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The La Conner School Board on Monday signed the latest version of a school funding agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. The tribe has promised to contribute $400,000 to the schools to help ease a $789,000 shortfall created when 931 parcels were removed from the property tax rolls that feed schools and other public entities this year. For about a year, the terms of the tribal funding have been under negotiation. Last month the school board signed a version of the agreement and forwarded it to the tribe. What came back was a vers...
La Conner School officials say the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community has signed the agreement to provide $400,000 in funding to the schools. But it wasn’t exactly the same as the one the school board signed last month. The tribe added a clause similar to one the school board had previously taken out; the tribe wants the school district to recognize its right to levy property taxes on homes built on leased land. Meanwhile, the school district is angling for more open communication between the board and Tribal Senate. On Monday the school distric...
Thomas J. Schlicker, who was Swinomish Police Chief from 1997 until he was fired last September, was sentenced to federal prison on Tuesday. According to court documents, U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughner in Seattle sentenced Schlicker to 16 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release for stealing money from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. In August Schlicker took a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to one of the 10 felony counts the U.S. Attorney’s office had filed against him. The rest of the charges were d...
Most of us pay our phone, electricity, gas, trash and cable bills without really looking at each of many taxes, fees and other governmental fund-raising charges included. This week a local resident, who lives just outside the La Conner town limits on property that is unincorporated Skagit County happened to examine her Frontier landline phone bill. Nestled in among the 10 federal, state, county and local taxes was one for the “Swinomish Indian Res Utility Use Tax,” even though her home is not within the reservation boundaries. She said Fro...
Two deer families gathered for a feast of fallen pears near a fruit tree on the Swinomish Reservation recently. – Photo by Robin Carneen...
La Conner property owners packed Maple Hall Thursday to hear their local representatives give them the dire news: There is no quick cure for the tax disparity that has hit La Conner harder than any other community in the state following the so-called Great Wolf Lodge decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Some 100 people missed the second half of the Seahawks game against the 49ers to hear what their school, county and town officials had to say during the meeting arranged by Mayor Ramon Hayes. For more than a year, the...
The La Conner School Board on Monday signed a proposed agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community outlining the details of the $400,000 funding contribution the tribe promised last December. For months, school and tribal officials have been negotiating the terms of the gift. School Board President Rick Thompson said he was hopeful this final deal, brokered between school and tribal attorneys, would be approved by the Swinomish Indian Senate, which is expected to consider it next month. Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby, in San Diego...
La Conner residents will soon receive notices from the Skagit County Assessor’s Office, outlining the change in assessed value of their property. “We’ve certified the roll and expect the notices will be mailed Friday,” Assessor Dave Thomas said Tuesday. The new values have already been posted on the county’s website. A quick check of the website shows that some properties in La Conner that were not re-assessed last year have new values about 14 percent higher, and some homes that had big increases in their assessed value last year will go u...
Taxpayers at Monday’s La Conner School Board meeting took the trustees to task over the local tax disparity. After the so-called Great Wolf decision, the land that generates about two-thirds of the school enrollment in La Conner was taken off the property tax rolls this year. That left the remaining taxpayers shouldering the entire school levy burden — which is the biggest chunk of the local tax bills. The issue came up during a question-and-answer session after La Conner Schools Superintendent Tim Bruce gave his report to the board, w...
With taxpayers on the east side of Swinomish Channel already circulating petitions seeking to break away from Fire District 13 to join Fire District 2, Skagit County officials had to hit the books to figure out what the process entails. Residents detaching from a tax supported district in Skagit County hasn’t been done in so long nobody can remember it happening before. And according to one state lawmaker, doing so could take an act of the Legislature to make it possible. Skagit County Elections Supervisor David Cunningham had to do special r...
A Fish and Game Enforcement officer for the Swinomish Tribe was arrested and charged with theft and wire fraud in federal court this month. Robert Scott Miller, 44, was employed by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community when he allegedly used a tribal Key Bank credit card to purchase boat parts, fuel, a chainsaw and rifle bags that were never delivered to or used by the tribe’s Fish and Game Department. Since Key Bank’s headquarters is Fargo, North Dakota, according to court documents, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges that transmitting the inf...
Officers from the Swinomish Police Department led a multi-agency team that took down a large illegal drug operation at a home on Second Street in Swinomish Village. Police Chief Rick Balam said that because serving the search warrant on that house was considered a “high risk entry,” agents from the FBI, U.S. Marshal’s Office, federal and state corrections departments, Skagit County Sheriff’s and the U.S. Border Patrol drug canine all assisted. Officers found very large amounts of heroin as well as methamphetamine, prescription narcoti...
Frustrated taxpayers on the east side of the Swinomish Channel threaten to break away from Fire District 13 to join Fire District 2 over costs imposed by higher property tax bills. “We were going to retire here, but now we won’t be able to afford it,” said Linda Ryan, who lives on Channel Drive. “Tell me how it’s fair to be taxed out of our houses!” The “Great Wolf” federal court ruling exempted all structures on the Swinomish Reservation — including homes owned by non-tribal members on leased land in Shelter Bay — from paying sta...
