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Skagit County’s Board of Commissioners and the Tesoro refinery’s company headquarters in Texas both sent letters to the federal government in bids to shield private property from tribal expansion. The county’s letter mailed Thursday was to affirm on record a response from the Bureau of Indian Affairs which stated that the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community cannot expand its boundaries without action by the United States Congress and that its jurisdiction off reservation is limited to tribal members exercising their hunting and fishing right...
An attorney with the Skagit County Prosecutor’s Office sent a letter to an attorney for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community seeking clarification on jurisdiction the tribe claims in proposed changes to its tribal constitution. An amendment to the Swinomish constitution states that the tribe will have jurisdiction “over all persons, subjects, property and activities occurring within … the Tribe’s usual and accustomed fishing grounds and stations and all open and unclaimed lands…” In other words, not just on the Swinomish Reserva...
The comment period on the proposed Tesoro Anacortes Refinery “Clean Products Upgrade Project” environmental review ends Monday and the Town of La Conner has made itself an official party of interest. Councilwoman MaryLee Chamberlain first brought the issue up early in April and garnered a consensus of support from her colleagues on the dais to study the project. At the last meeting the council voted unanimously to send its comments on the project’s environmental impact statement in the form of a resolution. Tesoro proposes to upgrade its refin...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s contention that its reservation is actually a third larger than its boundaries indicate and includes thousands of acres of private property has about 350 landowners very worried, Skagit County Commissioners have said. In a letter to Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby, the commissioners asked to have the matter settled in federal court for, “a binding decision on this matter.” That probably won’t happen, however. Essentially tribal governments don’t go to court unless they agree to go to court – t...
The Summit Park Grange in Anacortes was the place to be last Wednesday night for people with a stake in the land disputes that have put the Swinomish tribe at odds with some property owners and leaders from the Samish tribe, City of Anacortes and Skagit County. A panel of seven representing the city, county and Samish sat onstage, facing a room so crowded that people without seats leaned against the walls and spilled out the back door. Organizers counted 220 attendees. Landowners are worried the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community could assert...
Earlier this month, this newspaper documented a pair of closed meetings held by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. I want to make it clear to our readers that this newspaper stands behind those stories. We granted space for a lengthy letter by Swinomish tribal attorney Stephen LeCuyer to express their version of the truth. Our stories provided another example of how Swinomish and other tribes are given a venue to manipulate public policy that affects all of us by holding closed meetings with public agencies funded by taxpayers. As we...
Ian Foster died at age 63 on February 5, 2017, in the care of his family at home in Bow, Washington. Ian was born in Rowayton, Connecticut on January 25, 1954, the only son of David W. and Nancy A. Foster. He had a deep love of the East Coast but made his way to the West Coast in the 1980s, and eventually settled in La Conner. A fisherman since his child-hood, Ian became a successful commercial fisherman in the waters of Puget Sound and the Strait of the Juan de Fuca. A dedicated father, his... Full story
Skagit Co. Sheriff’s Office Monday Feb 27 11:53 a.m.: Creeper – A report of a prowler in La Conner. 7:27 p.m.: Bad parking spot – Deputies responded after a car-owner was planning to leave their car for a few hours at theLa Conner Whitney Road roundabout after it got a flat tire. Tuesday Feb 28 8:32 p.m.: Off-leash – Two dogs were spotted running free in front of the La Conner library onMorris Street. Deputies didn’t find them. Wednesday March 1 10:54 a.m.: Oops! – An accidental911 call from a business onMorris Str...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community excluded members of the press and local government representatives from two recent meetings it hosted on topics that could impact taxpayers. Swinomish has proposed to amend its tribal constitution in accordance with the tribe’s belief that its reservation should include thousands of acres occupied by two refineries, two car dealerships, many businesses and private homes. Press was specifically excluded from an event the tribe hosted last Tuesday for property owners in the disputed area. At the same time, t...
The first in a series of eight “consultations” to be held by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on rules regarding business enterprises on reservation land will be held next Thursday at the Swinomish Casino and Lodge. While the agency is seeking comment from tribes on a variety of elements as it ponders revisions to the “Traders With Indians” rule, the issue garnering the most attention among tribes and local governments involves taxes. Essentially, some tribal officials hold that it is unfair for state and local governments to tax non-tri...
A fire on the Swinomish Reservation destroyed a family’s home on Saturday. Firefighters from Fire District’s 13 and 11 and the City of Anacortes responded at about 1:15 p.m. to a house burning on Reservation Lane. The resident, Amanda Johnston, was not at home at the time, and there were no injuries. On Monday Johnston was assessing the damage, and said her cat, “Fuzzy Pickles,” and dog, “Bentley,” were confused about being displaced, too. Aly Sehlin, a language arts teacher at La Conner Middle School has set up a Go Fund Me page for Johnsto...
Fire District 13 Chief Roy Horn announced last week that he would submit his resignation on July 1, because his contract expires on Dec. 31. Horn told the board at the Thursday, Jan. 26 meeting that he would put in a letter of resignation only because his contract requires him to give six months notice, and he wants the board to do “succession planning.” When pressed later on whether he intends to retire, Horn said, “It depends on the board.” He said, “I want to put it in the board’s mind to have these things addressed.” When Horn made his...
