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The Swinomish Tribal Senate has pretty much put the kibosh on the possibility of tax refunds for the 931 La Conner area homeowners whose property is coming off the county tax rolls next year. What hasn’t been finalized is the level of funding the public entities who rely on those tax revenues will receive in the future and how much of the tax burden could be shifted to the remaining property owners. Under state law, people can request tax refunds for up to three years. There were five people whose buildings are on leased tribal land in S...
The Swinomish Indian Senate has adopted a formal tax code aimed at eliminating the possibility of refunds for the 931 parcels coming off the county’s tax rolls. A federal court decision exempting all structures on tribal land from property taxes opened the possibility that homeowners on leased tribal land in Shelter Bay and in the Pull & be Damned Road neighborhood could seek up to three years of property tax refunds. While the owners have never been taxed on the leased tribal land their homes sit on, the county has been assessing taxes on the...
Although a federal court ruling made 931 La Conner area properties on tribal land exempt from county property tax, on Tuesday the Swinomish Indian Senate decided to take action preventing tax refunds to homeowners on leased tribal land. The Senate, which is the governing body for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, voted to establish an interim tax on improvements on reservation trust land that is equal to the amount assessed by the county going back to 2011. Taxpayers on those lands will receive credit for all taxes paid to the county and...
On a leisurely cruise back to Alaska to attend our youngest son’s wedding, we were notified that our middle son’s wife, Bree, had taken a turn for the worse in her 16-year battle with breast cancer. Bree was first diagnosed when she was 20, and she spent the next 16 years battling various forms of breast cancer and undergoing just about every treatment available. She was deemed cancer free twice. She and Zac had two delightful little boys, but in June of 2013, she died. She was 36. I decided I n...
With 931 La Conner area parcels coming off the property tax rolls, people are wondering what their tax bills will look like in 2015. Homeowners in Shelter Bay and on Pull & Be Damned Road won’t be paying property tax to the county next year. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be paying for tax-supported public services. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Senate has formed a committee to work out a tribal tax code. Meanwhile, the smaller pool of people who will continue to pay their county tax bills could face big increases, unless the tribe takes actio...
Dezi, my beloved Pomeranian companion of nearly 15 years, died on Wednesday, August 20, in the arms of his second mom-my, Angela, while his mommy was on an Alaskan cruise. The Sunday before he died, he enjoyed a dog day afternoon in the presence of nine other dogs, including his two favorite canine cousins, Maggie and Granddaughter. Dezi was born October 5, 1999, and I met him when he was 6 weeks old. I sat in a field, along with five other puppies. Dezi came to me immediately and didn’t l...
After years of being in the dark, the Rainbow Bridge may soon light the way over the Swinomish Channel once again. La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes announced the idea to the town council last week, during a roundtable discussion. The idea to rekindle the lights was originally brought to Hayes by Shelter Bay residents Ken Olsen and Chuck Norris. “I’ve talked informally with county commissioners,” said Hayes. “I’ve talked with local communities and the Port of Skagit: there was no negativity whatsoeve...
Skagit County Assessor Don Munks declared that most of the homes in Shelter Bay and in the Pull and Be Damned Road neighborhood will be removed from the 2015 tax rolls. At the same time, the Swino-mish Indian Senate reached a consensus that there will be a property tax on those homes levied by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Senate established a committee to work out the details. Meanwhile, homeowners on the 931 properties coming off next year’s county tax rolls are expected to pay the second half of their 2014 taxes, which is d...
Anne Chisholm Hillard, 91, of Anacortes, passed away peacefully Tuesday, September 9, 2014 at her home. She was born on November 12, 1922 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Anne “Bernie” (O’Hearn) and John Valentine Chisholm. Known as “Nancy” during childhood, she lived primarily in Havre Boucher, Nova Scotia, but also in upstate New York and Montreal. Anne attended St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Originally planning to pursue medicine, she instead graduated with a Ba...
Audrey Elizabeth Layton (Jones) 92, a long-time resident of the Skagit Valley, died peacefully and surrounded by her children at Ashley Gardens in Mount Vernon, on Thursday, September 4. Born and raised in Granite City, Illinois, Audrey was the second oldest of six children. After graduating from Granite City High School, she worked for several years before meeting Raymond E. Layton at a USO dance. The couple married after a brief courtship and just before Second Lieutenant Layton, a member of...
Former La Conner resident Sharon Mae Lee died peacefully on Friday, September 12 of acute leukemia at age 70. Her son, Dr. Kelly McCullough, was instrumental in coordinating the care she received from her doctors during this illness. Her beloved husband, Don Lee, was with her constantly throughout her struggle and was holding her as she passed. Sharon was born Sharon Mae Knapp on March 6, 1944, the only child of Wayne P. and Letha Myrtle Knapp. She grew up in Seattle, attended Franklin High...
With 931 parcels coming off the county’s property tax rolls next year, the financial state of the La Conner School District and Fire District 13 and hundreds of taxpayers rest in the hands of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Senate. On Tuesday, the Skagit County Board of Commissioners essentially directed County Assessor Don Munks “not to break the law,” in the words of Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt. To that end, Munks said his office has removed from the county’s 2015 tax rolls all homes and other structures that were built on leased...
BeanJo, the self-proclaimed King of Pull & Be Damned, died on Saturday, September 6, among the rosemary and thyme with friends at his side. A great swimmer all his life, he continued to enjoy a swim at the beach until the day before he died. He was the NW Champion Log Roller for years. BeanJo had many human friends and was exceptionally gentle with young’ns. He would respectfully retrieve balls thrown at great distances of a foot or so. As an alpha male, he also had a number of canine frienemies...
