuted at Landy James Gym Friday with a 41-40 squeaker over 1A Nooksack Valley before routing 2A Anacortes 64-33 at home Saturday. “Our defense has been great,” La Conner head coach Scott Novak told the Weekly News while assessing his team’s quick start against a challenging early season schedule. He said La Conner’s full-cour...
Home is where the heart is. And, for the La Conner High School boys’ basketball team, it’s also where the wins are. At least that was the case through the opening weekend of the Braves’ 2021-22 hoop campaign as La Conner defeated SeaTac 2B foes Seattle Lutheran and Concordia Christian Academy in non-league games at Landy James Gym. La Conner (2-1) routed Seattle Lutheran 59-13 on Friday and downed Concordia 46-32 Saturday afternoon. In so doing, the Braves rebounded nicely from a 43-22 setback at SeaTac 2B leader Northwest Yeshiva in their...
Tuesday, November 30 3:57 p.m.: Bad car deal – Caller reported a motor vehicle taken without permission. The caller said he sold the vehicle to a friend on payments and now the friend has quit paying him. S. 4th St., La Conner. 4:35 p.m.: Five finger discount – Caller reported a theft from their outside sales rack of the store. Deputies were able to get surveillance video of the suspect. Investigation continuing. A clothing store, S. 1st St., La Conner. 8:19 p.m.: Raising dust – Caller reported people doing “doughnuts” und...
There are a variety of ways to make coconut macaroons. You can use just two ingredients: sweetened, flaked coconut and sweetened condensed milk. Or, add a bit of flour and make them larger in size. At any rate, they will be tasty. During the holidays, when I see a tray of homemade cookies, my first choice is the coconut macaroon! Simply use the standard size containers for the first two ingredients: one package of coconut and one can of milk. Use about 2/3 of the chocolate package. The...
Last Friday, Dec. 3, $92,513 in fine and penalties were upheld by the Swinomish Planning Commission against the Shelter Bay Community, Inc. and Steve Swigert, a resident and board member. Swigert removed, without approval, “substantially all of the trees in Rainbow Park and on the greenbelt adjacent to his property” over the 2020 Labor Day weekend, the decision states. Swigert was indemnified – insured against legal action – by the Shelter Bay board of directors in January. The fine, primarily $80,000 in penalties, was paid in Jun...
