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Cindy Vest was in the truest sense born with ink in her veins, to an Everett family long established in the printing business. Her own legacy would be that of serving as the lifeblood of La Conner newspapering through parts of six decades, from the 1970s until her retirement last year. The remarkable impact made in local journalism by Vest, who died April 10 after a brief illness, is best summed up by her friend and former business partner Sandy Stokes. They founded the Weekly News in 2006 with the late Wayne Everton. “There would not be a p...
I am opposed to the same-ification of this place with placing still another selfie spot in a world full of them. Our rich foundational history is being lost. I would spend that money on engaging signs that inform our visitors, new residents, and our Town Staff of what used to be: • Tillinghast – the seed company. Located where the restaurant Seeds was. (I think even the seed bins are gone now with the newest iteration.) • Dunlap Towing – The log rafts are gone. The tugs are gone and soon the office will be gone. After...
They say first impressions are lasting. In the case of designer Curt Miller’s preliminary drawings for the new Maple Avenue public park, that is a good thing. The La Conner parks commissioners were pleased with the draft design for the proposed park at their April 13 meeting. Commission chairman Ollie Iversen noted afterward that the next step is for Miller to develop a final rendering. “We enjoyed what he presented,” Iversen said. “We, too, are waiting for the final.” He said commissioners found that the Miller design fits nicely with surv...
It is not every day that an action by town officials is greeted with applause. Last Tuesday was one of those days. That’s when in-person audience members attending the April 12 town council hybrid meeting at Maple Hall put their hands together to support the panel’s decision to hire Aaron Reinstra for a new paid dual fire chief-code enforcement officer position. The post will pay $56,160 annually. “This is one of the best moves for the community we’ve seen in a long time,” Mayor Ramon Hayes said following the unanimous 4-0 council vote to c...
John Leaver's name has been in the news a lot recently. In fact, he has been in the news consistently for more than two years. The former La Conner town council member took the initiative the first year of the pandemic, in the summer of 2020, organizing First on First as a volunteer promotion to bring La Conner residents to dine and shop on First Street Friday evenings when out of towners were mandated to stay home to stay healthy. That campaign morphed into a 2021 hotel/motel tax funds proposal for a $21,000-plus Love La Conner marketing icon...
Dear Editor, I found the statement by Marna Hanneman, chair of the planning commission, that she found it a “difficult thing to go against the staff report” (Weekly News, April 6) absolutely stunning. The planning commission, as well as town council members, need to reset their thinking to realize they are called “staff” for a reason – they work for you! Just because Scott Thomas, town administrator, and Michael Davolio, town planner, feel they need to preserve their own jobs by carrying out Mayor Hayes’ pro-development agenda, doesn’t m...
On February 8 the Town of La Conner paid the City of Anacortes $6,940 for reconciliation of the water bill from 2020. The real amount owing was $3,068. Anacortes owes La Conner $3,872. The problem was that the city’s finance director failed to recognize that the former mayor committed the city to follow the Gray & Osborne study of 2005, which allocated customer records based on the number of accounts, instead of number of gallons of water usage. With 8,295 accounts in the water system, mostly in the city, it makes a big difference. Secondly, he...
For Fire District 13 commissioners, it was numbers that told the story of how 2022 is shaping up. The biggest one is $300,000 in funding support from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. Commissioners approved an interlocal agreement during their hybrid meeting Friday, April 8. Other numbers shared by District Fire Chief Wood Weiss tracked falling COVID-19 cases in the district, while calls for service – including those for patient transports – rising. Positive COVID-19 cases on Swinomish Reservation were under three dozen over...
Town of La Conner park commissioners met last Thursday with landscape architect Curt Miller to discuss his preliminary design for developing the new Maple Avenue park at Talbott Avenue. Commissioners and Miller are on a fast track to meet a May 3 application deadline for funding from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program through its Recreation and Conservation Office. The April 7 meeting at the Civic Garden Club brought the five commissioners, Town Administrator Scott Thomas, planner Mi...
Called a “re-do” by advocate John Leaver, the draft design of the above 16-foot-wide by 26-inch-tall by 5-inch-thick centerpiece is proposed for the southwest corner of Gilkey Square. Ken Barnes is the designer and Katie’s Inn owner John Durgin is co-champion. This 2.0 iteration replaces the Peter Whited designed 11-foot-tall structure budgeted by the La Conner Town Council last fall with hotel-motel tax funds for promoting the town to out-of-region tourists. Leaver, a former council membe...
It has taken a lot of energy from multiple sources to advance from the drawing board to construction phase plans for the new La Conner-Swinomish Regional Library. That kind of energy promises to be renewable on several levels going forward. Plans to solarize the library were shared in detail during a 45-minute Zoom session last Wednesday sponsored by the La Conner Library Foundation, La Conner Weekly News, and Western Solar, the Bellingham firm tabbed to install the library’s solar energy system. La Conner Library Foundation Director Susan M...
La Conner’s charm is reflected not only in the town’s scenic geography, but also in town codes and zoning standards. These standards are drafted to strike the delicate balance between supporting local economic vitality and preserving residential quality of life. The conditional use permit (CUP) process determines whether proposed land uses are compatible with specific zoning areas. Town planner Michael Davolio notes that conditional use applications seem more frequent in La Conner. There is a reason for that, he said. “From my persp...
John Leaver may has not left public service for long. The former town councilor, defeated for re-election by Ivan Carlson, III last fall, is Mayor Ramon Hayes’ choice to fill a three-month vacancy on the planning commission. Ironically, the open seat on the planning panel was created when commissioner Rick Dole was elected to the council last November. Dole was sworn in January. The council is expected to act on a resolution approving the appointment April 12. Hayes announced his decision to tab Leaver for the commission post during the M...
La Conner residents are invited to a public forum addressing “Growing Pains” in town March 31 at 6 p.m. in the school district’s Bruce Auditorium. The forum is the first effort of the town council’s communication committee to both provide information to residents on pressing issues and to engage the community in discussion. Councilmember MaryLee Chamberlain started championing getting information on town plans and projects to residents last fall. With fellow Councilmember Rick Dole, a committee started discussing ways residents can get accurat...
Congratulations to the planning commission for recognizing when a staff report is inadequate and should be ignored. Your vote to reject the Center Street project as too large and too impactful on the neighbors was the right thing to do. Thank you. I know how hard that was for you. The PC has been running short - three members (still a quorum) instead of five at this meeting. (One member was unable to attend). The vacancy which has existed since fall has still not been filled. Two good people from town offered to fill the role on the...
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...
