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Don’t talk about the Rexville Grange in the past tense. Membership may be small and the calendar light, but this Grange is alive and well. Built in 1927, the Rexville Grange has hosted potlucks, weddings and receptions, rummage sales, art shows, dances, memorial services, service projects, polling sites and parties in its 95 years. As an official Red Cross shelter, it housed 300 people displaced by the 1990 Fir Island flood and offers its grounds to all farmers who need to keep farm machinery o...
A Shelter Bay man who for seven years has appraised and analyzed area properties learned the true value of real estate while growing up here. Danny Hagen embraced the community of his youth, returning to La Conner after having played college basketball and competed in track and field at California Lutheran University, a married man seeking the ideal location to raise a family. “I loved my time in La Conner so much that as soon as my wife and I found out we were going to be parents, we knew we h...
Math was the primary subject of study for La Conner School District board members at their April 11 study session. District librarian Beth Clothier made a presentation on two new math curricula being considered for adoption next year at the nearly two-hour special hybrid session. Clothier outlined the pros and cons of Bridges to Math and iReady Classroom Mathematics, the program finalists from four curriculum options reviewed by members of the La Conner Elementary School math adoption team. The board will choose a program April 25. Team...
Although no longer billed as the Not So Impromptu Parade, the magic remained in place in La Conner last Saturday, April 9. Now titled the Tulip Festival Parade by its organizer and sponsor, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, the 2022 version was bigger than ever, back in full swing after a two-year pandemic induced hiatus. What’s more, the Town of La Conner’s Fire Department’s 1941 white truck started up First Street on time at 2 p.m. It led some 45 entrants, some of them, thankfully, last minut...
My heart soared to read “New app helps students learn Lushootseed language” article (April 6 Weekly News). Although only a handful of paragraphs were devoted to the new native language learning program to be offered at La Conner schools, it was great and happy news in a nutshell. It was not stated but hopefully the program will be offered and encouraged at all grade levels. Perhaps it is because my career was in speech-language pathology that it grieves me when I too often read of indigenous languages being lost. This is happening with ala...
I believe it was Rahm Emanuel former chief of staff for President Barak Obama who coined the expression, “never let a crisis go to waste”. In other words make it work for you politically. Well, so now Joe Biden is using the war in Ukraine in a way that is really quite cynical and insulting to the people of America and really the world. He is using this horrific event that has cost untold thousands of lives to further his green agenda by first very falsely claiming that all of our inflation and high gas prices are due to “Putin’s war” which is p...
Dear Editor: I noted your comments stating: “Every word we use needs to be carefully chosen” in your editorial linking national Women’s History Month and the Russian war against the Ukraine. I thought the need to carefully choose our words is probably a universal truth. Then, I read the letter to the editor regarding leased land at Shelter Bay. I have no doubt the author of that letter has strong feelings and might be personally affected by relevant circumstances. I think a careful choice of words in expressing personal opinions would avoid...
I don’t wish to initiate a “letter to the editor” debate, but Ms. Shimeall’s response (Weekly News 3/23) to my and Mr. O’Donnell’s recent letters begs clarification. First, she asserts that living in Shelter Bay (SB) on leased “Swinomish land” is possible because the tribe generously “granted us the privilege”. The fact is, anyone living on leased land in SB does so purely because of a business deal Axel Osberg/Osberg Construction Co. negotiated with the tribe in 1968 - the master lease - which is up for renewal in 2044. Osberg did all of t...
The surreal became all too real last Wednesday as a few locals watched from both sides of the Swinomish Channel and the Rainbow Bridge, witnessing what for decades has been an everyday occurrence here. With cell phones and cameras in hand, they captured images that morning of Dunlap Towing skipper Tom Zimmerman bringing a log tow south past town, Swinomish Village, and Shelter Bay to storage off nearby Goat Island---a familiar scene that has played out for as long as most locals can remember....
I found it concerning when I read the recent letters by Mr. O’Donnell on March 9 and by Mr. Elliott on March 16 about taxes paid by Shelter Bay. Anyone buying a home here on leased land is clearly informed that we live here because the Swinomish Nation has granted us the privilege. In any lease situation, we do not presume to tell our landlord how to use their income. But even more than that, a non-native living here should not be taking the same position (or taking the same for granted) as we would living on land that is solely part of the U...
Kudos to La Conner resident Dan O’Donnell for his persistent and astute analysis of local and county financial matters, especially regarding taxation (letter, March 9 Weekly News). The Swinomish taxation of Shelter Bay “improvements” – only the homes, not the land – is an anomaly. For those who do not know the history or have forgotten, it is the consequence of a lawsuit brought in Thurston County by the Chehalis Tribe over property taxation of Great Wolf Lodge, in which they had a majority interest. Local courts ruled in favor...
The Swinomish Tax Authority used the same levy rate for 2022 as for 2021: $11.98 per thousand. But, the assessed value of homes in Shelter Bay and Pull & Be Damned increased from $178,838,070 to $196,284,197, an increase of $17,446,127. The Swinomish government hopes to collect $2,350,888 in taxes from Shelter Bay, Pull & Be Damned, Thousand Trails and Dunlap Towing. That’s $208,214 higher than last year. Three taxing districts will receive contributions from the Swinomish. These are: Fire District 13 at $300,000 ($100,000 more than last year),...
Events of the last few weeks have made me recall my own travels in Kyiv, then spelled Kiev, and what I saw there in 1970 as a 15 year old girl. What comes to mind most clearly is our visit to Babi Yar and the official denial that it was even there at all. I was traveling through the Soviet Union with my parents, in our own car, heading to visit the tiny Carpathian town where my father had been born. We started in Finland and spent a month driving through what was then the U.S.S.R. In Kyiv, as in every other place, we were provided an official...
