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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...
At first glance, comparing La Conner and Kirkland is akin to apples and oranges. But when it comes to affordable housing incentives, it is a comparison that might bear fruit. Planning department staff shared with the La Conner Planning Commission during their July meeting at Maple Hall research into how Kirkland, a Seattle suburb of nearly 100,000 people, has sought to increase its stock of affordable housing. Assistant Planner Ajah Eills provided a seven-page report on how La Conner might implement some of the measures adopted in Kirkland....
Key steps were taken last week – both literally and figuratively – to mitigate saltwater flooding on La Conner’s north end. Public Works Director Brian Lease led members of La Conner’s emergency management commission on a one-hour July 25 walking tour of low-lying spots along the north waterfront from the Washington Street-end past Channel Lodge on North First Street. The six-member advisory panel. chaired by Bill Stokes and established in response to severe saltwater flooding here last December, will soon be making a recommendation to the tow...
Anyone can be a part of the La Conner Rotary Club 2023 Harvesting Hope annual auction and dinner at Maple Hall Aug. 26, 5:30 p.m. The theme this year is “Hope Springs Eternal.” Community participation is invited to support literacy and education programs. This is the club’s biggest fundraiser of the year. La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes will be honored as recipient of the Paul Harris Award to acknowledge his commitment to the community and the strong working relationship with town leaders the club has enjoyed during his tenure. Hayes stood out a...
Focused on the future, Town officials have taken the long view to address La Conner’s most pressing needs. Town leaders highlighted a handful of top-tier issues in a 5-year strategic plan crafted during an all-day retreat July 24 in Mount Vernon. Priorities include a mandated upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant, robust investments in fire protection and safety, providing public access on South First Street to Caledonia, securing a permanent home for the public works department, developing long-term flood mitigation measures, replacing agi...
The La Conner Town Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8, Upper Maple Center, 104 Commercial St. Call to Order Pledge of Allegiance Public comments (Limit of 3 minutes per person) Presentations Consent Agenda Consent Agenda (approved without objection 5/0) Approval of the Minutes: Council meetings of July 24 and 25, 2023 Finance Approval of accounts payable Approval of payroll Items removed from the consent agenda Reports Chamber report Revenue /expenditure report Department head reports Mayor’s report Council committee reports Unfinished...
Hector Soltero has made countless deliveries in La Conner during his years as a United Parcel Service driver. Now it is his turn to be on the receiving end. And in a big way. The La Conner Town Council unanimously approved a resolution July 11 honoring Soltero and expressing appreciation for the outstanding service he provides to his La Conner area customers. "He's well loved by everybody in town," Councilmember Rick Dole said in proposing the resolution. "He's just a joy to be around." Council...
Next Monday, July 31, the La Conner school board will approve the school district's 2023-2024 budget. The vote will almost certainly be unanimous but it will not be an easy decision. Board members and staff have known about and been grappling with cutting millions of dollars and reducing teaching, support and administrative staff.. The ongoing decline in student enrollment and the district’s despair at the low number of families with school-age children has been editorialized here before. The difficulty of little available and increasingly e...
I read your editorial “La Conner needs to plan for more than just floods,” (Weekly News July 12) with great interest, and your words raised my eyebrows more than once. You see, you made a blanket statement, “No one in La Conner, elected officials, town staff, activists, or this paper, saw, much less grasped the opportunity and possibilities for working family housing when Dave Hedlin offered to sell his family’s Maple Avenue property in 2020.” Now, I think of myself as an activist, and I did see an alternative plan, even went out of my way to...
Because it’s never too soon to prepare for the future, La Conner Town Council invested an hour in a special session last week studying factors and strategies that could define La Conner decades from now. The 60-minute hybrid meeting, which featured online commentary from Seattle-based consultants, was a down payment of sorts ahead of a daylong July 24 council retreat. The topics discussed and identified as either community strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats (SWOT) – some of which overlapped into more than one category – were...
It took a do-over, but the La Conner Town Council last week approved an infrastructure improvements plan for the construction site of a three-story, 19-unit condominium building on Center Street. The unanimous action – though some of the “aye” votes were barely audible – came during a special session in the Maple Hall’s Fireside Room Thursday morning and allows staff to begin a review process needed for project modifications. A motion by Councilmember Rick Dole seeking approval for the infrastructure plan died for lack of a second July 11....
