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As a youth, Grace Hubbard experienced history. As an adult, she helped make history. And now, having completed her first century of life, the local icon is keenly focused on the here and now, checking off a diverse to-do list of activities at La Conner Retirement Inn and the community's senior center as well as outings with longstanding friends. Shortly after her 100th birthday this month, Hubbard enjoyed dinner with one of those friends, Joan Cross, former owner of Balance Point Physical Therap...
When power failed in La Conner late Friday night and Saturday, the cell phone flashlights came out at Art's Alive. "It was art in the dark," said La Conner Arts Foundation board member Sheila Johnson – at least in the Invitational Show on Maple Hall's main floor. Upstairs, natural light flooding through the windows made the Open Show pieces easier to see on Saturday. Entrance table volunteers fielded the question "When will the lights come on?" over and over. After some false starts, the q...
The Problem: Vehicles parking on First Street for extended periods of time during high tourist traffic periods. Who are the primary offenders? Business owners and employees. First Street residents. Hotel guests. (All of whom should be parking off First Street during business hours.) Simplest solution: Two hour parking limit, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily and April thru September only. Why not paid parking? 1) Parking is a minimal problem October thru March 2) Pay kiosks would be detrimental to First Street’s historic character. 3) It would discourage l... Full story
Unity is a key part of the word community. That theme was stressed throughout the annual La Conner Young Life Dessert Fundraiser held Sunday night in the elementary school commons area. A wide cross-section of folks from in and around La Conner, representing the town, agricultural, Swinomish, Shelter Bay, Snee-Oosh and Fir Island communities attended the two-hour event, supporting the faith-based program that provides summer camp and monthly social and personal growth opportunities for local...
On a morning during which local veterans were honored, La Conner Schools staff employed military precision to blend two indoor student assemblies within 45-minutes. A Veteran’s Day program keynoted by retired U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Scott Poulton, a Shelter Bay resident, meshed seamlessly into a sendoff ceremony for the state tournament bound high school volleyball team. Students in grades K-12 entered Landy James Gym single file to designated seating areas Tuesday morning for the Veterans Day segment of the twin assemblies.. About a half-hour l...
Electric bikes are getting more popular and are getting strong support as a very healthy means of transportation. Washington Governor Jay Inslee is a strong advocate of electric bikes and the Washington state Legislature recently approved an appropriation up to $7 million in the next two years to support the purchase of e-bikes and create e-bike “lending libraries.” The incentive program provides e-bike buyers a $300 point of sale rebate regardless of their income and people with lower inc...
It’s okay to feel scared and spooky in La Conner next Tuesday. In fact, it’s encouraged. That’s because Oct. 31 is Halloween, one of area residents’ favorite celebrations and the unofficial kickoff to the holiday season. The fun starts with the La Conner Parent-Teacher-Student Association costumed parade on First Street, at 3 p.m., after school. Parade participants are to meet immediately beforehand at the La Conner Marina south basin parking lot. The festive walking serpentine will start at the corner of First and State streets and proceed...
The candidates in La Conner's only contested 2023 election shared their views and personal backgrounds at a Skagit County League of Women Voters forum in Mount Vernon Monday night. John Agen, elected director in District 1 in 2019, is the La Conner school board's legislative liaison. Janie Beasley served a decade on the five-member governing body until 2019. Each shared prepared statements and answered a set of questions. Candidates for seats on the Sedro-Woolley and Mount Vernon school boards p...
Ted Taylor is fondly dubbed “Captain Catastrophe” because of his persistent calls for local emergency preparedness. But the Skagit County Fire District 13 captain and emergency management coordinator might more accurately be called a realist. That is especially true this week after the magnitude 4.3 earthquake centered south of Port Townsend that struck Sunday night and was felt in La Conner households and other locales throughout Western Washington. Numerous La Conner area residents reported that the quake rattled furniture, some likening it...
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the possibility of buying a second electric car. I’m still giving that some consideration. However, before making a final decision, I’m going to wait till the recently-announced process is finalized for the (up to $7,500) federal tax rebate to be directly deducted from the price at the time of purchase is in place. That’s expected by January. While looking at the state of the art of electric cars, I found out that another electric vehicle type has been getti... Full story
Emergency management is more than a hot current topic. It will have great significance in the future as well. Which is why Skagit County Fire District 13 Capt. Ted Taylor is proposing that local schools consider teaching their students important community emergency response skills. Taylor floated the idea during the fire district’s 90-minute monthly meeting at the Snee-Oosh Road station Oct. 5. He reported on a well-received presentation he gave in September as the district’s emergency management coordinator on preparedness for natural dis... Full story
“The Mousetrap” is running through Saturday at the Anacortes Community Theatre and it has been selling out every show. It is a wonderful murder mystery by Agatha Christie, her first play. It opened in London’s West End in 1952 and has run successfully around the world since. Paul Fadoul is the director. He has worked around the country in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and has happily settled into Shelter Bay with his husband after 25 years in film and television. He fi...
