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Rhoda Hazel Claassen Lindstrom of Shelter Bay died Sunday, April 8th, 2018 at Island Hospital following a battle with heart failure. She was 95. Rhoda was born December 26, 1922, in Akron, Ohio to Arthur and Letha Claassen. In 1942 she married Edwin Eugene Lindstrom in Tacoma. She was married to Edwin Gene for 66 years. In 1985 Rhoda and Gene built their home in Shelter Bay where they enjoyed boating, fishing, RVing and camping. Most of Rhoda’s career was in Special Education. She worked at Renton Hospital, delivery and nursery, Lake City Fircr... Full story
As usual, Charity Jordan spelled trouble for her rivals. For the judges she spelled everything else. Letter perfect, at that. The poised and humble La Conner eighth grader won her third straight regional Spelling Bee championship at Skagit Valley College in March. That secured her a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the Washington, D.C. area for a third consecutive spring. Charity will compete against the country’s top student spellers starting May 27 in National Harbor, MD. Yet her rare regional three-peat isn’t all that makes Cha...
A spur-of-the-moment idea to have a downtown parade here during the Tulip Festival still has legs more than three decades later. The 32nd annual “Not-So-Impromptu” Kiwanis Tulip Parade, sponsored by US Bank, is set for 2 p.m. April 14 on First Street. This year’s parade Grand Marshal is recently retired Town Administrator John Doyle, who for a decade during his tenure at Town Hall managed to juggle both planning and managerial duties. His parade role shouldn’t be nearly as taxing, given the event’s well-established focus on fun. “All I ha...
In a quietly, lawyerly way, the issue of the Town of La Conner’s replacing its broken water main with a 16-inch pipe heated up last week. Mayor Ramon Hayes, in his March 13 report to Town Council, informed them that “Shelter Bay put it in writing: ‘we plan to leave the system in three to five years.’“ Hayes said his response was clear: “That will be a violation of the contract with the Town of La Conner. The contract is in perpetuity.” He explained that term was put in the 2011 Water Agreement at Shelter Bay’s request. “Termination is...
Why do smart and successful and experienced people set themselves up for heartache, strife and failure – and pain? A journalist in Akron, Ohio titled a book of essays about his people “The Hard Way On Purpose.” That’s the Akron of LeBron James and the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Browns, the rust bowl region where defeat gets snatched from victory year after year. Here, in our corner of the world, there’s a skeleton board of trustees at MoNA and across the channel a board of directors running the Shelter Bay Community. Each gr...
La Conner Middle and High School students walked out of their classrooms Wednesday morning, taking the first steps toward what many vow will be a lifetime commitment to civic involvement. They organized a march down Sixth Street from the local campus to Morris Street to protest gun violence and promote school safety. The La Conner march was one of hundreds that took place across the country a month to the day after 17 Florida high school students and teachers were killed by a teen gunman armed...
One Saturday evening not long ago, the distressed cries of a cat could be heard coming from our neighbor’s 70-foot-high tree. Closer examination with binoculars revealed that is was indeed a kitty stuck about five feet from the top. Throughout the next day, neighbors up and down our street visited the tree – all worried for the cat’s safety. One person placed a can of cat food at the base of the tree, and drove to the Fire Department for help. We learned that the Fire Department does not have the equipment nor ability to rescue treed cat...
The Town of La Conner’s decision to install a single 16-inch pipe when it replaces the broken water main along La Conner Whitney Road this year provides excess capacity of 18 million gallons annually beyond what the Shelter Bay Community uses. The Community may decide it doesn’t want water from the Town at all. Board of Directors President Anne Hays told the Weekly News that its March 2 response to the Town “stated the community is talking with the Swinomish Tribe to provide water from their system, which is much closer to the Community and c...
