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The “flood/dike update,” a recurring item of unfinished business at La Conner Town Council meetings, became the elephant in the room at Council’s Nov. 13 meeting. Council member Jacques Brunisholz repeated his concern that the Town is not protected from a catastrophic flood, that climate change means weather is unpredictable and that he, and the Council, is not meeting its prior agreement for adding $50,000 annually to the flood control fund. “We need to have the Town protected,” he said, “all the rest is for naught. “It was set up years ago...
Plastic straws are hollow and rigid and objects move through them. They are also a lot safer topic to write about than guns. This editorial on plastic straws is way overdue. It was conceived following the Town Council banning plastic bags in July. Then other seemingly more urgent topics took precedent. The elections are over, but gun murders continue. In the month since three people were murdered in Las Vegas on Oct. 14, there have been four mass shooting where at least three people were killed. The 11 deaths at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synago...
A Town Planning Commission Open House drew a full house Monday night. All chairs around the table, including a piano stool, were filled when the public was invited to peruse and discuss updates proposed to the Town’s Comprehensive Plan during a one-hour forum at the La Conner Civic Garden Club Building. More than two dozen people attended, both new and long-time residents and business owners among them. Residents received notice of the meeting in their October utility bills and the meeting w...
When it rains, it pours. It’s not just a phrase that describes local weather this time of year. It also aptly describes a recent flurry of activity related to key town of La Conner Public Works projects. A lot is happening all at once. Several major items on the Town checklist are being addressed simultaneously between now and Christmas. Topping that list is the water main replacement project on the west side of La Conner-Whitney Road between Young and McLean / Downey Roads. As of this week, SVR...
It was anything but politics as usual during the two- hour candidates forum at Maple Hall Thursday night. Information and not defamation was the prevailing theme. Thirteen of 28 candidates vying to be non-paid County Commission District 1 freeholders charged with crafting a new blueprint for Skagit government should voters approve a November 6 ballot initiative shared their views and helped clarify the multi-step process. It’s a format with which most at the well-attended event weren’t fam...
In the longest Town Council meeting in at least a couple of years, democracy was both patient and in action Sept. 25. Mayor Ramon Hayes laid out a firmer 2019 budget that included significant reductions in hotel-motel tax grants. The Town will use $40,000 from that fund to repair the Maple Hall elevator, estimated at $155,000. Funds are also budgeted for shoreline restoration at the waterfront park. The La Conner Chamber of Commerce’s allocation was reduced to $43,000 from 2017’s $74,000. By the meeting’s end, $17,000 was restored. Hayes ackno...
To the Editor: At the September 25 meeting, the Town Council voted to pay the City of Anacortes $5,114 for reconciliation of the operation and maintenance (O&M) portion of the 2017 water bill. By my calculations, La Conner only owed Anacortes $3,050, a difference of $2,064. The accounting for Capital expenditures is never reconciled. Anacortes made three mistakes. They assigned some charges to Regional (us) when they should have been assigned to Retail (city). For county taxes they charged us the full amount instead of reducing the amount by...
Dear Voters: The current structure of the Skagit County Commissioners needs to change. It concentrates too much power in very few hands and makes it too easy to abuse that power – no matter who is elected to fill those three seats. Those opposing a charter government, like Commissioner Wesen, say it would be detrimental to agriculture. However, a charter form of government could give us a county council of 5 to 9 part-time members. The newly elected freeholders who represent all demographics will decide the number and the structure of...
A friend gave me this magazine article: “The death of local news: The watchdogs of America’s local and state governments are disappearing. Can they be saved?” This Weekly News has stories on the latest town council and school board meetings in it. Under Sandy Stokes’ editorship, it won a statewide open government award for its lawsuit forcing Fire District 13 to turn over budget documents as public records. At least a couple of people every Wednesday strike up a conversation over articles and editorials they have read. It is good to know th...
Over 50 people, including at least 10 from greater La Conner, crowded into a room at Coconut Kenny’s last Wednesday and the free pizza and beer was the least of the draw. Home Rule Skagit organizers were rallying supporters for the election campaign to approve a charter for Skagit County. The 3,333 petition signatures they collected this year and submitted in August qualified the measure for the November ballot. Steering Committee Chair Gary Wickman told the crowd, “When it passes we will hav...
In response to what Mayor Ramon Hayes termed “chain migration parking,” the Town Council unanimously passed an ordinance at its Aug. 14 meeting limiting recreational and commercial vehicle parking to “72 hours for one or more locations” within six months. Administrator Scott Thomas said this would “resolve the issue of the vehicles moving to other spots in town every 72 hours.” Hayes said that once the code was effective, on Aug. 19, it would be applied to an “extremely belligerent” transient parking his RV on Caledonia. Council also pa...
Class reunion season here isn’t just for former students. Retired La Conner High teachers and administrators also gather each summer for what’s fondly called an “old school lunch” on the waterfront. The class act resumed Wednesday afternoon on the outdoor deck of the La Conner Pub & Eatery. Some came from as far as the Olympic Peninsula. Many, however, still reside locally – living in or near a town much different from the sleepy fishing village with boarded up downtown storefr...
The dilapidated property on First Street south of the La Conner Tavern that has been owned by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for generations and closed for decades may be in for a complete make over. Leon John, chair of the Swinomish Development Authority, said the Tribe is “going down the path of building an interpretive center,” an option discussed by his authority for many years. He calls the proposal a “small museum.” John said, “We want to tell our story, give background on what t...
