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Late U.S. House speaker Tip O’Neill famously said that all politics is local. La Conner town officials have taken that adage a step farther with the council unanimously adopting an impassioned resolution drafted by Town Administrator Scott Thomas supporting Ukrainians in their spirited defense against the deadly Russian military campaign terrorizing their nation of 40 million people. Dan O’Donnell, a retired U.S. Navy captain and past mayor, first suggested the town issue a resolution in sup...
The March 8 La Conner Town Council meeting covered a lot of ground. Member MaryLee Chamberlain reported the newly formed communications committee is making progress. “We’re currently planning a public workshop or forum to increase the general understanding about what’s happening with growth in town. We want to provide information in context about what growth is looking like in town and get feedback from a panel of experts.” Member Mary Wohleb said the town parks commission is starting to look at designs reflecting results of a citizens’ survey...
We, the citizens of La Conner, elect a mayor and a town council. The mayor appoints a town administrator and a planning director. Regarding the oversized and imposing 20 unit development proposal in the 300 block of Center Street, Town Planner Michael Davolio has made a few statements that are troubling, at best. (Weekly News, March 9): 1. Davolio informed the duly elected town council, that they will have no role in the approval process of said proposal. 2. Davolio stated that “the staff recommendations will rest solely on our determination a...
Law enforcement and crime prevention has been a major town government topic since onset of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago. A new outdoor security camera in La Conner’s downtown historic preservation district might focus the town’s answer. Resident Bruce Bradburn raised the matter during the council’s March 8 Zoom session. A Town planning commissioner, he was among those who had windows in their parked vehicles shot out downtown earlier this year, “It might not be a bad idea,” Bradburn said of installing an outdoor camera on or near Firs...
Local emergency response volunteers will sport less gray hair if a recruitment drive by Skagit County Fire District 13 and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community is successful. An effort by the tribe and fire district to grow the ranks of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) was announced by Capt. Ted Taylor during the monthly District 13 hybrid meeting Friday morning, March 11. Swinomish Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Geer is leading the effort. “Brian is way out in front on this i...
Two public hearings are scheduled this month to address proposed construction of a 20-unit apartment building in the commercial zone behind the Slider Café on Center Street. But town officials have already heard plenty about the project from those who believe the structure would be incompatible with nearby single-family residential neighborhoods and strain existing infrastructure. Town of La Conner Planning Director Michael Davolio said the town has been “inundated with comments” regardin...
It’s no secret that La Conner has a lot to offer. While the best things in life may be free, the goods and products, at local stores, galleries and eateries require payment. Some, though, as La Conner merchant and Chamber of Commerce board member Lisa Judy pointed out in last week’s Weekly News, try cashing in with the proverbial five-finger discount. Town officials and business leaders are hopeful that the newly expanded police services contract with the Skagit County sheriff’s office will help reduce incidents of shoplifting and theft. “We h...
On again, off again. That’s the way it has been for the past two years in terms of indoor mask mandates designed to help stop spread of the coronavirus. In Washington state, the off button will be pushed March 12 instead of March 21, a decision announced by Gov. Jay Inslee and the governors of California and Oregon Monday, Feb. 28. Local entities are given latitude as to when and where masks can still be required. Town governments can require masks for their employees and inside their buildings. The Town of La Conner policy, however, will e...
I, too, (Bruce Elliot, letter: “Open space is lost forever,” Dec. 15, 2021) am sickened every time I pass by what used to be our lovely little open space ball field. Whenever my husband and I would drive by and a game was on, he would say “Let’s stop and watch,” and sometimes we would. He had Alzheimer’s and this was a great delight for his deteriorating mind. After he died, I had such bittersweet memories when I drove by the ball field. No more. Am I, as Bruce had said, beating a dead horse on this issue? Yes, but no. It looks to me as thoug...
A sign, by its very nature, is intended to attract attention. And there is one sign drawing attention in La Conner before ever being installed. Town council members at their Zoom meeting last week addressed the controversial 11-foot-tall Love La Conner marketing icon proposed for Gilkey Square, paid by hotel-motel tax revenue for tourism promotion. Two main criticisms have arisen. Art commissioners reject it as art. Park commissioners agree that Gilkey Square is not the appropriate location. Its design dwarfs the portable Love La Conner sign...
Work came to a near standstill for the La Conner planning commission as 2021 wound down, with successive meeting cancellations in October, November and December. The commission did not meet until Feb. 15. Davolio told commissioners that they can expect to review several project applications at their March 15 session, including the housing development proposed behind Pioneer Market and the apartment building planned for Fourth and Center streets behind The Slider Café. “After a couple of months at the end of last year where there wasn’t m...
Thank you to the voice of reason presented by the arts and parks commissions regarding the placement of a giant “Love La Conner” sign in Gilkey Square! I am baffled that anyone would want to change the character of our charming square by installing an oversized ad in the space. My initial objection arose when I saw the photo in the paper. I reached out to town council with my concerns and was contacted by a member of council who told me the story in the paper was misleading and inaccurate. However, it was confirmed that the proposed ad/...
Greater La Conner, within and beyond the town's boundaries, is blessed with a plethora of volunteers. La Conner’s arts and park commission members are the institutionalists the government and surrounding community are fortunate to have. Their missions are prescribed by the town’s municipal code. Members take their roles seriously, committing to them term after term and, like church choirs, bond with each other in purpose and friendship. They toil in general obscurity, their efforts and results occasionally noticed by the town council or loc...