All’s well that ends well! A call to Shelter Bay staff Saturday reported that a group of children were seen playing in the water around Martha’s Beach when the tide was out on Saturday, but were not seen returning after the tide had come in later in the day. Fears were compounded by the fact that a bicycle and children’s clothing and personal belongings were left behind at the beach. The call was relayed to 911 by Shelter Bay staff. Emergency responders arrived right away, immediately set up a command post and started systematically searc...
Bob was born in Los Angeles, CA to Wayman G. Cushman and Ruth Johnson Cushman. He grew up in San Dimas, CA in the family business, Cushman Hardware. Bob attended Cal Poly Pomona where he was very involved in student government and was Rose Parade float chairman. During this time, he was assigned to chaperone Patti Hamilton, cheerleader, and his future wife. Bob and Pat were married August 12, 1961 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in La Habra, CA. In January of 1962, the family relocated Cushman Hardware to Payette, ID. While in Idaho, three... Full story
The Shelter Bay Community Board of Directors chose to not make a decision on participating in the Town of La Conner’s phase I planning of its water main replacement project at its February 14 meeting. Instead, Board President Anne Hays sent Mayor Ramon Hayes a series of questions on two topics in a February 16 letter: Fire flow and Phase I planning for the replacement of the transmission main under La Conner Whitney Road. The Town government asked for a decision on participation throughout 2017. Shelter Bay board and staff have responded to e...
Counting exemptions, the Swinomish Tribe will collect $1,926,535 in taxes from the 950 homeowners in Shelter Bay and Pull & Be Damned during 2018. The levy rate is 13.0988 per thousand, up from 12.3923 in 2017. The school levy went from $2,521,789 in 2017 to $2,754,295 in 2018. The schools should receive a contribution of $789,577 to pay their fair share for educating the kids in Shelter Bay and Pull & Be Damned. But, the schools are receiving only $570,000. The remaining $219,577 must be funded by the 2,470 taxpayers of the La Conner school di...
Homeowners in La Conner School District could be in for sticker shock when property tax bills come in the mail this month. Increased state school tax coupled with a local tax disparity created by unelected state bureaucrats and tribal lawyers four years ago will hit some people hard again. The school district, which includes the Swinomish Reservation, draws about two thirds of its students from tribal land that the district and state do not tax. The majority of registered voters in the district pay no school tax, but last February they helped...
Over 50 Shelter Bay Community residents attended a town hall meeting January 31 for a presentation on the Shelter Bay Water System. The Community is facing decisions for its future supplier. Since its 1968 inception, Shelter Bay has received water from the Town of La Conner. The Community and Town have an ongoing contractual agreement that is in perpetuity according to John Koch. John Koch, chairman of the facilities committee, offered 47 slides summarizing history, status, needs and estimated costs to update the system. The key issues for the...
Anacortes will be shutting down the water main that serves La Conner on Jan. 31, 9 a.m. thru Feb. 2, 1 p.m. During this time La Conner will provide water service supplied by the 1.5 MG (million gallons) water reservoir; 3 days should not be a concern. I will monitor the tank hourly. I have requested Shelter Bay’s intertie with the Swinomish be on standby. That said, I ask all La Conner water customers be “Water Wise” with business as usual during this time. Please contact me with any questions, [email protected] or 360-8...
Work progressed this week on laying two water line sections to replace a failed 60-year-old main along a 1.5 mile stretch of north La Conner-Whitney Road. Crews were working on the final 100 feet of replacement line Monday afternoon, said Town Public Works Director Brian Lease. The two four-inch sections will tie into an existing 14-inch main to serve 10 homes in the affected area. An aging eight-inch La Conner-Whitney Road line dating to the 1950s ruptured last week, making necessary the emergency fix. Once the twin line sections pass...
