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Winter officially started Dec. 21 – except on the calendar used by Town of La Conner Public Works Director Brian Lease. Lease and his staff began winterizing in October. No one can fault their timing, either, given the rash of snowstorms and tidal flooding conditions they have had to deal with the past couple weeks. “We prepped everything in October, from filling sandbags to getting our equipment ready,” Lease told the Weekly News during a rare break Friday. It was three months ago, for...
Scott Stephan Wilme died peacefully in his home with his family close by on December 30, 2021 in La Conner, Washington after a long hard battle with cancer. He was 53 years old. Scott grew up predominantly in Kirkland, Washington and Ocean Shores, Washington. As a teenager in Ocean Shores, he enjoyed riding his motorcycle in the sand dunes and was a volunteer fireman. He graduated from Hoquiam High School then attended Washington State University. At WSU, Scott became a member of the Pi Kappa Al...
Though idle for two weeks beforehand, the unbeaten La Conner High School girls’ basketball team had no trouble shaking off the rust at Coupeville last Tuesday, Jan 4. La Conner returned to action showing machine-like precision in its half-court offense while also scoring repeatedly off its high-octane transition game enroute to a convincing 69-13 NW2B road triumph. With icy road conditions having nixed a much-anticipated Dec. 30 matchup with 4A Kamiak, La Conner was revved up for this tipoff. “This was our first game in two weeks and we pla...
It was a good news, bad news kind of night for Braves boy basketball at Coupeville last Tuesday. The good news is La Conner held unbeaten Coupeville, ranked No. 4 in state 2B boys’ polls, to nearly 20 points under their per game scoring average. The bad news is the Braves still found themselves on the short end of a 54-29 conference verdict Jan. 4, falling to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in NW2B play, La Conner played the Wolves on equal terms over the final three quarters but couldn’t overcome an early 27-2 Coupeville run fueled by three-point spe...
Stories of kids walking miles to get to and from school rain or shine are the stuff of which legends are made. But for Roy Pearmain it is a story that is both true and represents the first step in what would be his pursuit of careers from nearly all walks of life. Since graduating in 1960 as La Conner High School’s student body president, Pearmain has gone on to be a college graduate, public school teacher, aerospace scientist, writer, weather watcher and reporter, firefighter/EMT, civic l...
Curt Buher was a big guy. The hole he leaves behind is big, too. Buher, who died Dec. 20, came to town with his wife Lori in 1979 to housesit for Maxine Wyman and never left. “They knew that La Conner was where they wanted to be,” said Cathie Wyman, Maxine’s daughter-in-law and Buher’s sister. As a clerk and driver for Nelson Lumber and as a freelance laborer, Buher grew to love construction. He started Atlas Construction in 1983 with Jim Robertson, his partner for about ten years. Over the next 30 years, Buher and a crew of locals that in...
There is much David Franklin will miss about Shelter Bay when the longtime manager of the local residential community exits Jan. 28 to write a new chapter in a career that has seen him hold positions between here and southwest Alaska. In keeping with that literary theme, it is the characters that Franklin says he will miss most. “Some I work with, some are in the community, all are interesting and unpredictable,” Franklin told the Weekly News. “I can see why Tom Robbins wrote his novels here....
Louis Duane “Red” Bretvick, age 94, passed away on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021 in Mount Vernon, WA. Duane was born September 26, 1927, in Mount Vernon, WA to Laverne (nee McNeil) and Louis (Lud) Bretvick. He was raised in the family household on the north fork of the Skagit River. He attended La Conner schools and was a La Conner High School class of 1945 graduate. Following high school graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and honorably served in WWII and the Korean conflict. While in the Nav...
A La Conner High School senior is the first election winner of the new year. Not just locally, either, but on a statewide basis. Sarah Cook, a key member of the school’s undefeated girls’ basketball team, was the top online vote-getter in polling for WaFd Bank’s Washington State Athlete of the Week honors through Sunday by Scorebook Live, a major sports website. Cook was one of 19 nominees on the ballot for Dec. 20-26, a field that included Garfield boys’ hoops standout Koren Johnson, who is committed to the University of Washington men’s b...
Curtis (Curt) Anthony Buher passed away peacefully on December 20, 2021 at his home on Pleasant Ridge near La Conner, Washington. He was 66 years old. After being diagnosed with brain cancer in the Spring, Curt was able to spend his last months with family and friends. Curt was born Sept. 23, 1955 in Bremerton, Washington, to Donald and Juanita Buher. He was the youngest of four children. Curt grew up across the street from the town tennis courts and began playing with a shortened racquet when...