A powerful windstorm wreaked havoc across the northwestern part of the state on Saturday, leaving downed trees, damaged homes and utility interruptions throughout the La Conner area. “I think it caught everyone by surprise,” said Fire District 13 Chief Roy Horn. Wind speed in La Conner averaged around 13 miles per hour on Saturday, with gusts reaching at least 50 miles per hour, unusual speeds for any storm in August. The wind gusts came from the southeast. Fidalgo Island and the Swinomish Res...
Three arrests have been made so far in the swarm of burglaries that have kept residents in neighborhoods on the Swinomish reservation on edge for the past several weeks Swinomish Police Chief Rick Balam said the men arrested are all adults, and two are from the La Conner area, while the third is from Sedro-Woolley. The burglaries apparently were not all related; police suspect that there were three different, unrelated groups of thieves. Police are still investigating and believe there are more suspects at large, though no new burglaries have...
Tuesday Aug 4 7:14 a.m.: Not welcome – A woman who was on notice to stay out of Pioneer Market in La Conner showed up there. When a deputy arrived, she was gone so a citation was sent to her in the mail for criminal trespass. 11:08 a.m.: Drunk driver – Someone tipped a La Conner deputy that a man who appeared to be inebriated was getting ready to drive away from the La Conner Post Office. Deputies found the pickup truck being driven erratically and very slowly through town. When the driver was stopped, deputies could smell the alcoh...
A federal court ruling that exempted more than a third of the parcels in Fire District 13 from property tax has some taxpayers on the east side of Swinomish Channel wanting to switch fire districts. The so-called “Great Wolf Lodge” ruling, which determined that homes on leased reservation land in Shelter Bay and in the Pull & Be Damned road neighborhoods are immune from county and state property tax, did not impact the budget for Fire District 13. That’s because the agency simply shifted its entire tax burden to the remaining taxpayers. Based...
La Conner Schools adopted a new budget and logo during a two-hour session on Monday, but more time, with a pressing deadline looming ahead, will be needed to solve tax shortfalls created by the so-called Great Wolf Lodge decision by a federal court. First, the good news. Board members approved a 2015-16 budget, bolstered by increased state money and federal impact aid revenue, that anticipates a $1.3 million ending fund balance. “I feel very positive about this budget,” Business Manager Bonnie Haley said during the public hearing portion of...
A suspect has been arrested in connection with a series of burglaries that have occurred throughout the past several weeks across the Swinomish Reservation. Swinomish Police Chief Rick Balam said a man in his 20s was arrested Friday and will face prosecution for burglary. Police served a Swinomish Tribal Court search warrant on Friday at an address in Swinomish Village and recovered some of the stolen property. In all, about a dozen homes were burglarized in the neighborhoods around Snee-Oosh and Pull-&-Be Damned roads and the Hope Island...
More than two-thirds of the homeowners who cast ballots in Shelter Bay last Wednesday approved negotiating a new 75-year lease with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. The count was 436 in favor of crafting a new lease, with 197 against. Voter turnout was pegged at 83 percent, with 633 votes cast out of 767 eligible voters. In order to be eligible to vote, a homeowner had to be a member “in good standing” meaning that all homeowner association fees are up to date. Shelter Bay is a gated com-munity developed on Indian reservation land leased...
Neighborhoods on the Swinomish Reservation are on edge this week, as seven burglaries occurred over night Tuesday and during the day on Wednesday and another was reported Thursday afternoon. While each case varies, the Swinomish Police Department believes all seven, as well as four prior burglaries, are related. The break-ins took place in the neighborhoods around Snee-Oosh and Pull & Be Damned roads and theHopeIslandarea. Most of the items stolen were electronics. And many of the homes targeted have absentee owners. The burglar may test to see...
The La Conner School District is scheduled to receive another $775,000 from the state Capital budget, Rep. Norma Smith, R-Clinton, said on Monday. Still, La Conner area taxpayers, some of whom saw their property tax bills jump by 25 percent this year, probably won’t see immediate relief from the higher school taxes shifted to them when homes in Shelter Bay and on Pull-&-Be-Damned Road were taken off the county tax rolls. Last year, the 931 now tax-exempt parcels, mostly homes built on leased Indian reservation land, generated about $1.8 m...
In Saturday’s parade, La Conner’s fire department will show off the newest addition to its arsenal — a gleaming new engine loaded with modern firefighting equipment and flaunting a decal featuring the sports logo of the high school. The engine, which has the capability to deliver 750 gallons of flame-retardant foam, with extremely high power, will give the department more than one engine and allow it to perform maintenance on its older engine. Until now, the older engine has been the sol...
Monday June 22 2:28 p.m.: Mail theft – Swinomish Tribal Police had someone turn in opened mail that is believed to have been addressed to the Swinomish Tax Authority post office box at La Conner Post Office. At least three taxpayers were identified, therefore anyone who mailed a payment to the Swinomish Tax Authority around June 18 should confirm that their payment was received. 3:17 p.m.: Found property – A prescription stolen in a burglary that occurred on the Swinomish Reservation was found in the parking lot of Conway Feed inCon...
This bee’s legs were loaded with pollen as it did its buzzywork on a Ceanothus bush blooming on the Swinomish Reservation last week. – Photo by Robin Carneen...
