Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 163 - 187 of 792
It is not unusual for tourist towns to reserve a free parking lot for its visitors. For example, Sedona, AZ and Cedar Key, FL. Not to mention Anacortes and Mount Vernon locally. I think our town council should think of free parking as a form of hospitality. Free parking will welcome guests to our town. La Conner has a huge lot (on South Third Street, below Town Hall – ed.). Make this lot free so residents, employees and guests will use it. Free parking there will relieve parking on First Street, Second Street and beyond. What motivated me to w...
It is back to the drawing board for at least parts of the controversial 306 Center Street multi-family three-story project. Town of La Conner Planning Director Michael Davolio said several planned elements of the proposed apartment/condo building have been remanded to the project applicant for revision. “We’ve noted three or four things that aren’t consistent with the approved project and we have advised the applicant of these inconsistencies,” Davolio told the planning commission during their Nov. 6 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. Davolio...
Up again. Not a record, but the $65,603 in October sales tax revenue reported to the La Conner Town Council by the state Department of Revenue is the highest monthly collection in 2023 and topped only by four record setting months last year. This is the third month in a row that sales tax revenues are above $60,000, with totals increasing monthly The $528,778 collected to date is 86.8% of the total forecast for the year when the budget was set. It seems likely that the revenue target of $609,191 will be met if tourists continue coming. The...
The 534 votes counted today, Nov. 16, by Skagit County Elections Office workers did not change any candidate positions in the District 2 La Conner school board director race, nor are there changes in trends. John Agen added eight of the 18 ballots tallied for 778 votes, 52.9%. Janie Beasley's 10 votes gives her 685 and means she reduced Agen's lead by two, to 93 votes. Elections staff estimate 200 uncounted ballots remain. Almost all would have to be from the La Conner School District and Beasley would need to win about 75% of them to edge...
The one contested election for greater La Conner voters in 2023, between John Agen and Janie Beasley for La Conner School District Director Position 2 has Agen with 453 votes, 53.7% after the first vote tally Nov. 7, ahead by 68 votes. Beasley received 385 votes, 45.7%. All Town of La Conner candidates did not have opposition and won: Marna Hanneman for mayor, has 170 votes; Annie Taylor, appointed in 2021, for council position 1, has 162; and Mary Wohleb, an incumbent, 169. They take their...
At the public hearing Nov. 14 on the Town of La Conner’s proposed 2024 budget be prepared to discuss the record $6.98 million in revenues and the $8 million in expendituresa, a deficit budget of just over $1 million. It is balanced by tapping the reserve fund balance of $5.5 million. As in recent years, the bulk of the projected revenue, $3.7 million comes from the four wastewater funds. These programs account for over half the costs, $4.2 million. The street fund is projected to take in $1.2 million and spend $1.3 million. The current e...
In the article “Paid downtown parking an option” last week (Nov. 1), I want to make a slight correction and offer my two cents on the subject. Correction: The company making a presentation to a joint council-planning commission meeting on Nov. 28 will not be marketing “metered” parking. The solution that will be presenting requires no infrastructure (meters) aside from approximately 25 signs which his company would furnish as part of their start-up. Their parking solution is digital, cellphone based, which allows for expansion and providi...
It is time to speak up on Town of La Conner budget and tax issues. The town council will hold four public hearings at its Nov. 14 meeting to consider: 1. Formation of a Transportation Benefit District. 2. 20-year Transportation Improvement Plan updates. 3. 2024 preliminary budget. 4. 2024 property tax levy. The public hearings will be held during the 6 p.m. regular city council meeting in Maple Hall, second floor, 204 Commercial Street. Public comments are welcome, written or oral. Submit written comments by email prior to the meeting, by 12...
The application for the three-story condominiums and first floor rentals at 306 Center Street needs to be revised to meet the town’s code height requirement, Town of La Conner Planning Director Michael Davolio wrote property owner Bandon Atkinson at 10:50 p.m. Oct. 24. “[Y]our design plans appears to show an elevator shaft that exceeds the town’s 30’ height limit. This drawing will not be approved.” Davolio’s communication might have been prompted by questions at the town council meeting earlier that evening. Residents Linda Talman and Leslie...
Historic First Street could look different in the future as Town officials ponder proposals ranging from one-way traffic flow, occasional pedestrian only access and angled and paid parking downtown. Those are options being discussed in the review and update of the transportation element of La Conner’s comprehensive plan. A presentation on paid parking infrastructure will be made at a joint town council-planning commission meeting Nov. 28 at Maple Hall. Staff from at least one firm marketing metered parking are expected to attend. “There sho...
The Town’s saltwater flood barriers are nearly all in place ahead of king tide season, but for La Conner’s six-member Emergency Management Commission the heavy lifting is just getting started. The panel has focused primarily on short-term flood mitigation this year. It shifted attention during the second half of its one-hour Oct. 24 hybrid session at Maple Hall to long-range preparedness strategies along the waterfront. The commission endorsed a potential cooperative venture between the Town, Port of Skagit and Swinomish Tribal Community to...
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Town of La Conner will hold four (4) Public Hearings on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023 to consider each of the following: 1. Formation of the Transportation Benefit District. 2. 20 Year TIP Updates. 3. 2024 Preliminary Budget. 4. 2024 Property Tax Levy. The Public Hearings will be held during the 6 p.m. regular city council meeting located at 204 Commercial Street (Upper Maple Center). The Public Hearings shall be for the purpose of receiving public comments, written or oral. Written comments are to be submitted by...