The La Conner Town Council voted unanimously to cancel the town’s agreement with Fire District 13 and buy out its interest in the fire station on Chilberg Road near the roundabout. This move comes after Fire 13 in December announced plans to staff the station round-the-clock to provide better service to its taxpayers on the east side of the Swinomish Channel. Meanwhile, La Conner Volunteer Fire Department, which already has firefighters spending the night at the station, has grown too big to share space with Fire 13, the council decided at a s...
The 3,691 voters in the La Conner School District are being asked again to approve a school levy — this time to raise $2.5 million over two years starting in 2018. At the same time, the state Legislature, which is under court-order to fully fund basic education, is working to find a fix this year to Washington school districts’ dependency on local levies. The Skagit County Auditor’s Office Election Department is mailing special levy election ballots today, Wednesday. Voters will also receive a flier from La Conner Schools with voter inf...
Snee-oosh Beach offers a beautiful waterside view, but also carries a lingering threat of occasional flooding. In March 2016, a section of Chilberg Avenue on the Swinomish Reservation was overtaken by Skagit Bay’s tidal waters. The water flowed onto several homeowners’ yards on McGlinn Drive, damaging the properties. Five homeowners decided to build a 250- to 300-foot-long “garden wall,” spanning across their yards in hopes of preventing a repeat occurrence. However, the project has not gone sm...
As the La Conner School District prepares to again ask voters to approve a new two-year $2.5 million property tax levy, it commissioned a study to answer a question that keeps popping up: Why does La Conner spend more per student than many other districts in the state and $4,607 per student more than other districts in the county? The answer is mostly because it has the money to spend. At its meeting on Monday, the school board heard a more in-depth explanation. Bottom line: “The money is spent on students in the classroom,” said Andy Wolf, ass...
With 2016 in the past, new calendars pinned to kitchen walls, and a few business days into 2017, we’re looking back at a few of La Conner’s big stories of 2016, some of which will be impacting the new year as well. School funding woes In February, for the first time in local history, voters rejected the La Conner School District’s bid for renewed levies to replace expiring funds: one was for maintenance and operations, and another for technology. The levies would have included $1.5 million of funding for the schools for 2017 and 2018. The s...
The three-man Fire District 13 board of commissioners wants to staff the La Conner Fire Station near the roundabout on Chilberg Road. Meanwhile, the La Conner Volunteer Fire Department already has plans to man the station 24-hours a day with two firefighters of its own. La Conner’s Mayor Ramon Hayes, Administrator John Doyle and Fire Chief Josh Morrison met with Fire District 13’s Chief Roy Horn and Commissioners Arne Fohn, Chuck Hedlund and Larry Kibbee on Friday, Dec. 16. The outcome of that meeting led to setting another meeting at the La...
The La Conner School Board on Monday approved a resolution to ask voters to levy $2.5 million in new taxes on the district’s property owners. If approved in a special election in February, the money would be collected over two years, in increments of $1.25 million in 2018 and in 2019. The district anticipates its new “replacement educational programs and operations levy” would amount to about $2.50 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. An existing voter-approved construction bond for the new middle school is also on the tax bills. The lev...
Skagit County has objected to a request by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community to turn an Anacortes gas station into reservation land. Swinomish purchased the Shell gas station on Christianson Road in Anacortes for $1 million in May, according to county records. It is located across the street from the tribe’s Swinomish Links golf course and is more than a mile west of the Swinomish Reservation. Late last month the county was notified that Swinomish had applied to the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs to put th...
Skagit County Commissioners stepped into what appears to be a land dispute between two local Native American tribes and warned property owners that they could end up being annexed to the Swinomish Reservation. At the same time, the commissioners filed an objection with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs over the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s plans to amend its constitution — a move they claim could stretch its reservation boundaries across thousands of acres of privately owned land northwest of the current reservation. This n...
It was a homeowner’s nightmare — water creeping underneath the front door, furniture, books and electronics soaked as water levels slowly rise. Carefully tended gardens were washed away in a wave. In March residents along Snee-Oosh Beach suffered thousands of dollars in damages as an unexpected tidal surge washed across Chilberg Road near Hope Island and swamped their homes. In advance of “King Tide” season coming again in a few months, five neighbors on McGlinn road pooled their money...
The three Fire District 13 commissioners threw water on the hopes of residents who want to withdraw from the district. About 15 of the more than 100 residents of the north east corner of District 13 who want to join Fire District 2 instead attended the commission meeting last week, even though the meeting was held a day earlier than originally scheduled. The commissioners adopted a resolution not to take any action on the residents’ petition for withdrawal until the petition signers post a bond large enough to cover all expenses related to t...
The Fire District 2 board of commissioners agreed on Monday to draft a resolution to accept for annexation an area residents hope to detach from Fire District 13. Dave Buchan, Dennis Milliken and some of their neighbors on Channel Drive, which is north of La Conner on the east side of the Swinomish Channel, attended the Fire District 2 Board of Commissioners meeting at the McLean Road Fire Station to present a copy of their certified petition to withdraw from Fire District 13. District 2 commissioners, chairman Steve Snyder, Mike Madlung and La...
The Skagit County Auditor’s Office has certified the petition signed by more than 100 voters who want to withdraw from Fire District 13. That means the ball is in Fire District 13’s court — its three commissioners will be tasked with studying the proposal, holding a public hearing and then making a recommendation to the Skagit County Commissioners. Fire District 13 Chief Roy Horn said he can’t predict how fire commissioners Chuck Hedlund, Arne Fohn and Larry Kibbee will respond to the r...