Bigger isn’t necessarily better. The unbeaten state champion La Conner High School volleyball team proved that repeatedly in the fall, beating several bigger schools. Now the school’s girls’ basketball program is further emphasizing the point. The NW2B leading Lady Braves (8-0 overall), with wins already this season over larger schools Lynden, Nooksack Valley and Anacortes, posted another statement win with an impressive 56-48 home game last Tuesday over previously undefeated 3A Stanwood. It very well could be La Conner’s best victory to date...
A white Christmas gave way to a blue Boxing Day. And even more blue conditions – in terms of plummeting temperatures – greeted the La Conner area this week with additional area-wide lowland snowfall anticipated Thursday. That forecast led Kamiak School District officials to announce as early as Monday that its girls’ basketball team would not travel to La Conner for a non-league basketball game scheduled here tomorrow night. The Dec. 30 La Conner High boys’ home non-conference bas...
The obscene graffiti spray-painted at the skate park on the north end of the La Conner schools campus was low-tech vandalism at its worst. But higher levels of technology have thus far been unable to help solve the troubling crime. Sgt. Jeff Willard, administrator of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office La Conner Detachment, said on Thursday that reviews of the school district’s security camera footage have not determined who defaced the park area over the Thanksgiving break. “Right now, we don’t have a suspect,” Willard told the Weekly News, “an...
The undefeated La Conner High School girls’ basketball team romped past NW2B rivals Friday Harbor and Darrington last week, posting lopsided wins. But it was last night’s much anticipated meeting with 3A Stanwood that was being eyed as a true barometer of just good La Conner is as the team braces for the midway part of its season. They already owns triumphs over larger school programs Lynden, Nooksack Valley and Anacortes. The clash with Stanwood, originally set for Monday, was another example of recent schedule changes necessitated by shortage...
La Conner High School volleyball foes were not just way out of their league this past season. They were hardly in the same state. Undefeated La Conner, which captured its third consecutive state volleyball crown last month, has continued to score points in the post-season – its players garnering a slew of All-League honors and the Lady Braves being recognized as the 2B State Team of the Month. The accolades did not stop there. Players and head coach Suzanne Marble dominate the Washington State Volleyball Coaches Association 2B All-State...
The La Conner School Board reviewed the top two submissions in a school district contest to adopt a new Braves logo and were updated on the progress of the district’s auto tech course taught by the transportation department’s Randy Swift during their monthly hybrid public meeting on campus Dec. 13. They agreed to the high school’s students voting on which of the two proposed logos to send to the Swinomish Tribal Senate for possible approval. They also gave two thumbs-up to the hands-on automotive technology curriculum. Development of a new l...
Like everyone growing up in La Conner, Tristen Nelson knew each holiday season kicked off with the famed Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade televised from New York City. Unlike most here, however, she would one day be part of the storied event. That day was this past Thanksgiving when Nelson, associate director of marketing with the Funko pop culture collectibles company, helped introduce the giant Baby Yoda balloon to the rest of the country. “I’m not being biased – okay, maybe a little &ndas...
It’s been quite a year for La Conner High School volleyball. And no month reflects that better than November, when the team captured its third straight state 2B tournament championship. They did it dropping only a single set at Yakima to cap yet another undefeated season. Because of that, and their winning ways off the court in terms of community service and academic excellence, the Lady Braves were selected by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association and Les Schwab Tire Center a...
Two La Conner High School wrestlers are again more than holding their own wrestling on a co-op basis with the 2A Burlington-Edison girls’ mat program. Delaney Cobbs and Kaliana Bill, who have wrestled regularly for Burlington Edison High School because La Conner no longer offers the sport on campus, have returned to the Burlington- Edison fold for the 2021-22 campaign. They made their presence felt on several levels Saturday. The two seniors turned in strong showings at the Everett High School Girls’ Wrestling Tournament, an event that dre...
A member of a local pioneer farm family played a key role in growing the La Conner volleyball program into a perennial state title contender. Julie Hulbert Marble is now a dental hygienist at Skagit Valley Family Dental Center. She helped La Conner High School enjoy a steady diet of wins, including state net crowns in 2006-2007 and then majored in nutrition at Central Washington University, A 5’-11” middle blocker who was a four-year high school letter winner, she played for the school’s back-...
Harry Everett Smith was neither born nor died in Anacortes, but he did live there for about 10 years as a youth before and during the Great Depression. Salmon canneries brought his family, and his father, R.J. Smith, to Anacortes and cannery work took the Smith family to Bellingham, where Harry Smith graduated from high school. After living in Seattle, he left the Puget Sound area, never to return. As a high school student Harry Smith studied Salish Sea traditions, recording and collecting tribal songs on 78 rpm shellac records. He went on to...
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...
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...