The quaint town of La Conner has drawn people from the world over. The Skagit Valley, on the whole, is a very special place. The location, climate and the beautiful vistas that come with the changing seasons bring people here every year. What vision are we seeking for the special area that we live in? Do we want to be memorable for what is here? What is the memory we want our visitors to take away from here? When I first heard of the plans for the apartment building going in on Center Street behind The Slider Cafe, I found myself disheartened....
This is in regards to the Feb.9 Weekly News article, “Should the Shelter Bay board resign over the Rainbow Park clearcut?” While we appreciate and applaud your efforts to enlighten our community by your article, we also need to correct your statement about the efforts to remove the board. We want to make it clear that the attendees who met Feb. 9 are not looking to remove the entire board. Our efforts are focused on those directors who have violated their oath of office by voting to indemnify Steve Swigert and volunteer Ric Henderson, imp...
The La Conner Town Council may face a difficult choice at its Feb. 22 meeting: whether to green light $21,800 in already approved hotel/motel tax funds for a 11 foot tall “Love La Conner” “marketing icon” so it gets built or whether to reject the Gilkey Square location, following recommendations from the town’s arts and parks commissions citizen advisory panels. “We did not consider it artwork but as an advertising sign,” Sylvia Strong, arts commission chair told the Weekly News Sunday. “We d...
A January letter to Jack Galbraith, president of the Shelter Bay Community Inc. board of directors calls for his – and the board’s – resignation. The letter, paid for by a couple of residents, asserts the board violated the community’s governing documents and Washington state law when they, as a corporate entity, paid a $92,513 fine to the Swinomish Tribe for the September 2020 Rainbow Park clearcut by Steve Swigert, a director. That decision privileged him over the interests of the entire community, the letter claims. The six pag...
The Jan. 23 article in the Skagit Valley Herald, “Piece of state legislation has its detractors in Skagit County,” reveals deep concerns about how to save our salmon. What is clear is that we must act quickly and move beyond the voluntary programs, or we will lose this crucial species. All stakeholders will be impacted and all stakeholders must work together. The Lorraine Loomis Act for Salmon Recovery, introduced by Rep. Lekanoff, calls for repairing damage done to riparian zones around salmon rivers and streams. This will reduce pol...
Development of two properties in town helped transform La Conner from a sleepy waterfront village to the “Inn” place to be on Puget Sound. One, now the La Conner Country Inn, was a low-lying, flood-prone area. Several wartime housing units constructed during the 1940s were moved there from Whidbey Island. “They were not exactly built to last,” recalls Rick Thompson, whose father, the late Paul Thompson, bought the cabins and property at Second and Morris streets nearly a half-century ago. “I don’t know much about the history of the buildings e...
Scott Stephan Wilme died peacefully in his home with his family close by on December 30, 2021 in La Conner, Washington after a long hard battle with cancer. He was 53 years old. Scott grew up predominantly in Kirkland, Washington and Ocean Shores, Washington. As a teenager in Ocean Shores, he enjoyed riding his motorcycle in the sand dunes and was a volunteer fireman. He graduated from Hoquiam High School then attended Washington State University. At WSU, Scott became a member of the Pi Kappa Al... Full story
There is much David Franklin will miss about Shelter Bay when the longtime manager of the local residential community exits Jan. 28 to write a new chapter in a career that has seen him hold positions between here and southwest Alaska. In keeping with that literary theme, it is the characters that Franklin says he will miss most. “Some I work with, some are in the community, all are interesting and unpredictable,” Franklin told the Weekly News. “I can see why Tom Robbins wrote his novels here....
A white Christmas gave way to a blue Boxing Day. And even more blue conditions – in terms of plummeting temperatures – greeted the La Conner area this week with additional area-wide lowland snowfall anticipated Thursday. That forecast led Kamiak School District officials to announce as early as Monday that its girls’ basketball team would not travel to La Conner for a non-league basketball game scheduled here tomorrow night. The Dec. 30 La Conner High boys’ home non-conference bas...
I am writing because I think there may have been an error in the telling of the Rainbow Park clear-cut. In the story “Shelter Bay must pay $92,513; loses Rainbow Park clearcut appeal” (Dec. 8 Weekly News), you wrote: “Everyone in Shelter Bay had been kept informed over the last year by the board of this clear-cut case.” I do not think this is correct. There are a few who heard about what happened and attended some meetings this past year in regards to this fiasco, but I know that most of my neighbors know absolutely nothing about it, what ha...
In the first paragraph of the article titled “Tracking Rainbow Park clearcut event history” (Weekly News, Dec. 15) this statement is incorrect: “The Shelter Bay Town Hall group is considering lawsuits and recalling board members.” While some may be considering such actions, it is not the Facebook Shelter Bay Town Hall group that is doing so. I began the Town Hall group so I know the intent of the group. I assure everyone concerned that the intent is not to pursue lawsuits or to recall board members or to do anything that is biased or preferenti...
As a long time neighbor of Rainbow Park, I would like to take a moment to thank Steve Swigert for his ability to get things done. It has been years since proper maintenance was administered to the little channel-side facility and its time was due. My parents purchased neighboring lots in 1969 (the same year I was born) and had completed their vision of a home five years later. As a child of theirs I frequented the park regularly and over the years I saw the little scrubby pines grow to be big scrubby dead and dying pines. They were a nice...
