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Five years. Two-hundred-sixty issues. Today’s Weekly News is the 261st printed since I bought this newspaper in 2017. Thank you for reading your community newspaper. This issue starts my sixth year as publisher and editor. Still, as I have written before, I own it, but it is your newspaper. What have I learned, covering the community through good times and bad? I am biased as I view our most important institutions, binding greater La Conner together, as the La Conner School District, the Town of La Conner government, the La Conner Regional L...
There’s a strong current of support for the Town to order a new fireboat to better protect La Conner’s historic waterfront and local marinas. During the June 28 town council meeting, La Conner Hook & Ladder chief Aaron Reinstra and assistant chief Adam Avery addressed the fire department’s goal to replace its aging fireboat that has been out of service for more than a year. “Having a fireboat on the water,” stressed Avery, “would be a huge advantage for us. You need multiple points of contact.” Mayor Ramon Hayes and Town Administrator...
You can’t help but notice the striking mural of the La Conner waterfront that’s a permanent fixture at Maple Hall. Christi King, who until recently co-owned Tillinghast Postal & Business Center, and Town of La Conner officials agreed to work toward developing a plaque commemorating the mural and presenting it to painter Bob Patterson, who now resides in Snohomish County. King spoke at the June 28 town council meeting. She offered to cover its costs, but Mayor Ramon Hayes, a longtime admirer of Patterson’s work, insisted the Town do so. King...
Affordable housing has long been discussed in La Conner and while it has proved agonizingly elusive, officials have not given up on developing a framework that would allow those who work here to also live here. From embracing the concept of tiny homes to reducing minimum lot sizes to increasing opportunities for accessory dwelling units to allowing greater residential access in commercial buildings, officials have sought to solve the town’s housing crunch. Because of its desirability, La Conner is now unaffordable for many. Ironically, it w...
Housing topped the list for local growing pains needing creative ideas and solutions in La Conner at the June 30 public forum at the Town’s Civic Garden Club. Skagit County Community Action Executive Director Bill Henkel confirmed that demand for housing here far exceeds supply. He was one of the event’s three panelists, joining Town Administrator Scott Thomas and Director of Planning Michael Davolio. “There are lots of reasons,” Henkel told the 20-plus people in attendance. “First, this is an incredible place to live.” That demand, res...
Higher than ever. The Town of La Conner's May sales tax revenues were $69,866, setting oodles of records: the first May report over $60,000; the earliest month topping $60,000 and 20% above the 2021 record of $ 58,287, $11,579 more. Last year the first month sales tax revenues topped $60,000 was August, itself a record. The $255,121 in sales tax to date is almost 52% of the year’s projected budget, topping 50% in five months. Motel/hotel and firetruck sales tax revenues were also monthly records, with $12,633 and $6,985 collected, r...
The start of the June 21 La Conner Town Planning Commission meeting, with several residents hound-dogging the coming 306 Center Street condominium proposal conditional use permit decision, was more interesting than the bulk of the 90 minute hybrid session at Maple Hall. Residents Linda Talman, Dan O’Donnell and Jim Matthews and Center Street property owner Georgia Johnson were fervent in their opposition. O’Donnell asked that a 1986 contract rezone between the Town and then property owners Jerry and Donna Blades be formally recorded. Mat...
Friday Mayor Ramon Hayes called for special meeting of the La Conner Town Council on June 7 at 6 p.m. at Maple Hall and via Zoom. The agenda includes an executive session. The entire agenda was listed in the notice as: • Public Comment • Agreement with DEA for Engineering Services • Public Works - Birch Equip. Generator Quote • Intern Assignment • Resolution - Recognition of Juneteenth • Resolution- MOU -Teamsters • Revision of Personnel Policy No. 412 - Juneteenth • Letter from Student Citizen to Mayor...
Chris Omdal stepped into his new role as the La Conner Marina harbormaster last week after career stop where he has always enjoyed meeting folks from all walks of life. That will not change here. Omdal, an avid walker, has already developed an easy rapport with boaters moored at the marina’s floating docks along Swinomish Channel. At the start of the Memorial Day weekend Friday, he donned his safety vest and walked the marina’s guest float area to meet and greet members of the Edmonds Yacht Clu...
The Fourth of July is more than a month away but there were plenty of fireworks at the La Conner Town Council meeting last Tuesday. Fuses were already short when late in the 70-minute session residents opposed to a proposed three-story, 20-unit Center Street condominium building were finally able to address the issue – the public comment segment of the meeting having been delayed about a half-hour, much to the chagrin of those attending. When allowed to speak, several persons living near the project site voiced concerns with a process tha...
The Town of La Conner’s hearing examiner will have another look at a conditional use permit for Brandon and Kate Atkinson’s three story condominium building at 306 Center Street. The Town of La Conner, its fire department, resident Linda Talman and the Atkinsons filed requests for reconsideration of examiner David Lowell’s May 11 decision between May 12 and 18. The Town request asks first for a reconsideration of interpretations of the municipal code for corner lot setbacks, to eliminate the 25-foot rear yard setback for more flexibility in pro...
This is a once upon a time story set in our place, right here. There is not a palace but a property, and a historic La Conner couple, Donna and Gerald Blades, are at the heart of it. The Blades owned an Exxon gas station on Morris and Fourth streets, where the Slider Cafe is now, and the property behind it when those lots were zoned residential. In 1986 they must have worked arduously, lobbying the town council to rezone the three lots facing Center Street, then spelled Centre – a staff sign painting misspelling, I heard – for...
