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Nobody anticipates a train derailment in their backyard. Nobody, perhaps, except Skagit County Fire District 13 Training Officer Chris Olbu. A model railroader, Olbu led a detailed tabletop exercise at the district’s SneeOosh Road fire station earlier this year, presenting the many scenarios that can arise when a train derails. As fate would have it, about two weeks after practicing moving model emergency vehicles around the train track Olbu had set up on the fire station’s second floor, two BNSF locomotive derailed near the Swinomish Cas...
Tyrone McLeod has been a builder much of his life, the elaborate ramp he installed at a Morris Street home across from The Slider Café is a prime example. He has built even more goodwill here over time. That was much in evidence Friday when La Conner service organizations held a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to benefit McLeod and his family, which last winter lost to fire the house he had labored five years to build on Swinomish Reservation. The event raised several thousand dollars with...
Let me tell you why I am looking forward to seeing you Friday supporting the McLeod Family at a 5-7 p.m. spaghetti dinner fundraiser at La Conner Elementary School cafeteria. Thirteen years ago when I stumbled upon what I thought was the ideal house in the perfect neighborhood, my kids were somewhat skeptical. So, they came up to La Conner and Shelter Bay, unbeknownst to me, and checked it out by driving randomly around several streets. They were greeted with smiles and waves everywhere they...
Spring break was no vacation for a cross-section of Swinomish youth. Pre-teen and high school-aged tribal students sacrificed sleeping in and lounging in front of the TV to take part in a four-day conference at the Swinomish Gym designed to build self-esteem and develop lifelong leadership skills. It was hosted by Swinomish Health Programs. By all accounts it was time well spent for the large percentage attending all four days. They were introduced to the Gathering of Native Americans (GONA)...
Fidalgo Island — The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington issued a decision concluding the liability phase of trespass litigation filed by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community against BNSF Railway March 27, ruling that “BNSF willfully, consciously and knowingly exceeded” limitations in an easement to cross the Tribe’s land. Swinomish Chairman Steve Edwards stated in a press release that “the Tribe takes its agreements very seriously and it expects them to be honored and we are thankful that BNSF is being held to...
The Federal Railroad Administration has confirmed KUOW reporting that a safety device meant to keep trains from plunging into Puget Sound knocked a train off the tracks and onto the Swinomish Reservation early Thursday morning. The short, seven-car BNSF Railway train was approaching a swinging bridge over the Swinomish Channel after leaving an oil refinery in Anacortes. The bridge swings open to let boats through the Swinomish Channel, a shallow, 11-mile long arm of Puget Sound that connects Padilla Bay to Skagit Bay. Devices called...
Kennedy Miller, a La Conner High School senior, is the Soroptimist Honored Student for the month of March. Kennedy is a very hardworking student and volunteer. She helps coach her younger sister, Maddy's La Conner Middle school basketball team. She also is a National Honor Society member and a member of the Swinomish Tribal Youth Council. As a Tribal Youth Council member, Kennedy works on beach clean-up teams and helps to serve at Swinomish elder dinners. She has been playing volleyball since mi...
SWINOMISH RESERVATION -The "active cleanup of the diesel spill caused by the early Thursday morning derailment of two BNSF locomotives" was ending early Saturday afternoon, Bill Dunbar, U.S. EPA public affairs staff reported. He gave estimates that approximately 2,100 cubic yards of contaminated soil and 4,300 gallons of groundwater were removed from the site, with fewer than 50 gallons of diesel fuel in the groundwater. No diesel reached the shoreline, and no impacts to fish or wildlife have...
Update, March 17 at bottom SWINOMISH RESERVATION — Early the morning of March 16, before 1 a.m., the two locomotives of a BNSF train heading east from an Anacortes oil refinery derailed along the Padilla Bay waterfront within site of the Swinomish Channel, behind the Swinomish Casino. One spilled its fuel to a berm on the land-side of the tracks, the unified command for the incident reported. This report is primarily from the news release from the unified command. Responders arrived on the s...
J. J. Wilbur will remain a busy man. Wilbur, who serves on the La Conner school board and as a Skagit County Fire District 13 commissioner and chairs the Swinomish Tribal Community Port Commission, was re-elected to the 11-member Swinomish Senate in Sunday balloting. Wilbur survived a strong challenge from Cathi Bassford, a tribal housing and utility board member and elder programs supporter who has served as Swinomish kitchen manager for nearly 20 years, serving special event meals for...
A full moon didn't rise until Sunday, but a lot of crazy things happened in the La Conner area days prior. It started with a burglary at Pioneer Market and included a pair of power outages, the sinking of a boat on the waterfront and a car slamming into a house and flipping onto its top side off Shelter Bay Drive Friday night. The early Wednesday break-in at the Morris Street grocery store didn't net the burglars much. They got away with five cartons of cigarettes and apparently had their...
As a popular song says, there are few ways better to gain fame than to have your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone. A La Conner singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist may not be on the iconic magazine’s cover, but she is featured on its digital pages as an artist readers need to know. Locally and regionally, Katherine Paul, the face of Black Belt Eagle Scout, needs no introductions. Her brand is now getting plenty of national exposure, thanks to a glowing profile penned for rollingstone.com by Philadelphia-based writer, editor a...