This completes the two-part look at Ramon Hayes time as La Conner's mayor For 16 years while mayor of the Town of La Conner, Ramon Hayes has championed the successes teamwork has created, deflecting attention from himself. He did it again in August at the La Conner Rotary Club's annual dinner and auction. When the chapter presented the Paul Harris Fellow recognition to him, a $1,000 contribution to the national Rotary Foundation in Hayes' name, he recognized another accomplishment. He – t...
Town officials and La Conner residents have spent a long time discussing short-term rentals. Which has been part of the plan all along – and going forward. The needle inched further toward defining short-term rentals and reaching consensus on whether regulations governing them should be modified during an Oct. 17 forum at the Civic Garden Club attended by more than 30 people. "We were excited about the turnout," Assistant Planner Ajah Eills told the Weekly News afterward. "We hope that the m...
Ballots will be arriving in the mail soon. We have very few choices in this year of municipal elections. There is only one contested seat: the La Conner school district Director 2 position. The rest of the positions in greater La Conner, for school director positions 1 and 4, Port of Skagit commissioner position 2 and Town of La Conner mayor and council positions 1 and 5 are all decided when the candidates cast their ballots. That is our bad, residents and constituents of those jurisdictions. It may be that school board member Kim Pedroza and...
The Oct. 10 La Conner Town Council meeting was full of comings and goings. Council will meet jointly with the planning commission Nov. 28 to hear a presentation from representatives specializing in paid parking systems. “This will give you information on what some of the options are,” Planning Director Michael Davolio told them Planning Commissioners John Leaver and Bruce Bradburn have spoken to two companies. They reported to the commission, noting Leavenworth and Bellingham have committed to paid parking. Town Emergency Management Com...
Since money doesn’t grow on trees, Town officials and the La Conner Chamber of Commerce hoped reversing the process might pay off in support of a civic beautification campaign. Alas, grants written to plant trees on Morris Street and remove trees and related cleanup work at Pioneer Park were not funded, so no money to repair the iconic salmon slide at Conner Waterfront Park, either. Chamber director Mark Hulst and Parks Commission Chair Ollie Iversen vowed last week to try again despite the competitive nature of applications. “We’ll conti...
Up. The Town of La Conner’s sales tax revenue is $63,276 for September, reported by the state Department of Revenue for July sales. It is the highest report for the month, the highest 2023 monthly total and the third highest monthly total ever, behind two 2022 summer months. It brings the year-to-date revenue to 76% of budget projections. This is the first 2023 month to top a 2022 same month total. As always, the special use fire tax tracks sales tax. The $6,284 matches in most ways: it is the highest 2023 monthly total, and a record for the c...
All of a sudden there are a slew of opportunities to be active civically – democratically – in the community. You do not have to live in La Conner to involve yourself. And the October activities end, appropriately, with our school children – indeed anyone with a costume, with or without a child – parading up First Street for the Halloween parade. Come on out for that, for sure. Activities extend into Nov. 7 election day. Because only one area resident chose to contest only one of the La Conner school board or Town of La Conner council seats,...
The La Conner Town Council almost doubled its hotel-motel allocation in the 2024 budget, voting to spend $342,111 at its Sept. 26 meeting. Almost 64%, $217,461 are internal expenditures, mostly for Maple Hall improvements, $132,866, up from $6,000 for security cameras for 2023. The Morris and First street restrooms and landscaping will get $63,995, a $10,139 increase. And the Town advertising budget jumped to $20,600 from $600. Grants to community organizations total $124,650. The La Conner...
The status of short-term rentals in La Conner tops the agenda of a special 6 p.m. Oct. 17 public forum at the La Conner Civic Garden Club. “It will be a specific and targeted meeting,” Town Assistant Planner Ajah Eills said at the planning commission’s meeting Oct. 3 in Maple Hall. The meeting addressing short-term rentals will not be hybrid since there is no WiFi service at the Second Street building. “We think it will be more of a conversational setting,” Eills said. “We’re hoping for a more intimate conversation.” The question of whe...
Town Emergency Management Commission chair Bill Stokes spoke glowingly last week of how fast La Conner's public works department has acquired and made ready for use a variety of flood barriers ahead of peak king tide season. "Things are moving quickly, as quick as I've seen anything move around here," Stokes, a former town council member, told commission members during their Sept. 26 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. Within days of receiving council approval, pre-filled sandbags and Ecology Blocks...
Money talks. But last week it was Town officials who did the talking – about money, it turns out. Town Council members kicked off the 2024 budget season with a special 5 p.m. Sept. 26 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. Public works director Brian Lease and Fire Chief/Code Enforcement Officer Aaron Reinstra presented their budgets. Council is addressing two rare anticipated line-item shortfalls: the streets and facilities funds. Delaying purchase of additional speed cushions like those in use on Talbott and Center streets could reduce the streets b...
Over 3,000 greater La Conner residents were without power for several hours Sept. 26 following a vehicle collision north of town. The areas affected by the outage was southern Fidalgo Island east across the La Conner Flats to Pleasant Ridge and the North Fork Skagit River bridge and along McLean Road to Best Road. According to the Safely HQ community health platform, electrical service was interrupted when a motor vehicle crash occurred near the intersection of McLean and La Conner-Whitney roads around 1:40 p.m. Outages were reported on Fir...
Notice is hereby given that the Town Council of the Town of La Conner, Washington, passed Ordinance No. 1230 at the September 26, 2023, Town Council meeting. A summary of Ordinance No. 1230 is as follows: An Ordinance adopting Chapter 11.70 of the La Conner Municipal Code for news box regulations. Complete copies of Ordinance No. 1230 are available at La Conner Town Hall, P.O. Box 400, La Conner, WA 98257 Dated this 27th Day of September, 2023 Maria DeGoede, Town Clerk Published in La Conner Weekly News Oct. 4, 2023. RCW 11.40.030 IN THE SUPERI...