The introductory line to the Port’s Tuesday public session on the future of the La Conner Marina was “(we) have property ready for development.” Those words are frightening to many of us in La Conner who have experienced the Town’s eager approval of outsized, inappropriate, unimaginative and even destructive developments. We have enough trouble (and virtually, no success) keeping our own administration from facilitating oversized construction projects. And now here comes the Port – after months of study and conversations with their c...
How best to redevelop a 13-acre section of La Conner Marina was the issue Port of Skagit officials put before town leaders and residents at Maple Hall Tuesday evening, May 17. The one-hour joint Port-Town meeting, billed as a public visioning session, was an opportunity for the community to share their long view priorities for how the marina south basin area, built in 1970, might be reshaped in the coming decade to meet the challenges of a changing economy. The Port is considering a makeover...
Yes, the three story condominium building at 306 Center Street proposed by Brandon and Katie Atkinson can be built. Hearing examiner David Lowell approved their conditional use permit May 11. In a 20 page decision, Lowell found the couple, doing business as Atkinson Development / KSA, are permitted to construct “14 multi-family dwelling units on the 2nd and 3rd floors and six lodging (i.e. hotel) rooms on the first floor of a new structure” at the site, subject to 12 conditions, including total building square feet being under 30,600 squ...
After a half-century, the Port of Skagit’s La Conner Marina is eyeing not a facelift but a full body makeover. Port officials came to La Conner’s Maple Hall last night to pitch several potential futures, including a mixed used development, with a residential component, marine services and other commercial uses. The site is the 13 acres of marina property between Sullivan Slough and the north basin. Port staff encouraged the public to attend and provide feedback at the specially called combined town council and planning commission meeting. The...
On March 23 I requested information from the Town regarding any rezone discussion of the property proposed for the Center Street development. On March 28 I received an answer from the town administrator saying that he had the right to take five days to answer me. And he was legally correct. On March 28 he also informed me that he would need another 10 days to get it and review it. Again he was legally correct. But being legally right and doing the right thing are not always the same, are they? I received the documents two days after the record...
The La Conner Town Council heard criticism on the Center Street condominium project and La Conner’s upcoming plans for pride month at its May 10 meeting. It ran 75 minutes. La Conner resident Jim Matthews lamented that the Center Street project was decided by a hearing examiner and not council. “This is a democracy,” said Matthews, “and our duly elected officials didn’t have any say in that.” Mayor Ramon Hayes said the hearing examiner format allows decisions to be rendered by a third-party professional from outside town. “The process was b...
Friday Mayor Ramon Hayes notified the La Conner Town Council of a 6:30 p.m. May 17 special meeting with the planning commission at Maple Hall and via Zoom. The Port of Skagit will present its vision for redeveloping the La Conner Marina “to make better use of the property and create more economic opportunities for the marina and community,” a Port press release states. A redevelopment goal is identifying upland uses that will allow the Port to generate capital funding for the replacement of the marina in-water infrastructure. Port staff and...
Good news is building around the Skagit Valley for commitments to construct apartments. In Anacortes, the Arts Festival organization will build apartments above the O Avenue Anacortes Cinemas it has purchased and will develop into a performing arts center. That must have been made possible in part from the City of Anacortes owning the property. In Burlington the American Legion and Volunteers of America Western Washington have teamed up, agreeing to demolish the Legion’s Post and replace it with apartments catering to various income levels w...
CORRECTION / CORRECTED: May 17 is the meeting date: The conversation starts at 6 p.m. May 17 at Maple Hall. The Port of Skagit will present its vision for what Director Sarah Young calls “very big concepts” for developing 10 acres of its “uplands” at the La Conner Marina at a May 17 visioning session with the Town of La Conner’s council and planning commission. Greater La Conner residents attending the 6 p.m. hearing at Maple Hall will get in on the ground floor of what might be the biggest e...
Citizens of greater La Conner are invited by the Town of La Conner to participate in hearings the next two weeks. The town council first holds an obligatory public hearing May 10 before applying for a $30,000 economic development planning grant. This Community Development Block Grant will support revitalizing the area around the former Moore Clark building and between Maple Hall and Pioneer Park and South Third Street and the Swinomish Channel. This is the same proposal from 2021. The goal is decent wage job development for lower income...
Parts of historic downtown La Conner are sporting a 21st century look these days. Four new solar-powered credit card pay stations have been installed to collect boat moorage and launch fees along the waterfront, replacing the old cash boxes that were vandalized. The town council opted earlier this year to invest in the digital payment collection system rather than spending about $1,500 for repairs when cash boxes were robbed. Cost of the credit card pay units was just over $38,000. “The other o...
La Conner officials last week inched closer to their goal of developing park space on the town’s portion of the former Hedlin’s Maple Avenue ballfield. Council members during their April 26 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall approved Town Administrator Scott Thomas submitting a grant application to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office to develop the park on just over a half-acre on the Maple and East Talbott site. Funds would be for “direct eligible and allowable costs that are r...
Greater La Conner residents, particularly “lower income persons” are invited to the May 10 La Conner Town Council meeting to voice their interests in community development and housing needs ahead of the Town submitting a proposal for state Community Development Block Grant funds. The hearing is required as part of the application process to the state Department of Commerce. Funds of up to $1 million are available to develop, but not construct, affordable housing, with a $500,000 ceiling for housing rehabilitation. The hearing’s purpose is pr...