A friend and I had the good fortune to attend The Wayfinder Market’s “First supper club of the fall season” on Friday night Sept. 29. I say fortunate because if you missed out you are truly unlucky. We had a fabulous time. Twenty guests sat at a big L-shaped table and spent 2-1/2 hours getting to know each other over a delicious five-course meal. Food was fantastic. The company was fabulous. The staff members were wonderful. If you get the chance to make reservations for one of these supper club meals I say go for it. It was 2-1/2 hours well... Full story
When I first started reading Mel Damski’s column today, I thought he was going to say that the Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) estate had sued the La Conner Weekly News for plagiarizing the beloved author’s book title. Yikes! That didn’t happen, but why doesn’t Damski take this as a perfect opportunity to come up with a new name for his column? He is a writer, after all. I’m sure he could come up with something original. Annabelle Massey Malloy Shelter Bay... Full story
Over ominous music playing in a darkened theatre a scream shrieks out. When the curtains open onto an early 1950s English inn’s sitting room, the news on the radio is of a murder of a woman in London. But that is hardly background noise even after the headline in the day’s newspaper is read by an arriving guest, Mrs. Boyle (Beth Morgan-Cleland), one of an ensemble cast, each actor well defining his or her unique characters and thus standing out individually. Five guests will soon be greeted by Mollie (Amanda Wells) and Giles (Rob Hanson) Ral... Full story
Over 3,000 greater La Conner residents were without power for several hours Sept. 26 following a vehicle collision north of town. The areas affected by the outage was southern Fidalgo Island east across the La Conner Flats to Pleasant Ridge and the North Fork Skagit River bridge and along McLean Road to Best Road. According to the Safely HQ community health platform, electrical service was interrupted when a motor vehicle crash occurred near the intersection of McLean and La Conner-Whitney roads around 1:40 p.m. Outages were reported on Fir...
No amount of rain was going to dampen spirits at the Skagit County Fire District 13 Open House Saturday. That is because the event’s guest of honor, retired fire district commissioner and former Shelter Bay resident Larry Kibbee, has long been admired for his sunny disposition. Kibbee served six years on the fire district’s governing panel prior to moving to Bothell. He returned to the Snee Oosh Road station for the formal dedication of a new residential building that bears his name. “I would...
The 2023 pattern for homes sold in Skagit County holds steady: Fewer properties are available in most of the county’s nine markets than a year ago. Considerably fewer homes are selling, about 25% below 2022, month over month, and prices are about the same as 2022, kept high by the ongoing either side of $800,000 for monthly median sold home prices in Anacortes. In August, $880,000 was the median price for the 27 homes that closed there, by far the highest price of the year. The median price of the 134 homes that closed in Skagit County in A...
Despite perfect late summer weather, thoughts of potential natural disasters – earthquakes, tsunamis, wildland fires and more – were on the minds of those visiting John K. Bob Ball Park on Swinomish Reservation Saturday afternoon. Emergency management staff and volunteers from throughout the region shared information and provided take-home items for use during major disaster events. The four-hour Swinomish Disaster Preparedness Fair, coordinated by the tribal emergency management dep...
The median price of the 126 homes that closed in Skagit County in July was $545,000, slightly down in the five months since March. Anacortes home prices continue to influence values county wide. The median sold home price in that market was down considerably from June and July 2022, over $100,000 and $150,000 respectively. Nine of the 10 homes sold in the La Conner market were in Shelter Bay or on the Fidalgo peninsula. Homes are generally selling at or within 10% of the list price, either...
Merlin James "Jim" Hanson, 87, died peacefully on Aug. 23, 2023 from complications of congestive heart failure surrounded by his wife Margaret (Midge) and daughters Brit, Laura and Kari. Jim was born in McGregor, N.D., the sixth-born child of Minnie and Erwin Hanson. His life journey included the roles of Lincoln Lynx, UW Husky; U.S. Army officer; and insurance man. Jim was a member of the 101 Club, found golf late in life at the Skagit Golf Club; an adventurous salmon fisherman and boater; and... Full story
NOT TO BE MISSED Skagit Symphony begins its 2023-24 season with “Second Chances” on Oct. 21. The concert features Sandra Shen on piano playing “Stars” by Mary Howe, Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto and concludes with Mussorgsky’s legendary “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Info: www.skagitsymphony.com/second-chances. LIBRARIES La Conner Swinomish Library. 520 Morris St., La Conner. 360-466-3352.www.lclib.lib.wa.us. Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Storytime for Children. 11 a.m. every Friday. Book Club. Meets at...
This year’s tribal Canoe Journey brought sacred tribes to the shores of Swinomish from distant lands with their final landing at Muckleshoot, Alki Beach. The canoe journey is a tradition that has taken place for generations. The canoes were most often crafted from a single log that may have been several hundred years old. There is much honoring around the wood used, as their use has been integral for the tribe’s survival. This was their way of travel, their way of life was upon the water. It was relied upon heavily. Many of their resources cam... Full story
I am at this moment (early August – ed.) watching these heartbroken Moms testify about their beloved sons and daughters who lost their lives, needlessly, at the hands of the U.S. Government. They are asking for the truth about who made the decision to pull out of Afghanistan in a deadly, foolish, coldly calculating, absolutely horrendous method. It was a complete failure. Shame on this administration. Disgusting and unforgiveable decisions that cost 13 lives needlessly. Also, other questions that need to be answered, which this government seems...
We almost always assume everything will be the same. That is not true for humans or birds. Climate change in California is affecting birds more so than people. Thirty percent of California forests have burned in the last decade. This does not include the loss of plants due to erosion, which provided food and shelter. During migration, most birds live off the land. They consume fruit and water. Plants lost to fire may take years to repopulate and provide this food. This year there seems to be a reduction in swallows numbers. Part of this may be...
