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Another week, another free issue of the La Conner Weekly News provided to every home in the La Conner school district. This is the third invitation for you to subscribe, but more: to become more engaged with your neighbors and increase your participation in, yes, the school district, which will be asking for your support of a school levy in February. Last week you were invited to watch – virtually – the annual lighting of the Town Christmas tree in Gilkey Square. And Santa wrote to everyone in the community, child and parent alike....
I also want to put out a request for people to help our local businesses who have had to shut their doors once again, in particular the local restaurants. We have a small group who attend a Friday morning service at Sacred Heart, and then we generally go to have breakfast at Sliders. Now they are only open for take-out or outdoor dining. Outdoor dining was fine in the spring, but now it is December, so I ordered a couple of breakfasts by phone for take-out. They will bring the meals out or you can go in to pick them up, which is what I did. I...
I always enjoy Mel Damski’s thinking but rarely agree with him politically. His letter to the editor was a rare time that I agreed with him that presidential pardons should be eliminated. I don’t recall Mel writing such a letter when Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, who was convicted of 35 counts of tax evasion and was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. All of a sudden he now wants to eliminate the pardon, it is a real head scratcher why Mel would write such a letter now, isn’t it? Mike Morrell La Conner...
When Joe Biden and his anti-gun cohorts start knocking on doors to confiscate firearms from legal gun owners, what percent of those doing the knocking will find themselves ducking for cover? It is a serious question and should be thought about long and hard before applying for the job. The Second Amendment of our Constitution was not written with hunters in mind. It was written with those door knockers in mind. Hopefully, people on the left who agree with the anti-gun movement and want (somebody) – no volunteers! – to seize weapons...
For the second year in a row, the Town of La Conner has received an early Christmas present from a local resident. A large present, at that. The blue spruce installed last Wednesday at Gilkey Square as the community Christmas tree was donated by Kirby Johnson. The Town Public Works Department cut it from Johnson’s La Conner Realty & Investment Co. property on Morris Street. A year ago, the community Christmas tree here was provided by Pat Smyth, a member of the Public Works staff. Johnson is a...
The agreement crafted in the late 1960s paving the way for development of the Shelter Bay residential community on Swinomish Reservation was hailed then as an innovative approach to land leasing. Innovation again appears to be a key factor as the Shelter Bay board of directors and Swinomish Indian Tribal Community officials negotiate terms of a new master lease for 2044, when the current one expires. On Nov. 13 the board forwarded to the Swinomish Tribal Senate “a new and different” master lease proposal than has been discussed in the pas...
You can add a new term to your lexicon: “Zoom towns.” These are scenic places experiencing a surge of house hunters. Booming demand comes from workers freed by the pandemic to work from home long term. One such place where the pandemic has super-charged an already hot real estate market is Bend, Oregon. “I think ‘Zoom town’ very accurately captures the experience that we’re having right now,” said Brian Ladd, a principal broker with Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty in Bend. “For anyone that had interest in moving to a town like ours, t...
Chalk up another headache in 2020. About 100 La Conner area water customers north of town were without service for about seven hours Friday while Town Public Works crews scrambled to repair a leaking main damaged by large tree roots. Turns out, their work was just beginning. After inspecting the situation, Public Works Director Brian Lease determined the damage was extensive enough to require installation of 200 feet of new water line in a new trench about 15 feet from the existing main, near the west shoulder of the road. Public Works staff...
A wind-blown tree didn’t just crash onto the covered picnic area at Pioneer Park last week. It also crashed plans the public might have had to access park facilities for a while. The Town has closed off much of the park and its hiking trails while hazard and damage assessments are conducted following a severe windstorm that brought gale force gusts to the La Conner area a week ago Monday. The most obvious point of concern is the status of the park’s log-framed pavilion, which caught the brunt of a fallen tree snapped off during the storm. “We...
For decades it has been the scene of local youth sports, most notably as a hub for little league baseball. But now Hedlin’s Ballfield is in line for a changeup. The nearly two-acre site – roughly 80,000 square feet – is the subject of a rezone application that would allow the public use property off Maple Avenue to be developed for residences and a park and playground area. The Town Planning Commission will hear an initial public hearing on the rezone request as part of its 6 p.m. Dec. 15 teleconferenced meeting agenda. The Town C...
The Gilkey Square tree lighting. Fall and spring concerts. Regional music educator festivals. Christmas wreath sales. Pep band. Maybe Disneyland. COVID-19 wiped the 2020-21 school music calendar clean, leaving La Conner Director of Bands and Choirs McKenzie Clark and his students to make music on-line. That is a challenge for an essentially face-to-face endeavor. When meeting in person, music classes begin with call-and-response warm-up exercises. Clark sings or plays a line; students repeat...
The tipoff to the La Conner High basketball season has been delayed once again. The reason is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has rebounded this fall: a tenacious, relentless full-court press. Because of statewide spikes in coronavirus cases, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) executive board has delayed the start of Season 2, including boys’ and girls’ basketball and wrestling, from Dec. 28 to Feb. 1. The delay is the latest in a series of high school sports’ schedule changes prompted by the pandemic. In response to th...
“Marley was dead: to begin with.” Thus starts one of our most beloved Christmas stories, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” But what of Marley’s life and his partnership with Ebenezer Scrooge? And what about Scrooge’s formative years? How did the two meet? In Dickens’ classic their shared scene is in Scrooge’s bedroom, Marley’s ghost coming through the door, dragging a chain made “of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.” This is Marley’s legacy, the chain he forged in life: “I made it link by link,...
During a 90-minute Zoom meeting Monday, La Conner School Board Members heard results of public focus group sessions on the status of the district, then began setting a salary range for the next superintendent. Consultants Mark Venn and Dr. Wayne Robertson said about 100 focus group participants identified district strengths and challenges and the attributes the public values in a superintendent. “There was a lot of really good feedback,” Venn said of the teleconferenced meetings. “We had a wide range of groups, from alumni to the Chamber of Co...
Monday, Nov. 30 11:48 a.m.: Can’t get past – Report of a motor home blocking a driveway. The caller was trying to move some supplies through the driveway. Bradshaw Rd., Greater La Conner. 12:34 p.m.: Good cow care – Caller reported cow neglect. Animal Control Office is familiar with the animals and said they are in good health. Moore / Skagit City Road., Conway. Wednesday, Dec. 2 3:18 p.m.: Out of here – Deputies contacted a male who had been making inappropriate comments to the staff at Pioneer Market. The male was t...
Holiday baking is memorable. Baking to give and, if you are lucky, to receive. Sharing your home baked goods brings a cheery smile from the recipient. My step-mother, Dorothy, baked Christmas cookies and candies for two weeks. She would have a small box handy, lined with wax paper to put in her assortment of sweets. Her generosity instilled in me to share my home baked goods, home cooked meals and simple groceries with others. Since the start of COVID-19, my husband and I have shared food with...
