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La Conner is growing. In 2021 its housing stock will increase with developments on and above Maple Avenue. Ten homes will be built on the current ballfield. Mayor Ramon Hayes’ Maple View complex five blocks south adds four more. On Snapdragon Hill, C.J. Ebert is developing lots for another seven residences. These will all be market rate homes, selling for whatever price the developer and buyer agree to. These high priced homes will be good news for the town government, increasing the property tax base and adding stable dollars to its budget for...
The March 23 La Conner Town Council meeting will be held in person a 6 p.m. in Maple Hall and virtually via Zoom, the Town reports on its website. It is open to the public. The Zoom Video Conference link is Zoom Video Conference Town Council Meeting Link. Meeting ID is 844 7357 0703 and Passcode is Yvu567. Calli in with this dial-in number: 1-253-215-8782, Passcode: 690974. Source: Town of La Conner...
Work before pleasure has long been the accepted order of things. But in La Conner, at least when it comes to the future of historic Hedlin’s Ballfield, the reverse is true. A full season of youth league baseball will be played there this spring before construction begins to convert the Maple Avenue property to a housing subdivision and park area. That was the game plan unveiled during Town Council’s Zoom meeting last week. Near the end of the 90-minute session March 9, Council members unanimousl...
Tuesday night the La Conner Town Council had the purchase of Hedlin’s Ballfield on their agenda. The Council was to approve an agreement with Frank Jeretzky, a commercial loan officer with Mountain Pacific Bank, to buy the property for $800,000, about $25,000 more than the Town’s asking price. The deal enables Landed Gentry Homes, a leader in residential development in Skagit County for more than four decades, to build 10 single-family homes on 70 per cent of the nearly two-acre site, which for...
Town Councilmembers learned that February’s sales tax receipts of $48,036 were a near record high for the month when they reviewed their March meeting packets. This follows January’s $52,155, which was a record and 56% over the 2020 report. Finance Director Maria DeeDee’s assessment, “so far this year they are coming in pretty good,” is an understatement. The two month total is 31% of the year’s projected $328,202 sales tax receipts, as listed in the council packet. The $101,190 is at least 20% higher than the same two month period any of the...
Like an extra-innings game, it was a longer than usual Town Council meeting last week that put into play new concepts for historic Hedlin’s Ballfield. During a Council Zoom session that pushed nearly three hours in length, members approved a plan to market the nearly two-acre site off Maple Avenue for $775,000, an asking price that offsets, with a slight surplus, the Town’s payment to the Hedlin family, even if a second one-year option payment on the property must be made. Under terms endorsed at the marathon Feb. 23 meeting, 70 percent of the...
The Town Planning Commission has spent the better part of two years studying ways to alleviate La Conner’s longtime housing shortage. And still the work goes on. “This isn’t the end of the process. This is just part of the process,” outgoing Town Planner Marianne Manville-Ailles said after La Conner Planning Commissioners recommended last Tuesday, Feb. 16 that the Town Council approve proposed housing density and setback municipal code changes next month. “We’ve been doing this for two years,” said Commissioner Marna Hanneman. “This has bee...
The game plan for historic Hedlin’s Ballfield on Maple Avenue continues to evolve. The latest pitch is a request by local citizens that the Town Council host a public Zoom meeting and question-and-answer session to present the various concepts for developing the nearly two-acre site, which for decades has served as a youth sports venue. The Town last year secured an option to purchase the property at a reduced price from the Hedlin family to develop it as a mixed-use residential and public park area. Town officials have committed to a second o...
Having an eye for art helped Michael Davolio focus on La Conner as his latest stop in a lengthy planning career that has seen him address land use issues on both coasts. A native of central Massachusetts, Davolio has come out of semi-retirement in Bellingham to succeed Marianne Manville-Ailles as the Town’s planning director. He took part in the Jan. 9 Town Council and Jan. 16 Planning Commission Zoom meetings and has spent a couple days setting up his office at Town Hall. So far, it has been a...
The La Conner Town Council chose an unexpected path last week as it sought further direction in its quest to purchase Hedlin’s Ballfield for a mixed-use residential and public space development. The Council without dissent committed to taking out a second $37,000 one-year option on the nearly two-acre site off Maple Avenue. The Council action, coming at the close of a lengthy discussion during its Feb. 9 Zoom session, was in response to strong indications the Town would recover its option outlays when the nearly two-acre property is m...
Mayor Ramon Hayes takes pride in not steering the direction of La Conner Town Council discussions. But circumstances dictated he do so – if not quite literally – during Council’s Zoom meeting Jan. 26. Hayes, who had spent the day snowmobiling at Stevens Pass, opened the Council session by speaker phone while in traffic in the Everett area. “My hands were free,” Hayes was quick to point out. “My daughter held up my phone for me.” The meeting was fast-paced, and not just in a metaphorical sense, as Hayes and Council members sped thro...
At 90, a famed La Conner animation artist and painter still knows how to draw a crowd. On Zoom as well as at the easel. Bob Abrams, fondly known around town as the “Disney Artist,” was feted with a special on-line birthday reception Friday that drew well-wishers from near and far. The virtual event, which extended beyond two hours as Abrams reflected upon his remarkable career, was coordinated by Rebecca Strong of The Lux Art Center on Lopez Island. Strong met Abrams when she managed a gallery h...
