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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...
Town of La Conner Town Council Agenda October 10, 2023, 6PM 104 Commercial Street Upper Maple Center And by Zoom Information is below and on the Town Website I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Public Comments (Limit: 3 minutes per person) IV. Presentations: V. CONSENT AGENDA A. Consent Agenda (Approved without objection 5/0) 1. Approval of the Minutes: September 26, 2023 2. Finance: Approval of Accounts Payable Approval Payroll B. Items Removed from the Consent Agenda VI. REPORTS 1. Chamber Report 2. Revenue /Expenditure Report 3....
The La Conner Town Council will hold a special meeting 5 p.m. Oct. 10 to hear 2024 budget presentations on the sewer/compost and general fund programs. Mayor Ramon Hayes called the meeting today, Friday, Oct. 7. The regular Oct. 10 council meeting follows at 6 p.m. Access the agendas on the Town of La Conner website through the calendar or at: https://www.townoflaconner.org/AgendaCenter/Town-Council-2/...
The wheels are turning – first gradually, than rapidly – as Town of La Conner officials continue work on updating the transportation element of its comprehensive plan. “I’ve been working on this element for several months,” Director of Planning Michael Davolio told planning commissioners at their 90-minute Sept. 19 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall, “and one of the surprising things I’ve learned is that there is enough parking on South First Street to accommodate all the (residential and commercial) uses there. “But,” he cautioned, “it do...
Dear town council, planning commission - and citizens: It has been mentioned on the council and planning commission recently that it would be a great idea (said they) to have all the traffic thru town exit on First Street along the water next to the blue building that would be removed for this to occur. They also keep toying with a one way First Street. This idea ignores some important realities: primarily, the Shoreline Master Plan. That land next to old blue (derelict blue building) and which is along the water does indeed partially belong...
La Conner staff and the planning commission are updating the Town’s short-term rental regulations. These rentals are only permitted in the commercial zone – in commercial buildings. What purpose will changing these regulations serve? Whom will benefit? What is broken that has to be fixed? Google “short term rental critique” and this article is near the top: “Affordable Housing and the Impact of Short-Term Rentals.” Staff at the Municipal Research and Services Center wrote it for local officials. That is an in-state nonprofit organizatio...
The sands of time have shifted from the hourglass to poly bags that will soon be strategically placed along the La Conner waterfront ahead of king tide season. Facing an Oct. 1 deadline to install sandbags and ecology blocks in areas prone to flooding, the La Conner Town Council last week approved purchases of equipment and barriers designed to thwart the high-water damage that plagued the town last December. The council, acting upon recommendations of the Emergency Management Commission, gave Public Works Director Brian Lease the go-ahead at...
TOWN OF LA CONNER TOWN COUNCIL AGENDA Sept. 26, 2023 Skagit County Washington Incorporated 1890 www.townoflaconner.org I.Call to Order II.Pledge of Allegiance III.Public Comments (Limit: 3 minutes per person) IV.Presentations: Anacortes Water Rates – Dan O’Donnell V.CONSENT AGENDA A.Consent Agenda (Approved without objection 5/0) 1.Approval of the Minutes: Council Meeting September 12, 2023 Finance: Approval of Accounts Payable Approval of Payroll VI..REPORTS 1.Administrator’s Report 2.Mayor’s Report 3.Council Committee Reports VII.UNF...
The La Conner Town Council will hold a special meeting 5 p.m. Sept. 26 to hear 2024 budget presentations on public works, code enforcement and fire department programs. Mayor Ramon Hayes called the meeting today, Friday, Sept. 22. The draft 2024 budget estimates almost $7 million in revenue and slightly over $8 million in expenditures. The 13 pages in the packet lists only these programs. The code enforcement request is $73,616, up about 20%, and the fire department budget is $242,487, up about 10%. The special meeting packet, and the regular...
There's no doubt Marna Hanneman has the resume to be La Conner's next mayor. Having served nearly a decade on the La Conner Planning Commission, a key advisory panel focused on land use and historic preservation, Hanneman comes with relevant academic and professional credentials. She holds a degree in business administration from the University of Maryland and has enjoyed wide-ranging careers in marketing, property management and insurance. And not to be overlooked is her long managerial stint...