Editor: With the second annual women’s march behind just us, sentiments from last year’s march are as relevant today as ever. Here are my baker’s dozen of still-salient slogans seen at last year’s march: “All Lives Matter” “Together We Rise” “Standing on the Side of Love” “Make America Kind Again” “Bridges, Not Walls” “Lady Liberty is Watching” “Will Not Go Quietly” “We are the Future” “Justice is Colorblind” “I’m With Her, and Her, and Her, and Her” “We are All Immigrants” “We Will Not be Marginalized” And perhaps my favorite sign of all: ...
A love affair has ended with the passing of Donald Moore. He leaves behind his beloved Jane in Sandy, UT. Theirs was a storybook beginning: He, a pilot and officer with the RCAF – she, working for a congressman in Washington, D.C. They met and sparks flew and they were wed, never to be apart .... and after the glam and the parties in D. C., they, at some point, settled on the Northwest for a landing spot and picked a small community called Shelter Bay. When they arrived, they determined to work as they could to enrich all activities,...
Robert A. “Bob” Westlake, 93, of La Conner, WA passed away peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday, Jan. 03, 2018, at Home Place Memory Care in Burlington, WA. Bob was born on June 12, 1924 in Kansas City, MO, the son of J.A. Westlake and Maude R. Westlake. After high school graduation Bob enlisted in the Army Air Corp, flying as a Navigator/ Bombardier in B-25’s through-out the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Returning home from the war Bob earned his degree in Mechanical Engineer-ing from the University of Washington. In 1948 he married Patri... Full story
Add one more to this year’s Birds of Winter list. The pink flamingo. Or, in the case of Todd and Katie Wigal of Shelter Bay, make that pink flamingos. The local couple awoke Sunday morning to find a flock of 100 pink flamingos gracing their front yard. Gracing might not be the right word. But, as with snow geese and trumpeter swans, they were certainly eye-catching. The mass migration of colorful plastic birds to Shelter Bay isn’t linked to global warming, habitat loss or any other sci...
Local Emergency First Responders may not be able to respond to your area for up to 72 hours after a disaster, such as fire, earthquake, or tsunami. Register now for CERT – Skagit County’s Community Emergency Response Team. Join your friends and neighbors at the Shelter Bay Club House Jan. 9 for six weeks of training. Classes will cover Fire, Safety, Organization, Medical and Search and Rescue Operations. Register by Email: [email protected] or call Rick Wallace at 360-202-3106. More information is at www.skagitcou...
Some 1,500 Puget Sound Energy customers lost power for over an hour Dec. 19 when a tree fell on a power line and took a pole down with it at Eagles Nest Drive in Shelter Bay. The outage started at 12:45 p.m. By 1:48 p.m., the power was back on for all but 22 customers, according to Janet Kim, PSE spokesperson. Their power was restored by 9 p.m....
GIFTS FOR KIDS, LUNCH INCLUDED – Continuing their annual tradition, some 75 women from Shelter Bay brought gifts for children – note tree in way back corner – and joined together for lunch at the Farmhouse Dec. 22. Kiwanis volunteers later distributed the presents. – Photo by Don Coyote...
Be prepared. It’s not just the Boy Scout motto. It’s also a timely approach to life, one that helps define those who train to be Community Emergency Response Team or CERT, members. Local CERT training starts Jan. 9 at Shelter Bay Clubhouse. The mission is one that has helped shape lives here and elsewhere – and not just those victimized by hurricanes, floods, fires and earthquakes. The trainees themselves have found CERT to be, if not life-saving, certainly life-changing. Regardless of age. Consider its impact in Mart, Texas, a town of 2,...
BEST BOAT PARADE EVER – Well over twenty boats, a flotilla from the Fidalgo, La Conner, Shelter Bay and Swinomish Yacht Clubs, participated in the latter’s annual troll down the channel. Is it possible that over 1,000 people attended the cold, starry night event? The boardwalk was jammed from Hellam’s Vineyards to Calico Cupboard. The hour-long bumper to bumper car crawl leaving town was not nearly as entertaining. Annually, a sign of the times. -- photo by Don Coyote...
