Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 376 - 385 of 385
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...
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...
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...
The recent “La Conner Weekly News” article on the history of the Swinomish Channel has prompted a more complex story of the channel’s alterations over time. The Swinomish Slough, first called the Canim (canoe) Passage by newcomers to the area in the 1850s, was a narrow, winding waterway, so shallow that during the summertime, farmers waded their horses through it to obtain fresh drinking water from springs on the Swinomish Reservation. In 1893, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged the sloug...
Monday March 3 10:04 a.m.: Boat grounded – A sailboat got stuck in shallow water nearGoat Island as the tide was going out. They captain was contacted by radio and said they were fine, and would wait for the tide to come back in and free them. Tuesday March 4 5:48 a.m.: Arrest – A person in La Conner called aCalifornia law enforcement agency and seemed confused, so they alerted the local Sheriff’s office to go check on him. Deputies would up arresting him on two outstanding warrants from Skagit Count District Court. 6:18 p.m.: O...
Chester Cayou, Jr. and Brian Wilbur were each re-elected to five-year terms on the 11-member Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Senate. In an election held Sunday, Cayou garnered 135 votes, with his challenger, La Conner School Board President Janie Beasley, coming in a close second with 118. Wilbur, who was challenged by Theodore Edge, Sr., won re-election to his position 183 to 71. Shelly Roberts, executive assistant with the tribal government, said the Swinomish Senate consists of 11 members, whose terms are staggered so that elections are...
Seahawk Richard Sherman’s wild post-game rant ruffled the feathers of some pro football fans across the country. Nor did it help that a couple misguided fans among a capacity Century Link Stadium crowd choose to pelt San Francisco standout NoVorro Bowman with food while he was being carted off the field after sustaining an injury in the second half of Seattle’s intense 23-17 confer-ence title win over the 49ers. Fortunately, a La Conner man had already gone the extra mile — and then some — to help mend fences with National Foo...
The 2,932 registered voters in Fire District 13 have a choice that could change the tone and dynamics of their fire protection agency’s governing board. Election years in Fire District 13 are notoriously volatile, and this election has been no exception as appointed incumbent Jim Grove of Anacortes faces a challenge by La Conner farmer Arne Fohn. The gloves came off last summer, when Grove sent a letter to the Swinomish Tribal Senate taking issue with the number of signs supporting Fohn on reservation land. The newest sign saga concerns the one...
It was 10:30 p.m. on Friday, and two Swinomish Police units pulled into the gas station — the officers were looking for enough gas and coffee to get them through the night shift looming ahead of them. “You see any reason to pull that van over?” Sergeant Andrew Thorne asked me as I rode along for the night, wearing a bullet-proof vest. “Yeah — his taillight is out,” I said. The van then pulled out of the gas station without stopping or signaling. Immediately both cop cars followe...
