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The $46,949 reported in sales tax revenues to the La Conner Town Council in May by the state's Department of Revenue is the second highest 2024 monthly total, but below 2023's May collection by $1,123, 2.3%. The special use fire tax revenues were similarly down, 4.2% below May 2023, now $4,594. Hotel/motel tax collection was $11,740, 7.6% behind 2023's record May total, but also the second highest 2024 month. The May totals represent March collections and are typically the last low, pre-tourist...
In terms of solving a longtime housing shortage here, the town is being asked to make the impossible possible. It will take about 20 years to tell if La Conner is successful. Town Planning Commission chair Bruce Bradburn had some gripes when reviewing state and county mandates that La Conner prepare to add 124 new housing units – one-third of which would serve low-income residents – between now and 2045. Bradburn called that a “pipe dream.” “It’s fine to say we have a goal to provide more family housing in town,” he said. Town Assistant Pla...
La Conner leaders saw a shining example of solar power's potential during a two-hour tour of a state-of-the-art production plant in Burlington Thursday morning. Mayor Marna Hanneman, town councilor Mary Wohleb and resident Terry Nelson, who along with Wohleb is a founding member of the Skagit Valley Clean Energy Cooperative, met with Silfab Solar officials inside the firm's 220,000-square-foot automated facility where residential and commercial solar panels are manufactured for a growing...
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, even when grant monies are in hand. Town officials last week addressed the hidden and incidental costs linked to grant funding by adopting a new policy designed to assess which awards are most feasible to pursue and cost effective to administer. “Grants take an awful lot of time to apply for and to maintain when we get them,” Town Administrator Scott Thomas said. He told the town council at its May 28 meeting that he wants to develop a policy to determine which potential grant awards best fit La Conne...
The Town of La Conner seeks consultants to create a master plan, the first step for development of the 3-acre industrial area west and south of its S. Third Street parking lot below the town hall to Caledonia Street. It posted a request for qualifications May 22, with a June 18 submittal deadline. The RFQ timeline lists town council review and approval for July 23 and signing the contract July 25, eight weeks from now. The plan completion deadline is Dec. 31, 2024. Funding is from a $30,000 state of Washington Community Development Block Grant...
The La Conner Town Council last week chose to forego the path of least resistance when dealing with future downtown traffic flow and parking. Rather than table action and extend discussion of options for S. First Street, council members voted 4-0 during their May 14 meeting at Maple Hall to convert the historic and narrow route along the town’s popular waterfront to single lane one-way traffic with parking on both sides. Councilor Ivan Carlson was absent. Town Planner Michael Davolio suggested the change go into effect this fall, which would g...
A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist will look to maintain the chemistry enjoyed by the Town's Emergency Management Commission since its inception in 2023. Three-year town resident Jonah Keith was confirmed last week by the La Conner Town Council to fill a commission vacancy created by the death of Duane Carpenter, who had been the advisory panel's chief meteorologist. Keith brings to the board not only his extensive background in science and marine biology, but also the...
There are several directions town council members can take when it comes to future traffic flow and parking schemes on South First Street. The La Conner governing panel was scheduled last night to hear separate recommendations from its planning staff and planning commission for options for downtown traffic and parking as part of an ongoing update of the transportation element of the town’s Comprehensive Plan. Planner Michael Davolio and Assistant Planner Ajah Eills have proposed South First Street be converted to one-way southbound traffic w...
Bounce back. The $42,671 reported in sales tax revenue to the La Conner Town Council in April by the state’s Department of Revenue is the second highest ever for the month, behind 2022’s record $44,210. It topped March by $8,741. These are February sales: the state Department of Revenue reports on a two-month lag. Hotel/motel April tax collection was $10,165, 4% behind 2023’s record total but significantly higher, by 48%, than March’s report. Similarly, the $4,255 in special-use fire tax revenue was $141 below the record 2022 collect...
NOT TO BE MISSED Paths to Understanding presents The Let’s Go Together Partnership! 7 p.m. Thursday, May 16, Lincoln Theatre, Mount Vernon. Event is free. Walk-ins welcome. Join in the first public gathering for an evening of storytelling, music and conversation focused on strengthening our Skagit community. All, including community leaders, will speak about the importance of lifting up our common humanity. Come and join us to meet people from across the county and stand together to go into a brighter future. Let’s go together! More info: pa...
Last Saturday some 13 people – mostly La Conner residents, along with Channel Drive and Pull and Be Damned neighbors and the Home Trust of Skagit executive director – met Mayor Marna Hanneman at the La Conner Swinomish Library for her monthly community check-in. There were mostly familiar faces around the conference room table. These residents have attended Hanneman’s earlier library gatherings, as many of them joined in town-organized community mingles on short-term rentals, First Street parking and the town-acquired Jenson property. That...
Turnout was low but engagement high at a one-hour community mingle April 25 addressing possible future uses of the Jenson property. About two dozen people gathered at the Civic Garden Club to suggest how the town could best use the half-acre field on La Conner's south end, acquired in 2022 for $60,000, about one-third its assessed value. Participants reviewed maps of the property, a fact sheet and an informational pamphlet provided by La Conner artist Maggie Wilder outlining features that would...
Town Administrator Scott Thomas is known for his occasional use of dry humor, but there wasn’t anything funny about his report to Town Council members last week regarding drought conditions this year. “We’re already in a state of drought,” Thomas told the council during its April 23 meeting at Maple Hall. “So, we may be looking at water restrictions down the road.” Thomas reported that Washington’s snowpack, based on state Department of Ecology statistics, stands at just 68% of its average levels. “With chances for significant additions to the...