The La Conner Town Council may face a difficult choice at its Feb. 22 meeting: whether to green light $21,800 in already approved hotel/motel tax funds for a 11 foot tall “Love La Conner” “marketing icon” so it gets built or whether to reject the Gilkey Square location, following recommendations from the town’s arts and parks commissions citizen advisory panels. “We did not consider it artwork but as an advertising sign,” Sylvia Strong, arts commission chair told the Weekly News Sunday. “We d...
The $41,561 in sales tax revenue reported for January to the La Conner Town Council was the second highest for that month ever, only exceeded by 2021’s $52,155. Receipts for January topped $40,000, also only for the second time, as tourists continue to make the town a preferred destination. The total is 8.4%, one-twelfth of the budgeted $492,303 for the year. That portends a strong 2022 sales tax revenue collection, as January has historically been one of the three lowest collection months, followed by March and April. These totals are based o...
For farmers evaluating Governor Inslee’s Salmon Recovery bill, the devil is in the details. Details like what exactly constitutes a Riparian Management Zone and whether the riparian buffers proposed in the now withdrawn HB 1838 will not just target salmon-bearing streams and side channels but encompass delta farmland behind Skagit River dikes. The million-dollar question: Inside those buffers, is farming permitted? The bill is clear about the need to maintain and enhance natural resource industries like agriculture and to encourage the conserva...
The newly formed La Conner Town Council began laying the foundation for 2022 by finalizing committee assignments and tightening up ordinance language related to hazardous buildings during its one-hour Zoom session last week. New Councilmember Ivan Carlson, III flagged what he termed “broad” and “subjective” terminology in an ordinance section for abating structural dangers, questioning non-tangible references to infringements upon aesthetic and sensory standards. “They’re too broad,” said Carlson. “I feel there would be unintended cons...
Demolition of the old garage behind The Slider Café on a January Sunday drew plenty of attention. What was missed, however, were conditions spelled out on the Town demolition permit allowing the structure to be torn down on property eyed as the site for a 20-unit apartment complex. Planner Michael Davolio told the La Conner Planning Commission, during their monthly Zoom meeting two days later, on Jan. 18, that a stop work order was placed on the demolition because representatives of property owners KSA Investments had not conferred with...
Changing county planning rules to permit fully contained communities (FCCs) “opens the door for making this county suburban,” said Margery Hite last Tuesday, Jan. 11, during an online Community Conversation sponsored by the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. “Growth in Skagit Valley: Our Future, Farming & FCCs” drew about 90 Zoom participants, La Conner residents among them. Hite is on the grassroots campaign ‘Right Growth, Right Place’ advisory group, which opposes permitting FCCs. She described FCCs and their likely impact on Skagit County in g...
I appreciate the inclusion of the “State of the Town” in the Jan. 5 Weekly News. It’s useful to hear the mayor’s thoughts in his own words. I hope you’ll ask him regularly for his views on other Town matters. I am, however, concerned with these words: “The Town has been working to achieve its population goals with the creation of two new subdivisions .... .” My concern is with his reference to the Town’s population goals. I was not aware that the Town had population goals and, if we do, where they came from or for how they are to be met. As a s...
Rick Dole and Ivan Carlson, III, successful election challengers, joined victorious incumbent MaryLee Chamberlain in being sworn into their La Conner Town Council positions Jan. 11. Councilmember Mary Wohleb was not on the ballot but count her among La Conner’s election winners. She was the unanimous choice to serve the next six months as La Conner’s mayor pro-tem. “This position,” Town Administrator Scott Thomas explained, “is typically filled by two council members each year. The mayor pro...
It was billed as a special meeting but played out much like similar Town of La Conner audit exit sessions of the past. And that was good news for town leaders. The one difference is the 35-minute Zoom discussion between La Conner representatives and the state auditor’s office Monday afternoon, which was conducted remotely, same as the two-year audit itself. Audit Lead Christy Fazio, and Supervisor Karyna Orcutt announced clean Accountability and Financial Statement Reports, which they and Mayor Ramon Hayes confirmed included reviews of m...
Friday La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes called a special meeting of the town council Monday, Jan. 10 to review the 2021 audit exit from the Washington State Auditor’s Office. The 3 p.m. meeting is through the Zoom platform only. The announcement did not specify if the review is of a financial or accountability audit. To join the meeting: https://us02web.zoom. us/j/87 5619 52358?pwd=K.3R4aTBga2dCV zBqMD BsOEJ zemxtZz09 Passcode: h5t0xr Phone Number: 1-253-215-8782 Meeting ID: 875 6195 2358 Passcode: 044510...
Anyone paging through a stack of 2021’s Weekly News will find the obvious bright spots: the Fourth of July parade, concert and fireworks, an absolutely stupendous Halloween Parade and the lighted boat parade. The most wonderful record, set month after month, was the over-the-top Town of La Conner sales tax revenue collections. Facing year two of the pandemic a year ago, the town guessed it might collect $328,202 in 2021. Way too conservative. Sales tax revenue is likely to exceed $630,000, 62% over the forecast. That surprise sales tax revenue...
The people have spoken, but the last word in La Conner’s 2021 election goes to Councilmembers Bill Stokes and John Leaver, whose terms expire as the year ends. Voters did not return them to the council table, instead choosing challengers Rick Dole and Ivan Carlson, III in November in campaigns emphasizing public and traffic safety, law enforcement, housing, protection of public open spaces and retention of La Conner’s much coveted quality of life. Stokes and Leaver – as well as longtime Councilmember Jacques Brunisholz, who resigned in...