La Conner continues to dodge the bullets that so much of small-town America is getting hit by: loss of employers, employees and families moving away, empty storefronts and boarded up homes, loss of hospitals and school closures. No, instead the problems here are employers struggling to fill open positions, employees stuck with commuting long distances and the local government needing robust affordable housing planning, policies and funding. The school district reacts to a smaller student population, but the high cost of housing is a tragedy it...
The $60,820 in August sales tax revenue reported to the Town of La Conner from the state’s Department of Revenue is the third highest June total ever, though down $9,563 from 2022 and $1,900 from 2021. The $399,898 total year to date is 65.6% of the forecasted revenue, almost matching projections. The special use fire tax total of $6,064, as always, tracked sales tax totals and was also almost 10% below the same month last year. People are still staying overnight in La Conner. The $19,848 collected in hotel motel tax revenue set another m...
Another day, another dollar. More than a familiar lament, it was truly a way of life for one of La Conner’s more famous – or infamous, depending on your political leanings – native sons. Hulet M. Wells, born in 1878 on a farm near town, toiled in hayfields as a young man for a buck a day. He also worked variously as a railway section hand, postal worker, street paver, logger, miner and shingle weaver. And that’s just to name a few. But his eventual calling was that of a labor activist, a role that led Wells in 1912 to run for mayor of Seattle...
The La Conner Town Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, in Upper Maple Center at 104 Commercial St. Call to Order Pledge of Allegiance Public Comments (Limit: 3 minutes per person) Presentations Consent Agenda Consent agenda (Approved without objection 5/0) Approval of the minutes: Aug. 22, 2023 Finance: Approval of accounts payable. Approval payroll Items removed from the consent agenda Reports Chamber report Revenue /expenditure report Department head reports Mayor’s report Council committee reports Unfinished Business: Center S...
La Conner leaders continue to develop a saltwater flood mitigation plan before king tide season this fall. They will meet Sept. 1 with representatives of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe at their south end property to discuss placing flood barriers there. La Conner Town Councilmember Rick Dole relayed the news to council, which met after the commission concluded its business Aug. 22 in Maple Hall. Town Administrator Scott Thomas reported discussions have begun with north end business owners for...
Better weather in May is probably why tourists again made La Conner their destination. The $55,179 collected in sales tax revenue is the first record high collection for its month in 2023, topping July 2022 by 2.3%. The state’s Department of Resources reports on a two month lag. The special use fire tax barely reached its record, $29 over the July 2022 report, at $5,393, tracking sales taxes, as it does. Most healthy, as it has been all year, was the hotel motel tax revenue, at $16,442, another record, 9% above July 2022. The $9,874 in REET (...
Town officials remain focused on mitigation of flood conditions ahead of king tide season in the fall. La Conner Town Council members last week endorsed recommendations proposed by Public Works Director Brian Lease for immediate short-term saltwater flood protection remedies along the town’s waterfront. Lease had earlier shared with the emergency management commission a priority purchase list for materials and equipment – ecology blocks, sandbags, a sandbagging machine and forklift. “I’d like to have sandbags filled and on pallets by Oct. 1,...
Emergency Management Commission, 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, Council Room, 104 Commercial St. AGENDA Minutes Public Comment (items not on the agenda) OLD BUSINESS Upper Skagit Tribe communications Temporary flood measures: Update Conditions to implement temporary flood protections measures What level of flood protection? What is reasonable risk? (Regardless of where the risk comes from) 100-year flood event (1%), 500-year flood event (0.2%), 1,000-year flood event? Flood height for Skagit River design. Trigger(s) for a Skagit River Flood watch...
SUPERIOR COURT OF WASHINGTON FOR SKAGIT COUNTY No. 23-4-00399-29 PROBATE NOTICE TO CREDITORS (RCW 11.40.030) In the Matter of the Estate of Linda E. Pickett, Deceased The personal representative named below has been appointed as personal representative of this estate. Any person having claim against the decedent must, before the time the claim would be barred by any otherwise applicable statute of limitations, present the claim in the manner as provided in RCW 11.40.070 by serving on or mailing to the personal representative or the personal...