Get ready to pack your bags – literally! The Town Council ban of plastic bags in stores takes effect today. Reusable and paper bags are about to become a common sight in La Conner. Shoppers at Pioneer Market will no longer have their goodies placed in a typical plastic bag. Sean Skiles, owner of the Morris Street market, said, “We are not opposed to doing our part in keeping things safe, clean and green in La Conner.” Although it is required for all La Conner stores to stop using plastic bags, Pioneer Market has an extension of up to fou...
Democracy was in action in Anacortes the evening of July 19 as 60 people energetically participated in the second workshop on civil discourse sponsored by the Volunteers of America’s Skagit Dispute Resolution Center. MaryLee Chamberlain was at least one La Conner participant. “Doing [petitioning] for ballot initiative 1631, I ran into people in denial about climate change,” the town council member and school occupational therapist said. That unreality about reality prompted her attendance. Jacquelyn Styrna, the Reso-lution Center’s regiona...
The La Conner-Whitney Road water main replacement project will be funded by a $1.5 million, 20 year revenue bond the Town Council decided at its July 10 meeting. The bond is structured as a loan, with payments coming from “water revenues” the Town receives from its water, sewer and drainage funds. Mayor Ramon Hayes told Council, “The intent is that water rates will pay for this bond.” The project is slated to start in September and finish in December. The bid notice is in today’s Weekly News. Bids must be received by July 30. They will be o...
I urge our mayor and town council to do all in their power to get the Rainbow Bridge repainted. It is a recognizable feature – indeed a landmark – of La Conner. As such, it deserves to be maintained accordingly. Elizabeth S. Smith...
To the Editor: The La Conner Town Council was used by a group of women, from Mount Vernon, primarily, who wanted plastic bags removed from our stores. Marilyn Johnson and I were the only ones to see though this and testify at the public hearing last Tuesday. It was inappropriate to adopt an ordinance to ban plastic bags. Inappropriate for two reasons: It punishes only one enterprise, the Pioneer Market. It will cost between $10,000 and $15,000 dollars to convert away from plastic. The market will have to add to their storage room to...
Town Council’s action passing a plastic bag ban ordinance June 12 was forward thinking, leading all Skagit County communities. Representing the citizens of La Conner, council members took the initiative, a small but significant step to reduce plastic waste and lessen harm to marine life. It was a good night for community involvement. Two town residents spoke vigorously against the ban, concerned about burdens to the owner of Pioneer Market. Eight others, mostly from out of town, supported the ban. Mayor Ramon Hayes and all five members d...
In a unanimous vote, Town Council passed an ordinance banning plastic bags at retail stores at its June 12 meeting. Beginning August 1, “No retail establishment in the Town, or any of its employees, managers or owners, shall provide a disposable plastic carryout bag to any customer” the ordinance reads. There are exceptions; named are a variety of bags used for holding small items, nuts and bolts, flowers and plants, frozen foods, meat, fish, unwrapped prepared foods or packaged multiples of bags for a variety of wastes. The Council’s exten...
Plastics dominated the Town Council’s May 8 session. The Council signaled its willingness to ban disposable plastic bags handed out at retail stores. Carol Sullivan of Mount Vernon, the “BAG Lady with Skagit BAG BANd Wagon,” made a lively, lengthy, power-less, pointed presentation, using poster board signs to start the meeting. She buried them with facts: in this plastic age 350 million tons are produced annually. One hundred billion bags are used annually. Half of all plastics are single use and then trashed. Sullivan said society has “fall...
Longtime La Conner resident Jeanne (Alaways) Johnson passed away on May 2, 2018. Jeanne was born in Anacortes, WA July 21, 1924. She was the oldest of six children and grew up in Port Angeles and Clear Lake working in the family shingle mill. After traveling from Alaska to Louisiana she settled in La Conner in 1964. Her passions were gardening, hiking, rock hounding and cooking. She had several businesses throughout Skagit County and through these hobbies and ventures she met and touched many lives. In the early 80’s she went back to school a...
As a teen, Craig Bartlett helped preserve La Conner’s past with his detailed drawings of local landmarks. Now, four decades and countless critical and commercial successes later, the famed animator is helping champion the town’s future. Bartlett, one of the enter-tainment industry’s most creative minds, returned home Saturday to present a film festival benefit for the new La Conner Braves sfter-school program. With a string of hit TV shows and feature films to his credit, and a still ascen...
As in so many Town Council sessions, resident Dan O’Donnell led the way, using his three minutes of public comment time to raise questions on the City of Anacortes’ billing procedures for their fiber optics installations through the City’s water main, against which La Conner is charged. He asked the Council to consider why that City is charging costs to a capital account. In response, Brian Lease, director of public works, told Council that the billing practice was questionable. O’Donnell succeeded in getting council members and Mayor Ramon H...
In a quietly, lawyerly way, the issue of the Town of La Conner’s replacing its broken water main with a 16-inch pipe heated up last week. Mayor Ramon Hayes, in his March 13 report to Town Council, informed them that “Shelter Bay put it in writing: ‘we plan to leave the system in three to five years.’“ Hayes said his response was clear: “That will be a violation of the contract with the Town of La Conner. The contract is in perpetuity.” He explained that term was put in the 2011 Water Agreement at Shelter Bay’s request. “Termination is...