A La Conner man's lifelong dream and five years of his hard work quickly went up in smoke last week. Tyrone McLeod lost to fire on Tuesday, Jan. 17 the house he had been building on family property off Indian Road. McLeod is perhaps best known for having built the elaborate rampway at the former Dorsten residence on Morris Street west of the Firehall Kitchen and Taphouse, "They weren't moved in yet, everyone is okay," McLeod's mother, retired La Conner Schools staff member Linda Rumbolt, told th...
I have always had mixed feelings about swimming in cold water and my idea of paradise is floating in the warm waters of the Caribbean. But I grew up on the Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound and spent most summer days on the beach and in the chilly water. (My mother's rule was that we had to come out and get warmed up if our lips turned blue.) After attending college far from my beloved beach and then living in Paris for five years, I moved to Seattle with my former husband. It was August...
Today is the official start of winter. The seasons changed Monday, though, when La Conner and the Puget Sound region awakened to sub-freezing temperatures and light snow on the ground. Much of the same is forecast through Friday. The wintry conditions immediately impacted schedules. La Conner Schools Monday morning canceled Tuesday classes, the last day of school before winter break. The La Conner High girls' basketball game at Meridian Monday and the Braves' Tuesday tipoff with Clallam Bay...
Since 2015 talks had stalled regarding negotiation of a new master lease between Shelter Bay and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. Now folks are talking again. Shelter Bay and Swinomish residents and leaders last week attended the first of planned traditional Native American open floor discussions hosted by lease consultants Dr. Wil James and Ava Goodman at the tribal social services building. Most came away with a positive view of the three-hour session, which invited a frank but respectful dialogue stressing common ground approaches to s...
By Aven Wright-McIntosh Shelter Bay residents had the opportunity to learn about their community's "complicated and unique history" last Tuesday night in the first in a series of new "Know Your Community" classes. Longtime resident, past board member and author Don Newby used photos, maps and archived materials to highlight key historical benchmarks in the first hour and addressed components of the homeowners' association (HOA) in the second to an audience of 40 onsite at the clubhouse and 90...
Some attending the late November Shelter Bay town hall forum were surprised to learn the community has retained $10,000 per month consultants for more than two years to negotiate a new master lease with the Swinomish Tribal Community. Few, if any, should be surprised now, given the release by those consultants, Dr. Wil James and Ava Goodman, of the first two in a series of educational videos addressing key Shelter Bay topics, including the lease due to expire in 2044 and rent adjustments...
Happy holiday season! Along with lights, trees and lawn displays comes this more recent tradition: the annual La Conner Weekly News subscription drive. These next three weeks your community newspaper will be delivered to every address in our local school district. Friends, neighbors and relatives of subscribers are invited to join the close to 900 households in greater La Conner who have decided that they are better off – and the community itself benefits – by their investment in their subscription to their local newspaper. This is their – y...
The iconic Rainbow Bridge has connected La Conner and Swinomish Reservation since 1957. The Young Life ministry is extending that connection on spiritual and social levels. Members of the La Conner and Swinomish communities celebrated that connection during the annual two-hour Young Life dessert banquet at La Conner Seafood & Prime Rib House Saturday night. “The Rainbow Bridge is perfectly named,” explained Jaime Stroebel-Reinstra, one of the event’s lead organizers, “because you always think of a pot of gold being at the end of a rainbow. The...
It was a dark and stormy Sunday night, but Monday at noon the breeze abated and the clouds lifted just before La Conner's school children took to First Street for the annual Halloween Parade. They were safe, for once again La Conner Hook & Ladder – many of them parents of school aged children – blocked First Street to traffic In typical La Conner fashion, it was an all-in, all-ages costume ball, with toddlers and elders alike dressed as scary, strange, other worldly, puffed up and cute. And the...
Father William Treacy died Sunday, Oct. 16 at the age of 103. He spent his final days at his home on the grounds of Camp Korey in Mount Vernon. A leader of ecumenical and interfaith relations in the Pacific Northwest, Father Treacy touched the hearts and minds of people of diverse faith traditions throughout the world. He came to Seattle in his early 20s and ended up creating a television series with Rabbi Raphael Levine of Temple De Hirsch Sinai in 1960 called "Challenge." The program aired...
Ballots are mailed Friday. Help get all ballots counted quickly: Vote and return your ballot now Sign your ballot envelope Use a county dropbox Mail your ballot by Nov. 4 Election drop boxes nearby: La Conner Regional Library, 614 E. Morris Street Swinomish Indian Tribal Community: Social Services Building, 17337 Reservation Road Ballots must be in drop boxes by 8 p.m. Nov. 7. You can register to vote on election day. Voting information and register to vote at VoteWa.gov. Skagit County Elections: 360-416-1702...
Fishing and farming don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The Smokehouse Ditch Estuarine Marsh project on Swinomish Reservation, where restoration of critical salmon habitat is planned next to agricultural land the Tribe leases to local farmers, proves that. Near the SR 20 bridge north of La Conner, the site is one of several local estuarine areas – Similk Beach is another – considered for restoration. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D- Everett, visited Sept. 27, where he met with Swinomish and Skagit River System Cooperative leaders for an update on th...
Tickets are still available for the Skagit Poetry Festival, which starts Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. While a full Festival pass costs $300, you can purchase daily passes. Pick and choose and chase favorite poets and sessions on your schedule. For $50, you can attend the “Welcome to Indian Country” reading at 8:00 pm Thursday, featuring Washington state Poet Laureate Rena Priest, Upper Salish poet Sasha LaPointe, and Meskwaki (Red Earth People) tribal member Ray Young Bear from Iowa. Swinomish carver Kevin Paul and his daughter Katherine Pau...