When he hosts Town Council meetings, Mayor Ramon Hayes tries to limit his input, often choosing to defer discussion to others. But as a member of the audience at the teleconferenced Jan. 19 Planning Commission session, Hayes felt free to speak at length. He logged in to offer words of encouragement to panel members and pay tribute to outgoing Town Planner Marianne Manville-Ailles and retiring longtime commissioner Linda Talman. "I want to thank the commissioners for their service,” Hayes said at the close of a two-hour meeting that delved i...
The Town Council last week amended La Conner’s Comprehensive Plan to rezone historic Hedlin’s Ballfield for residential use. But the unanimous action does not prevent the nearly two-acre site from remaining an open public use area. Town Planner Marianne Manville-Ailles told Council during its almost two-hour Jan. 12 Zoom meeting that public uses are allowed within residential zones. That has kept the door at least slightly ajar for a recently formed local citizen’s advisory group to raise funds and work toward retaining the present status of th...
The La Conner Planning Commission has been around for more than a half-century yet has no qualms about sporting new wrinkles. It enters 2021 with replacements in its lineup. These were unveiled at the Town Council’s Jan. 12 meeting, once again teleconferenced on Zoom. For starters, the commission will be led by a new Town Planner. Kevin Cricchio has been tabbed by Town Council members to succeed Town Planner Marianne Manville-Ailles, who has accepted a full-time position with the City of Mount Vernon. Cricchio has prior planning experience w...
Interim superintendent Rich Stewart has been a virtual presence around greater La Conner in recent days. Stewart, who assumed the district helm last July, has given a series of Zoom presentations to the Town Council, Swinomish Tribal Senate and local service organizations and residents, outlining the upcoming La Conner Schools replacement levy proposal. The Feb. 9 ballot measure seeks to collect $1.45 per $1,000 assessed taxable property value, a five-cent decrease from the rate district voters approved in 2019, Stewart explained to Council...
Lighting Rainbow Bridge has created a welcome nighttime glow in La Conner this winter. But another new look, atop Pioneer Park, is intended to refract rather than transmit light. It is the 20-foot extension of the Crown Castle Cell Tower, put in place last month – like the lights on the bridge – but fitted with a special camouflage film that allows it and attached antennas to mimic the sky and blend in with the surrounding area. There are, however, late afternoons this time of year...
In his final civic contribution, Kirby Johnson assured the holiday spirit was on display here amid the COVID-19 pandemic with his donation of a striking blue spruce Christmas tree for Gilkey Square. Town employees this week removed the tree, which had drawn many admirers, signaling the end of the holiday season. But its donor, who passed unexpectedly Dec. 10, at age 79, remained much on people’s minds, among them those crediting Johnson for having made it possible to buy homes and reside in the La Conner area. A La Conner High and Stanford U...
I think it is safe to say that in January of 2020 none of us could have predicted a year that would fundamentally change our lives in such impactful ways. And although we are certainly not beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, we are able, at the start of 2021, to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, the exact length of the tunnel is still unclear. We have walked this path together and we have learned a great deal through this process. I would like to highlight the La Conner Town Council, who made exemplary community decisions while struggl...
As everyone flips the calendar to 2021, Linda Talman is turning the page from her lengthy tenure on the La Conner Planning Commission. A retired teacher known for her thorough grasp of land use policies and as a tireless advocate for public parks, safe walking routes, wetland preservation and recreational opportunities for children, among other causes, Talman last week announced via a social media post her intent to step down from the Town advisory panel. “It’s time, right?” she asked in a statement posted just days after casting the lone...
The Christian Christmas story starts with a young traveling couple, Mary heavy with child, Joseph carrying the burden of knowing the baby is not his. Jesus was born on the road, in a barn, homeless. There are over 1,800 homeless in Skagit County this Christmas season. Close to 75% of them are Skagitonians, neighbors, friends and family. The apartment vacancy rate is effectively zero here for low income people. The Skagit County Public Health Department reports that one-fourth of renter households pay more than 50% of their income for housing...
Over the years, Hedlin’s Ballfield has been site of countless close games. Another tight contest played out Dec. 15 when Town officials weighed the future status of the nearly two-acre public-use property abutting Maple Avenue during a tele-conferenced public hearing. By a 2-1 margin, with one abstention and a recusal, the La Conner Planning Commission forwarded to the Town Council its recommendation that the ballfield be rezoned to make possible a mixed-use development of new residences and park area. Commission Chair Liz Theaker and member B...
Though La Conner rests along the well-traveled Swinomish Channel, its town government is entering uncharted waters in terms of mapping a financial game plan for 2021. The reason is COVID-19. Despite prospects of a much-anticipated vaccine being available next year, the coronavirus pandemic has cast its shadow on municipal budgeting, Mayor Ramon Hayes noted in a year-end message to the Town Council last week. Hayes shared his thoughts prior to the Dec. 8 adoption by Council members of a 2021 budget leaner than what was approved a year ago....
From staff reports La Conner Town officials have looked beyond Christmas lights for bright spots in a year shrouded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, they found some. The Town Council took note of the year’s successes at its Dec. 8 teleconferenced meeting.. Councilmember Mary Wohleb started, referencing a letter by Parks Commission Chair Ollie Iversen that highlighted major projects completed this year. Iversen’s letter thanked the Council, administration, public works department and park commission members for progress made and “ma...
Lighting Rainbow Bridge and brightening a local holiday season marred by the COVID-19 pandemic involved more than merely flipping a switch. Much more, in fact. “This story goes back quite a few years with a promise I made to Don Scott,” Mayor Ramon Hayes told the Weekly News last Saturday. Scott, a longtime La Conner business owner, had for years led a private effort to light the much photographed arched span, which is owned by Skagit County. It has helped define the community since its ded...
