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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....
La Conner area residents are invited to engage this week and next with the two local institutions that define and make a difference in our lives. This is where citizens can have the most impact, making self-governing a reality. Your participation is needed first Saturday in a Town community conversation for the development of a communication plan. La Conner’s Council seeks conversation with citizens to clearly define the priorities, strategies and tools the town will use to communicate with the community. Open communication facilitates p...
In my 16th and final year as mayor, I would like to thank the La Conner community for the opportunity to serve as your representative. Although our resources are limited, La Conner has been fortunate to attract and retain staff who are dedicated to the community and whose work ethic, in many cases, far exceeds a 40-hour work week. La Conner is also blessed with a plethora of volunteers who participate in everything from our town council, planning commission, arts and parks commissions and, with 23 active volunteers, our fire department. Its...
La Conner Town Council and La Conner Schools officials addressed common goals and interests at their respective meetings last week. Councilmembers Mary Wohleb and MaryLee Chamberlain joined the Jan. 9 school board session via Zoom to share tips for the district best applying for state Department of Commerce grants that fund solar energy projects. Superintendent Will Nelson and Bobby Vaughn, director of operations and planning, returned the favor by attending the Jan. 10 Council meeting to weigh in on a possible joint venture to install a new...
Join a community conversation with your neighbors Jan. 21 at the La Conner Retirement Inn, 9-11 a.m. The Town Council’s communication committee, an ad hoc group, offers an opportunity for residents to gather and discuss how to best make a communication plan. The communication plan is to clearly define the priorities, strategies and tools the town will use to communicate with the community. The slogan is “Town Talks: Learning from the past, living in the present and planning for the future.” Source: Town of La Conner...
Spring has not come early to La Conner. But spring cleaning has – out of necessity. In the aftermath of severe flooding of the town's low-lying areas Dec. 27, residents have been clearing water-damaged items from their garages and homes and building owners and merchants have been removing soaked carpets and merchandise from their commercial properties. Unlike routine spring-cleanups, this has not been a cathartic exercise. Frustrating is a more apt description. That frustration could well l...
At the start of the new year, one way to assess the year just passed is by looking at the numbers contained in budgets and reports and reflecting back and projecting forward. From front to back in this issue of the Weekly News, there are all kinds of numbers – and information to be used in decision making. The coronavirus pandemic has not ended, but is no longer a crisis. In Skagit County and statewide, the rate of new infections has slowed and the number of people being hospitalized and dying are increasing at a much slower rate. While a...
Fate intervened on Dec. 27. First is the fact that the day before, Monday was a municipal holiday. Secondly the Dunlap Towing stopped running their weekly ad providing the tide tables to the community in this newspaper three or four years ago. At approximately 7:40 a.m. on the 27th, my wife alerted me to flooding around our house. I tried to contact Public Works and the Town offices to no avail, I called 911. I moved quickly to move our vehicles to higher ground. Next, I went to the source of the water, which was flowing down Caledonia Street...
Can you say $873,094 Town of La Conner 2022 budget surplus? Director of Finance Maria DeGoede can. Her monthly treasurer’s report for the 4th quarter 2022, year to date, in the town council’s Jan. 10 meeting packet, shows revenue of $5,988,197, 117% of projected for the year. Expenditures were $5,115,103 and $942,082, or 15.6% below 2022’s projections. Every fund category was above 100% projections, led by the two Real Estate Excise Tax funds (REET), at 221% of projections, $48,715. But it was the general fund, $211,029 in additional reven...
It is hard to predict the future and often just as difficult to remember the distant past. But Vince Sellen, a retired La Conner schools teacher and former town council member, has shown a command of both. That is fitting for the one-time finalist for appointment to the state legislature and someone whom a local public service scholarship is named. Sellen, now an Anacortes resident, was among La Conner officials in the 1980s cautioning against over-development of vacant lots here, especially commercial encroachment into neighborhoods. He can...
Please join in a community conversation with your neighbors Jan. 21 at the La Conner Retirement Inn, 9-11 a.m. The communication committee, an advisory and ad hoc town council committee, will provide an opportunity for community members to come together and discuss how to best make a communication plan for the town. The purpose of a communication plan is to clearly define the priorities, strategies and tools the town will use to communicate with the community. The slogan is “Town Talks: Learning from the past, living in the present and p...
Normal lasted less than 24 hours last week after La Conner weathered heavy snowfall and thick ice before Christmas that brought the community to a virtual standstill. Winter king tides along with high westerly winds and low barometric pressure contributing to steady rain and rapid melt-off combined to produce flood conditions causing significant damage to more than a dozen homes and businesses in the town's low-lying areas from Sherman Street (south) to State Street (north) and downtown last...
When considering activists watching over the community's governance and vocally championing the better future we all want, the dedicated and sometimes seemingly too quiet La Conner Town Council and local school board may not come first to mind. But, as with Mayor Ramon Hayes and the Town's arts, parks and planning commissions, these individuals deserve every resident's thanks for diligently showing up meeting after meeting, taking on assignments, initiating projects, crunching numbers, balancing budgets, fielding questions and agreeing to a...