A time-honored adage says no job is finished until the paperwork is done. For the Town of La Conner Parks Commission, the reverse is true when it comes to installing a much-anticipated pavilion at Conner Waterfront Park. The pavilion project, on the drawing board for several years, has received approvals for both shoreline and building permits. Now, it’s just a matter of working out final details with the public works department and reaching a consensus as to exactly where at the park the structure should be located. “The pavilion is going to...
Mayor Ramon Hayes called a special daylong meeting of the La Conner Town Council for Monday, July 24 for the purpose of holding a retreat with a discussion only agenda. The meeting will be held in person only. There will not be public comments or public participation. Council will meet at the Vaux Retreat Center in Bakerview Park, 3011 East Fir Street Mount Vernon, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Source: Town of La Conner...
Good but not a record may become the new normal for 2023 Town of La Conner tourist tax revenues. The June sales tax revenues of $53,130 reported to town council by the state’s Department of Revenue are the third highest total for the month, but again below the record amounts of 2022 and 2021. The Special Use Fire Tax revenues drop tracked the sales tax pattern. At $5,297 it was well below 2022’s total but only $272 below 2021. Sales and fire tax monthly totals are over double 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, and 10% above 201...
Home-grown talent Matika Wilbur has spent years traveling the country to exhibit her critically acclaimed photography and compile narratives for her ground-breaking book "Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America." But last Thursday afternoon her happy place was Gilkey Square in La Conner. Wilbur exchanged laughter and shared fond memories with a steady stream of local admirers, who included civic leaders, fellow artisans and retired teachers and school administrators, during an...
The Town of La Conner’ s emergency management commission will start meeting monthly after half a year of bi-weekly sessions. It has made some progress and is settling into a routine. The town council and mayor moved quickly to form the commission after December’s Swinomish Channel flooding got their attention. Maybe emergencies are required to form commissions and plan solutions to past problems. Will it take a flood of homeless people floating into taking up residency in Pioneer Park to engage town leaders to move toward significant developmen...
Mayor Ramon Hayes called a special meeting of the La Conner Town Council Thursday, July 13 at 10:45 a.m. The purpose of this meeting is to approve the Talmon infrastructure improvement (DE) agreement. This is the Brandon and Katie Atkinson three-story condominium project at 306 Center Street. Council will meet in the Maple Hall Fireside Room. The meeting will not be streamed....
Nothing in life is perfect, but the annual July Fourth Parade in La Conner Tuesday came close. The weather, which more than once has been wet and chilly here on Independence Day – hence, the local adage that summer starts on July 5 – was sunny and warm for an eclectic blend of patriotic-clad entrants and spectators lining the length of First Street for the 20-minute celebration. So good was the parade honoring America’s 247th birthday and formal separation from Great Britain that those resid...
Give peace a chance was a popular refrain coined in 1969 by John Lennon. Now, La Conner’s Ollie Iversen has put a new spin on Lennon’s famous anthem of the anti-war movement. Iverson’s version is “Give Pisces a Chance.” Pisces is the zodiac sign symbolized by fish. La Conner Waterfront Park is noted for its fish slide sculpture created by the late artist and salmon advocate Tom Jay. In an impassioned plea to the La Conner Town Council at its June 27 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall, Iversen convinced the panel to reverse its earlier decision...
The La Conner Emergency Management Commission is wading through short-term options to mitigate flood threats on the La Conner waterfront and in low-lying residential neighborhoods, embracing a multi-tiered plan of attack ahead of next winter’s king tides. The Town is in contact with the Upper Skagit Tribe to secure permission for placement of flood barriers on its south-end property between Caledonia and Sherman streets. A walking tour led by Public Works Director Brian Lease to strategize barrier placements on La Conner’s north end, has bee...
Greg Ellis sees big things ahead for La Conner by going small. The Shelter Bay resident and Braves Club after-school program volunteer, who submitted plans for seven full-sized homes behind Pioneer Market in 2021, now proposes constructing tiny condos there. “I want to do the best thing I can for the community,” Ellis told the La Conner Planning Commission during their 90-minute June 20 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. “There’s such a shortage of affordable housing here, especially for a workforce.” Ellis is revamping his plans for lots he has ow...
America’s national bird may stump part of a tree-thinning project at Pioneer Park. The Town of La Conner has been advised by an urban forestry services consultant that more than 40 trees in the park, a popular trail hiking and public events venue – including the annual Pioneer Picnic – have structural defects or are in decline, posing potential isolated hazards. A large winter windstorm during the COVID-19 pandemic uprooted a handful of trees in the park, some of which crashed onto the roof of its historic sheltered community kitchen build...
