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It could have been the perfect weather or the Guitar Festival that steered residents away from the Citizen Engagement Opportunity in the La Conner Swinomish Library conference room last Saturday, May 20. About ten people came to it, including La Conner Town Councilmembers MaryLee Chamberlain and Rick Dole. The relaxed setting encouraged public discussion of pre-selected topics: sustainable businesses; open spaces, infrastructure needs; public safety; and density development and growth. The gathering was put on by the council’s communications c...
Discussions are going on among La Conner residents advocating for development of a community garden at Jenson Field, as some are calling the property south of Pioneer Park and west of Maple Avenue Sybil and Tom Jenson sold to the Town of La Conner last September. When council voted to make the purchase, Mayor Ramon Hayes called it a gift: the $60,000 price was less than one-third its assessed value. At that council meeting resident Debbie Aldrich promoted the importance of green space and play areas for children after the loss of the Hedlin...
It is a tough choice for the residents of our little town – the citizens of La Conner – to make. The community was given a gift, nearly, when Sybil and Tom Jenson sold the Town of La Conner a half-plus acre of property under Pioneer Park and west of Maple Avenue. Residents now have to discern, discuss and debate the best way to use that sliver of land. The top choices are keeping it as a green space – organized into a community garden, as some are advocating – or building starter homes for first time buyers. This could sprout into a tiny ho...
La Conner residents are invited to attend a citizen engagement opportunity at the La Conner Swinomish Library Saturday, May 20, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. sponsored by the town council’s communications committee....
With long-awaited warm weather hinting of summer arrival, La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes told Town Council members that tighter fitting fashions will be the coming style at their May 9 Maple Hall session. “We’re going to have to tighten our belts this fall,” Hayes predicted, referring to next year’s budget, despite robust sales and hotel-motel tax revenues. “There will be pressure on our budget negotiations,” said Hayes. “Costs are rising, and we see inflation across the board. And labor costs are on the rise.” Councilmember MaryLee Chamber...
Town officials aren't turning a blind eye to the prospect of peep shows coming to La Conner. That's why, with a six-month moratorium now in place, they're hustling to enact restrictions limiting where adult businesses can operate – at a safe distance from residential areas and the school campus. But finding such a location in a town hemmed in geographically is easier said than done. Industrial zones on the north and south ends of La Conner could be designated for adult businesses. Two sites a...
A perennial issue topped the agenda of a rare short La Conner Town Council meeting last Tuesday. As had the town’s planning commission a week earlier, most of council’s 40-minute April 25 session emphasized downtown parking and traffic congestion. The parking topic likely would have consumed even more Council time – as it has for springs and summers over decades – were it not that many at the meeting wanted to attend the much-anticipated Matika Wilbur book launch at Swinomish at 7 p.m. Even longtime La Conner resident Linda Talman, an attende...
It is time to decide to run for mayor or a town council seat in La Conner or for school district director, Fire District 13 commissioner and cemetery district 1 positions. Filing by mail for elected offices has started. File online or in person May 15-19. Get a Skagit County candidates guide with information on office qualifications and candidate filing instructions at the Skagit County Elections website. Offices without a fixed annual salary have no filing fee. Voting for the primary election closes at 8 p.m. Aug. 1. Only races with three or...
I have always said that as long as my daughter Victoria was in La Conner schools, I was happy to be mayor. That season has come to an end, and it is time for La Conner to choose a new representative to lead the community. May 15 through 19 interested candidates will have the opportunity to file with the county’s elections office for both the mayor’s position and two other town offices. As a result, the La Conner Weekly News asked me to write a short, 500-word piece on what qualities the next mayor should possess. I agreed to provide input recog...
The wheels of justice are said to grind slowly. But when it comes to planning for future local transportation needs, Town of La Conner officials, relatively speaking, are putting the pedal to the metal. Two years after the transportation section of the comprehensive plan was updated, Planning Director Michael Davolio, Assistant Planner Ajah Eills and planning commissioners are looking at parking in revisiting that element of the land use plan. Davolio conducted an inventory of available parking spaces on First Street and found there are 307...
The memories of severe saltwater flooding that deluged La Conner in December remain firmly etched in the minds of residents and business owners here, perhaps no more so than former council member and planning commissioner Bill Stokes. But Stokes, unanimously chosen to chair the Town’s new six-member emergency management commission at its first meeting April 19, is focused more on the future than the past. “We’ll talk about everything that can cause an emergency,” Stokes said. “That includes fires, tsunamis and earthquakes. “Our current goal,” h...
The Town of La Conner won’t be caught with its pants down while drafting rules regulating adult businesses. Its Town Council last Tuesday unanimously adopted a six-month emergency moratorium on development applications within commercial, commercial transition and residential zones while controls addressing adult-oriented businesses are enacted. The action stems any attempt to locate here before specific regulations are adopted. “The moratorium,” planner Michael Davolio said, “will address anything that might come up in the interim.” Restricti...
The $40,187 reported in sales tax revenues to the La Conner Town Council for March by the state’s Department of Revenue is the second highest ever, only behind 2022’s record $44,210. It exceeds $40,000 for only the second time and is 20% above 2021, the third highest March report. The Special Use Fire Tax Revenues also dipped from 2022, by $314, 7.4%, below $4,000, barely, to $3,924, but still the second highest ever March total. Tourists still stayed overnight, creating record revenues for the Town’s hotel/motel tax, $8,083, the highest March...
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...
