Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 752 - 776 of 792
Now that a vandal has delivered the death blow to the pay station at La Conner’s public parking lot, the Town Council voted unanimously to replace it on Tuesday. Before the old obsolete yellow box gave up the ghost earlier this month, it had taken in nearly $19,000 in $3-per-day-fees so far this year. Council member Bill Stokes noted that it might have brought in even more had it not been broken during the recent Art’s Alive! festival. The council authorized the purchase of a snazzy new pay station from Northwest Parking Equipment Company, whi...
For the second year in a row, the La Conner Town Council voted unanimously on Tuesday not to increase its share of property taxes collected from local landowners in 2016. Under state law, most public agencies are limited to increasing their tax revenue by one percent per year – that is not a limit on individual property owners’ tax bill increases; it is a limit on the revenue the taxing entity can take in. For 2016 the town has budgeted to levy $304,000 in property taxes. This year, since there was no 1 percent raise last year, that t...
Someone took what appears to be a sledge hammer to the pay parking machine at the Town of La Conner public parking lot on S. Third Street. Although the vandal was not successful in breaking in for the few dollars that might have been inside, they managed to totally break the machine. Public Works Director Brian Lease told the Town Council last week that the yellow box that had been taking paper currency and spiting out daily parking permits and dollar coins in change cannot be resurrected. The...
Here are some unofficial early results in the contested races affecting the La Conner area. The results will be final on Nov. 24, when the election is certified. La Conner Town Council Jacques Brunisholz ...............117 Charity Starkenburg ...............45 *Marylee Chamberlain..........123 David Ritchie .........................44 Port of Anacortes Position 3 Joe Verdoes .......................2,568 Judy Berentson ..................1,409 Position 4 *Pat Mooney .....................1,378 John Pope ..........................2,707 Port of...
Have you noticed the activity at Conner Waterfront Park these past several weeks? We started planting trees along the southern border of the park to define where the park stops. By using cedars and so forth, we will be able to reduce the vision of our adjoining industrial neighbor and make it look more park like. La Conner’s Public Works Department started by digging a trench from the water to the road to plant the trees and also put in a temporary water line so the new trees would have water f...
La Conner residents will soon receive notices from the Skagit County Assessor’s Office, outlining the change in assessed value of their property. “We’ve certified the roll and expect the notices will be mailed Friday,” Assessor Dave Thomas said Tuesday. The new values have already been posted on the county’s website. A quick check of the website shows that some properties in La Conner that were not re-assessed last year have new values about 14 percent higher, and some homes that had big increases in their assessed value last year will go u...
For generations La Conner’s volunteer firefighters had been called to action by an old 1950s civil defense “air raid” siren. In 2011, bending to the will of some lodging proprietors, the Town Council voted to eliminate the howling siren during weekdays, when the fire station was manned 24 hours per day. Several weeks ago, the last volunteer to man the station round-the-clock left, but the siren wasn’t turned back on. Maybe few have noticed the five-cycle warble has been missing for awhile, but come Oct. 1, people will notice its return....
Congressman Rick Larsen visited La Conner and Fir Island on Friday, touring Hedlin Farms and the Fir Island Estuary Restoration Project. “I always tell people you can meet in my office for 15 minutes, or I can come take a field trip and meet you for an hour,” said Larsen. Larsen, D-Everett, who represents Washington’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes La Conner, will head to Washington D.C. next week, when Congress will reconvene after summer recess. At the Fir Island Estuary Resto...
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. But if so, a La Conner Town Council member on extended vacation has yet to feel the love from two of his colleagues. For the second straight summer, arrows have been flung — and not from Cupid’s quiver — at council member Jacques Brunisholz. The retired La Conner High School teacher has been chided by fellow council members Dan O’Donnell and John Leaver for his meeting absences, last year to fulfill a longtime goal of trekking the Pacific Crest Trail and now to visit family and friends i...
La Conner has been hounding state and federal officials, and now the governmental gears seem to be starting to budge. Last week, State Rep. Norma Smith, R-Clinton, met with Gov. Jay Inslee to explain how a federal ruling caused La Conner area taxpayers to take a huge financial hit. It appears that a lobbying effort spurred by La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes, with added muscle from the La Conner School District, could eventually prod the federal government into bringing relief to the folks who saw their property tax bills jump by up to 25 percent...
The candidate filing period for the Nov. 3 general election closed on Friday and left La Conner area voters with a few contested races to decide. Town of La Conner For the Town of La Conner, Mayor Ramon Hayes is running for his third four-year term unopposed. La Conner Councilman Jacques Brunisholz, who retired after teaching generations of La Conner High School students and who has served on the council since 2008, is being challenged by Charity Starkenburg for his position 1 seat. Starkenburg is the popular owner of Bamboo Coffee, formerly...
Candidates trying to file for November’s General Election hit a major snag on Tuesday morning. The state Secretary of State’s election website experienced a major outage, possibly due to “utilization spikes.” Gabrielle Clay with the elections division of the Skagit County Auditors Office said her department couldn’t even access local information on the administrative end. The problem was resolved early in the afternoon, and candidate filing week resumed. In La Conner, Mayor Ramon Hayes announced last week that he will seek another term, and...
