Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 302 - 326 of 735
Swinomish and Fire District 13 officials have begun taking steps for a joint community paramedicine program. “It’s still in its infancy stages,” said FD 13 Commissioner J.J. Wilbur at their monthly meeting June 9. He is also a Swinomish Indian Tribal Community senator. “We’ve had preliminary discussions about a potential partnership between Fire District 13 and Swinomish,” said Wilbur, “but it hasn’t gone to the full Senate yet. We’re still doing our homework.” Fire Chief Wood Weiss, firefighter Andrew Schram and the Swinomish Tribal po...
The people have spoken and three newly elected Shelter Bay Homeowners Association board members vow to continue listening. Judy Kontos, Dan McCaughan and Nancy Shimeall were announced as winners at the association’s annual meeting May 21, following the tally of electronic and mail-in ballots. All three committed to fostering sustained dialogue and assuring transparency in decision making, a continuation of the examples they set in their campaigns. Then they met frequently at small neighborhood gatherings. “I’m a good listener,” McCaughan, a two...
For J.J. Wilbur and Skagit County Fire District 13, what is old is new again. Wilbur was appointed to the fire district panel May 12 after a four-month hiatus. He had served as a commission appointee through 2021 but was ineligible to stand for the seat during last year’s election because he was also on the ballot for a La Conner school board position. Veteran firefighter Bobbie Scopa ran unopposed for the open seat. But Scopa resigned as a fire commissioner last winter, due to moving to Arizona. That opened the door for Wilbur – who is a...
It did not rain on the Swinomish Yacht Club’s boat parade Saturday afternoon. But it sure was windy. Fortunately, the dozen or so vessels comprising the opening day flotilla on Swinomish Channel were ready for a wild and woolly ride. The event’s theme, “Jungle Cruise,” showed on several levels. Entries sported décor reflecting the popular 2021 Disney retro action-adventure film of the same name. The handfuls of spectators on both sides of the channel braved chilly gusts to view various si...
La Conner resident Marian Roper passed away peacefully after a very full life, at age 96. Born at home in Camas, Washington, she grew up on a farm next to Lacamas Lake, was an avid swimmer and became a lifeguard at 15, receiving local praise for saving a drowning boy. She was also passionate about music from a young age. She took voice lessons as a young girl and later studied classical voice at Lewis and Clark College. Though her musical training was interrupted by marriage and motherhood,...
Shelter Bay board of director candidates offered a daunting mix of current issues and future goals requiring creative problem-solving and long-range planning during a two-hour April 27 virtual forum. About 100 homeowners from the residential community logged onto the town hall-type format, which featured a briskly paced question-and-answer session with six of the seven candidates. Nancy Shimeall, Judy Kontos, Brad Voorhees, Dan McCaughan, Joe Harper and board treasurer Louise Kari fielded questions relayed through board executive secretary Ann...
On April 13 a meeting of Shelter Bay homeowners was held at Summit Park Grange Hall. It was well attended and all homeowners welcomed. No elected board members chose to attend. The group sponsoring the meeting is called the Rainbow Action Committee (RAC); the name may change as the focus shifts over time. Initial concerns reflected the devastating tree clearing that occurred at Rainbow Park, the excavation of the tree stumps, potentially damaging tribal archaeological artifacts, potential environmental impact (runoff), followed by the...
I would like to thank the La Conner Middle & High School for the wonderful 2022 spring concert on the evening of April 19. It was truly a tribute to the hard work of two teachers, Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Clark and their students! We were amazed at the complexity of some of the numbers! It is great to be able to sit in the audience and hear the music in person once again. I am looking forward to the future and more outstanding concerts. Kay York Shelter Bay...
Thank you for continuing to talk about our existential crisis in your last editorial, “The world after Earth Day.” I am sorry that you have not had anyone else saying that you were not radical enough but let me say it now: you were not radical enough. I have always been a nature-lover and concerned about the environment, but only began really learning about oncoming climate chaos when I retired seven years ago. I cannot believe we have only taken baby steps, and many people are still kicking and screaming about any policy that might appear to...
The La Conner Guitar Festival is back after a two-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Beginning Friday, May 13 and ending that Sunday evening, music enthusiasts from La Conner and well beyond will gather in Maple Hall and the Civic Garden Club to experience the festival’s world-class luthier exhibits, workshops and concerts. Luthiers are craftsmen that build or repair guitars and other stringed instruments. Single day tickets and weekend passes can be purchased online or at the door. The box office at Maple Hall will open 9:30 a...
Today, April 27, at 5 p.m Shelter Bay Community residents can attend a Zoom candidates forum to evaluate seven candidates running to fill three positions on their board of directors. Elections are May 21, during the annual membership meeting. Board members have been criticized for their decisions to protect Director Steve Swigert after he clearcut trees in the community’s Rainbow Park in September 2020, improving his property’s view of the Swinomish Channel. The board paid the Swinomish Tribe a $92,513 fine and penalty after indemnifying him. R...
Cindy Vest was in the truest sense born with ink in her veins, to an Everett family long established in the printing business. Her own legacy would be that of serving as the lifeblood of La Conner newspapering through parts of six decades, from the 1970s until her retirement last year. The remarkable impact made in local journalism by Vest, who died April 10 after a brief illness, is best summed up by her friend and former business partner Sandy Stokes. They founded the Weekly News in 2006 with the late Wayne Everton. “There would not be a p...
Judi Slajer passed away peacefully on April 21, 2022, with her husband Tom Rosadiuk, her daughters, and granddaughter by her side.? Judi was born on July 29, 1941 in Grayling, MI to parents Horace Gray Sabine and Margaret Veronica Scherer. The U.S. Forest Service transferred her father to Leavenworth, WA where Gray worked as a forester and Margaret was a teacher at the local school. Judi and her big brother Robert spent their summers in the woods around Lake Wenatchee camping, winter skiing and...
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),...
