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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...
The Shelter Bay Community held the first of three meetings for homeowners last night to a standing room only crowd. People arriving at the meeting were met by a group of homeowners wearing T-shirts and carrying signs urging their neighbors to “just say no” to the new lease proposal. Two more meetings are scheduled on Thursday and on June 6. Residents were also given the option of listening to the meetings over the Internet. The Swinomish Senate has provided Shelter Bay Community with the tri...
The Swinomish Senate has provided Shelter Bay Community with what the community calls the tribe’s “best and final proposal” for its terms to extend the land lease. Shelter Bay is a gated neighborhood of about 900 homes developed mostly on reservation land leased from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. The original lease signed in 1968 is set to expire in 2044, which according to a tribal attorney would cause the land that people built their homes on to revert back to the original owners. For the past two years Swinomish and Shelter Bay repr...
At sunrise on Monday, April 27, Mickey Kazhe Smith Sr., 51, member of the Swinomish Tribe died peacefully at home. He was born in Mt. Vernon on May 10, 1963 to Alfreda Sampson and Carl Kazhe. He was raised by his dad Ernest Bob Bailey. Mickey graduated from La Conner High School in 1981. Most of his life he was a Commercial Fisherman and cherished his time on the water. He was the deck boss on fishing vessel Anna J; he also fished on the Point Elliot and the Amber Dawn. Mickey was baptized at the Pentecostal Church when he was very young and...
La Conner School District and town officials are scheduled to meet today with a representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, to lay the tax disparity caused by a 2013 federal court decision at the federal government’s feet. The offices of U.S. senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray have also been contacted, and their staff members have promised to schedule meetings with local officials soon. Mayor Ramon Hayes, with other partners including the school district, launched the lobbying campaign last month. This came a...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal court against BNSF Railway, alleging violations of terms in an easement agreement that allows the trains to cross reservation land. According to the complaint filed in the United States District Court in Seattle, the tribe and Burlington Northern were parties to a 1991 agreement granting the railway an easement, allowing one 25-car train per day in each direction to serve the refineries on March’s Point to cross the northern tip of the reservation. Train tracks run o...
A delegation of school and town officials traveled to Olympia on Tuesday to let state Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn know La Conner needs help right now. The meeting was set up by State Rep. Norma Smith, R-Clinton, who said “kids are at risk” because La Conner School District suffered a huge funding cut this year. What amounts to about 50 percent of the district’s property tax revenue was eliminated when 931 parcels were removed from the county’s tax rolls in January. As a re...
La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes has launched a town lobbying effort to address a situation that has left a fraction of the taxpayers shouldering the lion’s share of the local taxes. In January 931 parcels were removed from the La Conner area property tax rolls following a federal court ruling that structures on Indian reservation land are tax exempt regardless of who owns the structures. That means homeowners in Shelter Bay and in the Pull and Be Damned Road area who built their homes on land l...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community expects to send out tax bills to homeowners on the 931 parcels removed from the county’s property tax rolls by the end of this month. As with the county taxes homeowners are accustomed to paying, the Swinomish tribal tax can be paid in two halves on April 30 and October 31. For the 2015 taxes, the tribe intends to use the same assessment values Skagit County has set and will use the same tax rate – $14.28 per $1,000 of assessed value – as parcels on privately owned, or fee simple, land within t...
This week government investigators were still trying to figure out what happened on Friday when an invisible cloud of noxious fumes descended on La Conner and Swinomish, causing some people to suffer respiratory problems. Apparently a maintenance operation went stinky at the Shell Puget Sound Refinery at March’s Point northwest of La Conner. On Monday the refinery had a recording on its phone line stating that it had “experienced a problem while doing maintenance work on the east flare which resulted in an odor issue.” The recording also has a...
