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Should the Town of La Conner’s new Emergency Management Commission have five or six members? Town Council tabled adding a sixth person last week. An alternate might be added, though. Resident Linda Talman nudged officials toward that compromise position during a lengthy discussion. Mayor Ramon Hayes proposed adding a sixth voting member after Jamie Throgmorton applied. Her background makes her an asset to the commission. Town Administrator Scott Thomas was tasked with drafting a resolution modifying membership. Former council member Bill S...
The high tide of last week’s Town of La Conner Planning Commission meeting on future sea level rise came when Assistant Planner Ajah Eills calmed the waters– make that, concerns– raised by troubling data gleaned from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “By 2070, if we do nothing,” Eills initially cautioned while sharing statistics, “the town will be underwater.” She then offered solace. “These are kind of scary numbers to look at,” she said, “but that’s without mitigation, w...
A rare positive impact of the severe saltwater flooding that swamped La Conner in December was the flood of well qualified applicants seeking appointment to the Town’s new emergency management commission. Mayor Ramon Hayes last week nominated five applicants. The Town Council confirmed them during the panel’s March 14 session. They bring extensive histories of public service, meteorology, climatology and engineering. “What a great lineup, this is exciting,” Councilmember Mary Wohleb said following a unanimous vote that empaneled Bill Stokes,...
Hey, now here’s a curveball for you, instead of larky snark about dikes and missing fish, music is the subject of the day. No, Sloughmander is not going to miraculously re-appear, unless he does, but don’t hold your breath. Heck, some of you only know me as a mean writer, when I’m actually a mean dancer, I kick everyone else off the dance floor (not really), I mostly share the space quite nicely. Sunday music in Gilkey Square is not enough for this dancer man, the music in the Tav is okay, for coming from a box, but we have such great music...
The poorly written page 1 headline last week needed to have read: "Record December Town sales tax revenues." The tax revenue summary town council receives inFebruary contains December’s data. Buy your in-person tickets only on Saturday for The Case of the Slain Slough Swindler at the La Conner Chamber of Commerce’s 210 Morris Street office. This important fact was left out of the March 15 story. The Limedock building is owned by Guoying Li and Hoa Hau, not Peter Anderson, as stated in the March 15 issue. The editor regrets these err...
There were two sure signs at last week's La Conner Town Council meeting that spring is in the offing. The first was the presentation by Skagit Valley Tulip Festival Executive Director Cindy Verge of the official poster, a depiction by artist Kerry Clavadetscher of a Savannah sparrow perched on a favorite tulip. The second was an announce-ment by Town Public Works Director Brian Lease that king tide winter flood protection sandbags will be picked up at the end of the month. The bags have been in...
He may not have realized it at the time, but nearly 70 years ago the late famed Swinomish artisan Andrew Joe began carving a special and lasting niche in the history of La Conner Schools. And it is a part of campus lore and tradition literally and figuratively standing the test of time. It is the life-sized carving of the Native American chieftain fondly known to generations of La Conner students as "Kolidja," now in a secured display area at the entrance to the middle school building. But...
Between gift giving generosity and tourists wanting to get out of their hometowns, La Conner registers jingled merrily in December. Town of La Conner sales tax revenue reported in February was a record $63,103, $ 6,556 and 11.6% above 2022’s previous record. Not till May did a month’s sales tax revenues top $63,000 last year. The $106,494 two-month total is one-sixth of this year’s projected budget. Shoppers flocked to La Conner for holiday shopping; data are reported on a two month time lag. These are November and December's revenues. The $...
During a week in late February which saw snow, wind and rain amid occasional sun breaks, Town officials and residents turned their attention to climate change. At the Town Council Feb. 28 meeting, members and Mayor Ramon Hayes lauded the community’s embrace of solar energy and progress made in establishing a Town Emergency Management Commission in response to recent saltwater flooding, a perfect storm weather. event A joint session with the planning commission was short, consisting almost entirely of planning staff outlining the two-year p...
Officials took the first steps toward updating La Conner’s comprehensive plan at a joint Town Council-Planning Commission meeting at Maple Hall Feb. 28. Admittedly, they were baby steps. It will be a two-year process focusing on public engagement and addressing growth over a 20-year planning horizon as mandated by state legislation, planner Michael Davolio reported. “Our first priority,” stressed Davolio, “is to engage the public in the process. It’s very critical from our perspective that the plan addresses the community’s values.” A...
Town officials have cited public engagement as a top priority going forward. Attendees at the Feb. 22 La Conner Planning Commission hybrid meeting at Maple Hall took them at their word. Much of the 45-minute session was devoted to public comments, with residents voicing concerns with Hearing Examiner David Lowell’s Feb. 8 decision to deny the appeal of a conditional use permit granted for a condominium complex at 306 Center Street behind The Slider Café. Georgia Johnson, a Center Street property owner, joined others in raising environmental is...
La Conner’s tourist economy slowed a bit last fall, but not much, as the January tax revenue reports to the town council show. The Town of La Conner’s sales tax revenue of $43,391 is $1,830 higher than 2022’s total and the second highest ever for the month. The $4,333 in the Town’s renamed Special Use Fire Tax Revenue was also the second highest January ever, 5.5% above 2022. The $9,175 hotel/motel taxes collected is 12.6% below 2022 but less than $200 below 2020’s total. It is the third highest for the month. Revenues from utility programs sta...