La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes has launched a town lobbying effort to address a situation that has left a fraction of the taxpayers shouldering the lion’s share of the local taxes. In January 931 parcels were removed from the La Conner area property tax rolls following a federal court ruling that structures on Indian reservation land are tax exempt regardless of who owns the structures. That means homeowners in Shelter Bay and in the Pull and Be Damned Road area who built their homes on land l...
Like a recurring dream, La Conner’s bed-and-breakfast code governing home-based lodging establishments keeps coming up for replays. The Town Council on Tuesday held a public hearing on a recommendation from the Planning Commission that some residents fear would allow more commercial encroachment into the town’s residential code. This followed a public hearing before the Planning Commission last Tuesday, during which a last minute change in a fairly routine housekeeping item cleaning up the definitions of bed-and-breakfast and guest house est...
Each year Skagit County Treasurer Katie Jungquist’s office mails out property tax bills to land right around Valentine’s Day. The goal is not so much to put a damper on the day, it’s just that the schedule calls for the bills to be delivered in mid-February. But this year, the county’s “Valentines” were still at the printer on Tuesday, and Jungquist said she expects they’ll be in the mail early next week. Even so, anyone anxious to know what they’ll be paying in property taxes this year can look it up on the county’s website, www.skagitcounty.n...
A disintegrating over-water deck on the one-way section of La Conner’s North First Street has been a topic of debate in town recently. The so-called “Kirsch property” was the site of an old warehouse purchased by the town for $350,000 in July 2001. For nearly 14 years, the property has been waiting to become a park. Now the La Conner Parks Commission has asked the town to look into selling the property, which has an assessed value of $240,000, according to the Skagit County Assessor’s office....
After years of lobbying by town officials, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to fund a study aimed at building a dike to protect La Conner from flooding from the Skagit River. Under the Corp’ dike proposal, if the study proves the project to be feasible, it would be built in 2018. And the agency is ready to fund $100,000 for the feasibility study, which will begin this year. If the engineering study costs exceed that first chunk of money, the town would kick in for half the overage. Should the plan move forward, a new levy would be bu...
New technology might someday help solve an age-old concern in the La Conner area. A plan to deploy portable geotextile-lined flood barriers as part of a future ring dike system on the northeast edge of town was part of an otherwise watered-down Thanksgiving week Town Council agenda last Tuesday. The mesh barriers, similar to those used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when battling flood conditions on the Mississippi River, would supplement construction of proposed new dike sections north and east of La Conner High School. The earth-tone...
The La Conner Town Council agreed to contribute $500 to fund a coalition of small municipalities that will lobby state legislators to provide money for costly infrastructure repairs. Mayor Ramon Hayes said officials with City of Shelton, astounded at the cost of repairs to that city’s water and sewer system, asked other municipal governments to join them in hiring lobbyists to advocate for grant money and low-interest loans to help fund vital infrastructure. Hayes said the cities have pooled about $27,000 for the effort, with their c...
There has been significant press coverage lately, both locally and nationally, regarding flood hazards. The Oso landslide reminds us that catastrophic events are usually infrequent, often unexpected in the moment they occur but predictable. While it has been decades since there has been significant local flooding, it’s important to note that 70 percent of La Conner is in the Skagit River 100-year floodplain. All of this sets the stage for recent changes to the National Flood Insurance Program administered by FEMA. Residents are likely to see t...
La Conner’s Maple Hall could be sporting an array of solar panels by next summer, if the town approves a contract with Glacier Energy, Inc. Kevin Maas, the principal of Glacier Energy, made a presentation to the Town Council last week, proposing to build a community solar project on the roof of Maple Hall, which would eventually generate electricity and lower the town’s energy bill. The idea for green energy is not new for the town — there is a photovoltaic power installation at the wastewater treatment plant, helping to lower the ene...
I am pleased to report on the overall success of the 30th Art’s Alive! event this year. There was a great turnout for the opening night event, which included delicious food samples from Nell Thorn’s, Anelia’s, LaTraviata, yOUR Bakery and Calico Cupboard. Opening night had music provided by Ben & Mia and gave folks the opportunity to meet the 13 invitational artists including the featured artist: Wayne Maslin, whose sculpture was depicted on our printed materials, Facebook page and the Art’s Aliv...
La Conner residents have been hearing early morning shotgun blasts announcing duck hunting season. Even though it sounds like there are plenty of shooting enthusiasts around, town officials started hearing from people who dislike guns when a new business opened on Morris Street. Kim Wilder says she was surprised at the reaction of a few local residents when she and her husband, Brett, opened Doc Holliday’s Mercantile and Guns. Still, she said she expects the controversy to die down as people b...
After years of being in the dark, the Rainbow Bridge may soon light the way over the Swinomish Channel once again. La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes announced the idea to the town council last week, during a roundtable discussion. The idea to rekindle the lights was originally brought to Hayes by Shelter Bay residents Ken Olsen and Chuck Norris. “I’ve talked informally with county commissioners,” said Hayes. “I’ve talked with local communities and the Port of Skagit: there was no negativity whatsoeve...
The La Conner Fire Department is gearing up for their newest addition – a custom-built fire truck for the town, expected to roll into station near the end of October. This truck has been in the works for a few years. In 2012 La Conner residents voted for a sales tax increase in to raise money for the truck and the town placed its order to have it built last year. Now it is nearing completion. “We’re very excited,” said La Conner Fire Chief Dan Taylor. “It’s been designed for our specifications and will be very serviceable for many year...