SUPERIOR COURT OF WASHINGTON FOR SKAGIT COUNTY No. 24-4-00189-29 PROBATE NOTICE TO CREDITORS (RCW 11.40.030) In the Matter of the Estate of Lyle R. Wesen, Deceased The co-personal representatives named below have been appointed as co-personal representatives of this estate. Any person having claim against the decedent must, before the time the claim would be barred by any otherwise applicable statute of limitations, present the claim in the manner as provided in RCW 11.40.070 by serving on or mailing to the co-personal representatives or the...
Because of its desirability and geographic constraints limiting growth, La Conner has long dealt with a housing crunch, especially with affordable housing. Those conditions have now contributed to a pressing side effect: homelessness. In his written report delivered in advance of the April 23 Town Council meeting at Maple Hall, Town Administrator Scott Thomas noted that homeless people have begun camping overnight at Pioneer Park. “The town has experienced ongoing issues stemming from homeless individuals camping in the park, primarily r...
Town planning commissioners trod a familiar path at their April 16 public meeting. The five-member advisory panel, which is in the process of drafting updates to the transportation element of the La Conner Comprehensive Plan, revisited options for potential future traffic flow and parking on South First Street. Discussion didn’t end there. Commissioners will take up the topic one more time at their May 7 session, during which they could agree on recommendations to forward to the Town Council for consideration. Commissioners and residents h...
Make housing a Jensen priority The population of La Conner is aged and aging. In-migration or family formation by families of low and moderate incomes hasn’t been the case for a decade or more. There is little to no housing available for young families who would like to live here and send their children to La Conner schools. This has led to frequent calls for “affordable” housing. The prior mayor and town council had a promising opportunity to turn those calls into action when it purchased (and immediately sold) two-thirds of the Maple Avenue b...
La Conner Town Council members and residents attending the April 9 meeting heard the down news: March's sales tax revenues are 15% below 2023. Year to date, sales tax revenue is down 15%, $124,353, from $146,681. All tourist-driven tax revenues are lower and considerably below projections, as reported to the town council in March by the state's Department of Revenue. The $33,930 collected in sales tax was 15.6% below 2023. The $3,382 for the fire department tax was 13.8% below last year and the...
Town council members last week paved the way to pay for future work on La Conner’s streets, sidewalks and trails. The panel during its April 9 public meeting unanimously approved a 0.1% sales tax to fund the town’s new Transportation Benefit District. The council action is tentatively set to take effect July 1. Council members opted for the sales tax rather than an increase in local vehicle license fees to provide revenue for the TBD. Town Administrator Scott Thomas said the sales tax will be paid in part by those who drive to La Conner to sho...
TOWN OF LA CONNER NOTICE OF ORDINANCE Notice is hereby given that the Town Council of the Town of La Conner, Washington, passed Ordinance No. 1245 at the April 9, 2024 Town Council meeting. A summary of Ordinance No. 1245 is as follows: An Ordinance establishing the Transportation Benefit District funding. Complete copies of Ordinance No. 1245 are available at La Conner Town Hall, P.O. Box 400, La Conner, WA 98257 Dated this 10th Day of April, 2024 /s/________________ Maria DeGoede, Town Clerk Published in the La Conner Weekly News, April 17,...
A woman is elected the new mayor of a small town on the edge of the Pacific Ocean in November 2023. “I think Langley is a very sweet, quaint town. It is not homogenous. (That’s) my experience,” Mayor Kennedy Horstman told the Weekly News in a joint interview with Director of Community Planning Meredith Penny March 21. The city’s residents “are very different people passionate about a lot of things. They are not all in agreement. … We are all one community but there is a lot of diversity on views of the future,” Horstman believes. Langley, a ci...
There’s no dead end when it comes to debating the future of S. First Street. The oft-discussed topic was again the focal point among town residents and planning commissioners during a 90-minute public meeting April 2. The last word on the subject still appears a long way off. The panel and audience discussed one-way traffic, angled parking and retaining the status quo for the narrow street that accesses the historic waterfront and retail core. They agreed that more data is needed before forwarding recommendations to the town council. To that e...
Town of La Conner staff are planning a community mingle about the best use for the Jenson property. The date may be April 25 but no information has been posted on the town website as of April 8. “Town officials over the next few months will begin examining potential options for the Jenson property located south of Channel Cove near the Maple Avenue approach to Pioneer Park,” Planning Director Michael Davolio wrote to the town council in their April 9 packet in his March monthly planner’s report These forums have typically started at 6 p.m....
A complex building project requiring the necessary permits from two separate permitting entities, a geology study, weather and possible staffing shortages – to say nothing of carving out a rock wall – has contributed to the slow progress of the Snapdragon Flats project at Maple Avenue and Park Street in La Conner. This is not the development of La Conner Heights on High Street, rather it is the start of construction for two apartment triplexes at the base of the rock outcropping. On Feb. 1, 202...
Five years ago, 10th District State Rep. Dave Paul successfully lobbied his colleagues in Olympia to provide funding to build the La Conner Swinomish Library. Paul was at the library for a March 27 town hall that included several of La Conner's appointed and elected officials, including Mayor Marna Hanneman. Those attending the forum asked Paul questions related to education, housing and Washington State Ferries. Perhaps most important, they secured Paul's commitment to back La Conner's...