Friends, family and fellow Town of La Conner staff members celebrated Maria DeGoede’s 20 year anniversary working for the Town last Friday – after work, of course. DeGoede was hired as the receptionist/billing clerk and began Feb. 11, 2003. She became deputy clerk before being promoted to finance director. Some 30 people came out to the Firehall Kitchen & Taphouse to surprise her. In the group were council members, the mayor, former employees and her mother, of course....
The La Conner Town Council met on Valentine’s Day, then its leaders looked for some love from state lawmakers in Olympia later in the week. A Town delegation met with state Reps. Dave Paul and Clyde Shavers and the staff of Sen. Ron Muzzall to discuss flood management measures and other key local issues, including increased funding for law enforcement. By all accounts, it was a positive dialogue with the District 10 legislators. It left Town officials hopeful yet more productive talks will take place. “I think it went well,” Town Admin...
Faced with future major fire protection costs – including purchase of a fire boat and replacement of a 30-year-old fire truck – plus pending necessary upgrades to La Conner’s wastewater treatment plant and aging water lines at Skagit Beach, Town officials are weighing the merits of hiring a municipal grant writer. Town Councilmember Ivan Carlson, noting the fire department’s pressing equipment needs, raised the prospect of a professional grant writer during the panel’s Feb. 14 hybrid session at Maple Hall. “The fire department will have more ex...
CORRECTION: The Feb. 15 version of this story incorrectly reported that the 1986 La Conner Town Council took legislative action in passing an ordinance and later made a legislative amendment to the Town's Comprehensive Plan in paragraph 4. The story below has been revised with the correction that the legislative action the council took was “passing a motion.” Posted Feb. 17. The Center Street condominium project proposed by Brandon and Katie Atkinson is closer to construction. Last Wednesday Town of La Conner Hearing Examiner David Lowell den...
In the film “Cool Hand Luke,” actor Strother Martin, famed for his role as the sadistic warden, delivered one of Hollywood’s most iconic lines. “What we’ve got here,” Strother’s character tells Paul Newman’s Luke, “is a failure to communicate.” Town of La Conner officials are taking steps to avoid having those words directed at them. Three weeks after communication strategies were addressed during a forum at the La Conner Retirement Inn, La Conner planning commissioners and Council Member MaryLee Chamberlain followed up with a 75-minute ro...
Before there was a Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, there was a La Conner Tulip Show. And before the tulip show here, there was a La Conner Rose Show. Plus a fall dahlia show. All because, as the late Philena Dunlap noted 40 years ago this August, La Conner has long had the good fortune of having "a group of women who were dedicated in their desire to work together for the benefit of all in the town they loved." That tradition took root with the founding in 1909 of the Civic Improvement Club of La...
Last July, Adam Avery made an excellent pitch for a new fireboat to the La Conner Town Council. The old one doesn’t work well. Adam said that a new boat would cost between $275,000 and $375,000. The administrator referred to grants that might help and stated that we are more at risk than anyone in the county for fires such as what we might face. Adam said that he and his team would seek out the perfect boat for our needs and Mayor Ramon Hayes “pledged that the Town would help with a strategy for bringing on project partners.” ‘ That was then an...
On a cold, wet January night, the La Conner Town Council embraced a sunny outlook. The panel last Tuesday approved payment for a $100 membership fee and joined the Skagit Valley Clean Energy Co-Operative, organizer of the new Solarize Skagit program, whose goal is to make it easy and cost-effective to install solar panels. The commitment includes providing Co-op and program information on the Town website and perhaps monthly water bills. Solarize Skagit is the main initiative of the co-op, which incorporated last year in La Conner. Its...
There won’t be a Town flood commission, after all. Instead the new five-member municipal panel will be tasked with an expanded portfolio to address multiple emergency management and natural disaster incidents. The change in scope came at the request of Town Administrator Scott Thomas at the La Conner Town Council Jan. 24 hybrid meeting. “When I got into the weeds of this,” Thomas explained, “it became clear that there are a number of emergencies that the Town should be prepared for – not just floods. An emergency management commission seemed to...
As a popular song says, there are few ways better to gain fame than to have your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone. A La Conner singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist may not be on the iconic magazine’s cover, but she is featured on its digital pages as an artist readers need to know. Locally and regionally, Katherine Paul, the face of Black Belt Eagle Scout, needs no introductions. Her brand is now getting plenty of national exposure, thanks to a glowing profile penned for rollingstone.com by Philadelphia-based writer, editor a...
Public safety in emergency situations was the talk of the town at the La Conner Retirement Inn Saturday morning. The latest in a series of quarterly public forums coordinated by La Conner Town Council communications committee members MaryLee Chamberlain and Rick Dole focused on December's flood and proposed measures to mitigate future episodes. The Dec. 27 flooding, a combination of factors – seasonal king tides, low barometric pressure, strong westerly winds and steady rainfall – struck rap...
Town of La Conner leaders continue to talk, plan and act in preparing flood control measures in the wake of Dec. 27’s flooding from the Swinomish Channel. Last night the town council created a flood commission by ordinance, cementing in place a group charged with developing responses to the next flood. Last Thursday Mayor Ramon Hayes, Councilmember Rick Dole and Administrator Scott Thomas met with U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen and gained his commitment to have his staff pay attention to Town entreaties to federal agencies. No magic bullets there, b...
Rising tides have in turn given rise to a renewed focus on flood control and long-term effects of climate change here. The Town of La Conner is looking to form a five-member commission with regular monthly meetings where data will be studied and experts consulted to stay ahead of future significant flood events such as the town experienced last month. Mayor Ramon Hayes last week announced an intent to convert the present two-member Town Council flood committee to a full-fledged commission....