Agencies and taxpayers are nervous over the financial impacts of a federal court ruling that makes most of the properties in Shelter Bay and on Pull & Be Damned Road exempt from property taxes. If the 931 homeowners on leased tribal land decide not to pay the second half of this year’s taxes due on October 31, as some owners have suggested, the La Conner School District and Fire District 13 are going to be scrambling to fill huge budget holes. Worse, if the homeowners sue to have up to three years of property taxes refunded, the agencies and sm...
James “Jim” Reid Greer, Jr., of Shelter Bay, died on Tuesday, August 19 surrounded by his loving family. Jim was born in Los Angeles on October 10, 1938. He reminisced that he had a great childhood participating in basketball and track for Compton High School, playing the trombone for the Long Beach Boys Club Drum and Bugle Corps, Huntington Park Youth Band and the Compton Junior College Band. Jim loved that he was able to play in bands with his father for the Long Beach Elks and vet...
Now that the Skagit County Assessor’s Office has crunched the actual numbers, it is apparent that the federal court’s tribal land tax ruling would hit La Conner worse than originally thought. Dave Thomas with the Assessor’s Office said that if the ruling stands, there will be a total of 931 properties taken off the tax rolls with a combined value of about $138 million. That is the number and value of homes on leased tribal land in Shelter Bay and in the Pull & Be Damned neighborhood — the only area in Skagit County that the federal rulin...
An 8-inch water pipe burst underground Monday night, flooding the south end of La Conner’s Third Street near Pioneer Park and leaving Shelter Bay faucets dry. Witnesses said the blowout occurred at around 8:30 p.m. The town’s Public Works crew spent the rest of the night digging up the street to replace a section of pipe and restore service to residents in Shelter Bay. The water was back on before noon, though some residents reported lower pressure and murky water in the pipes, likely due to...
The federal court ruling that made at least 1,000 La Conner area homes exempt from property taxes is in the hands of lawyers. County officials have said the affected properties will be removed from the 2015 tax rolls. Meanwhile, the county is advising residents whose homes are on leased tribal land to pay their taxes this year, “until we get this sorted out,” said RC Cavazos, chief deputy with the Skagit County Assessor’s office. The second half of the 2014 property tax is due Oct. 31. The move stems from a United States Court of Appeals for t...
Skagit County government officials are scrambling to figure out how to deal with a huge cut in tax revenue resulting from a federal court ruling that eliminates property tax for every building on tribal land. That means most of the approximately 900 homes in Shelter Bay, a gated community built on leased land that the federal government holds in trust for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, are now exempt from property taxes. Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen said buildings on tribal land will be removed from the 2015 tax rolls. In the...
Our dad, Ron Nelson, died peacefully, surrounded by family, on Saturday, July 26 in La Conner. He was born in Seattle June 21, 1929, the only child of Alice Gertrude King Nelson and Angus Johannes “Joe” Nelson. Ron grew up in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and graduated from Central Washington University, where he studied economics. While there, he met our mom, Flossie Mitchell, his wife of 59 years. Flossie preceded him in death. Ron, who served in the Korean War, retired from the U.S. Nav...
County inspectors closed down La Conner’s Rainbow Bridge for about eight hours Thursday after a 911 caller reported they heard a small explosion and thought they saw something fall off the bridge. The incident started around 1:30 p.m. Thursday when Skagit County 911 received a phone call from someone on the Swinomish side of the channel who said there appeared to be a small explosion on the bridge. That prompted the Skagit County Department of Emer-gency Management to shut down the bridge and the roads to the bridge at approximately 1:50 p...
Fire District 13 Commissioners Chuck Hedlund and Arne Fohn settled on a match for the vacancy on their three-member panel, avoiding punting the selection to the Skagit County Board of Commissioners. Former Shelter Bay Board President Larry Kibbee was appointed and sworn into office during a sparsely attended special meeting Wednesday afternoon at the district’s Station 2 offices on SneeOosh Road. Kibbee replaces former commissioner and veteran firefighter Doug Avery, who stepped down in A...
Cyrus Betts, who will be in second grade come fall, finished off the last day of school with a plunge in the Shelter Bay pool. Cyrus and his buddies were enjoying themselves at the End of School Bash at the Shelter Bay pool and cabana on Monday right after La Conner Elementary School let out for the summer. Terri Cunningham and Karen Watkins, of Shelter Bay, spearheaded the event. They organized a prize raffle, made sure there were plenty of tasty snacks and ended the afternoon with a...
La Conner resident Robert John Herrington died at age 94 on Easter morning, April 20, at Mira Vista Care Center in Mount Vernon after suffering an earlier stroke. Bob was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon on December 12, 1919. He attended Pelican Grammar School and Klamath Union High School. He joined the Army Engineers in 1937, and was discharged in 1940, and then went into the Army Reserves. He attended Oregon State University. He was called back into the Army 29th Engineers in 1941 and made...
Remember those cute little neighborhood children who used to ring your doorbell and run away on May Day? Those same youngsters are now in high school, and they are planning to ring your doorbell again this May 1. The difference, however, is that this year they won’t be leaving a bouquet and running to hide. This year they will be offering you a brochure about the La Conner Community Scholarship Foundation. The foundation has been gifted with bequests, donations and memorials that allow it to offer scholarships of varying amounts to the great m...
