Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 293
Chris Omdal stepped into his new role as the La Conner Marina harbormaster last week after career stop where he has always enjoyed meeting folks from all walks of life. That will not change here. Omdal, an avid walker, has already developed an easy rapport with boaters moored at the marina’s floating docks along Swinomish Channel. At the start of the Memorial Day weekend Friday, he donned his safety vest and walked the marina’s guest float area to meet and greet members of the Edmonds Yacht Clu...
Driving to work, Rachael Sobczak passes acre after acre of her ingredients. The 12-year La Conner resident is owner of Water Tank Bakery, which opened last June at the Port of Skagit. She crafts sourdough bread, cakes and cookies from 100% locally milled flour made from Northwest grain. A baker for nearly 20 years, 10 of them with the Breadfarm in Edison, Sobczak was selling bread from her home when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Demand snowballed for product, then known as Rachael and Bread....
How best to redevelop a 13-acre section of La Conner Marina was the issue Port of Skagit officials put before town leaders and residents at Maple Hall Tuesday evening, May 17. The one-hour joint Port-Town meeting, billed as a public visioning session, was an opportunity for the community to share their long view priorities for how the marina south basin area, built in 1970, might be reshaped in the coming decade to meet the challenges of a changing economy. The Port is considering a makeover...
After a half-century, the Port of Skagit’s La Conner Marina is eyeing not a facelift but a full body makeover. Port officials came to La Conner’s Maple Hall last night to pitch several potential futures, including a mixed used development, with a residential component, marine services and other commercial uses. The site is the 13 acres of marina property between Sullivan Slough and the north basin. Port staff encouraged the public to attend and provide feedback at the specially called combined town council and planning commission meeting. The...
We are facing a crisis with inflation, as happened in the 1980s. Gas prices are at record levels, a different crisis from their spikes in the 1970s, when there were two Arab oil embargoes, both a result of Israeli wars. Russia’s invasion of and war with Ukraine is the precipitating factor now. There are forest fires in New Mexico and the southwest, crises that came earlier in the season than past years. There will be soon be west coast forest fires, from California north into Canada. Thankfully the fire season has not yet begun. Both r...
Friday Mayor Ramon Hayes notified the La Conner Town Council of a 6:30 p.m. May 17 special meeting with the planning commission at Maple Hall and via Zoom. The Port of Skagit will present its vision for redeveloping the La Conner Marina “to make better use of the property and create more economic opportunities for the marina and community,” a Port press release states. A redevelopment goal is identifying upland uses that will allow the Port to generate capital funding for the replacement of the marina in-water infrastructure. Port staff and...
Good news is building around the Skagit Valley for commitments to construct apartments. In Anacortes, the Arts Festival organization will build apartments above the O Avenue Anacortes Cinemas it has purchased and will develop into a performing arts center. That must have been made possible in part from the City of Anacortes owning the property. In Burlington the American Legion and Volunteers of America Western Washington have teamed up, agreeing to demolish the Legion’s Post and replace it with apartments catering to various income levels w...
CORRECTION / CORRECTED: May 17 is the meeting date: The conversation starts at 6 p.m. May 17 at Maple Hall. The Port of Skagit will present its vision for what Director Sarah Young calls “very big concepts” for developing 10 acres of its “uplands” at the La Conner Marina at a May 17 visioning session with the Town of La Conner’s council and planning commission. Greater La Conner residents attending the 6 p.m. hearing at Maple Hall will get in on the ground floor of what might be the biggest e...
Citizens of greater La Conner are invited by the Town of La Conner to participate in hearings the next two weeks. The town council first holds an obligatory public hearing May 10 before applying for a $30,000 economic development planning grant. This Community Development Block Grant will support revitalizing the area around the former Moore Clark building and between Maple Hall and Pioneer Park and South Third Street and the Swinomish Channel. This is the same proposal from 2021. The goal is decent wage job development for lower income...
La Conner officials last week inched closer to their goal of developing park space on the town’s portion of the former Hedlin’s Maple Avenue ballfield. Council members during their April 26 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall approved Town Administrator Scott Thomas submitting a grant application to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office to develop the park on just over a half-acre on the Maple and East Talbott site. Funds would be for “direct eligible and allowable costs that are r...
Greater La Conner residents, particularly “lower income persons” are invited to the May 10 La Conner Town Council meeting to voice their interests in community development and housing needs ahead of the Town submitting a proposal for state Community Development Block Grant funds. The hearing is required as part of the application process to the state Department of Commerce. Funds of up to $1 million are available to develop, but not construct, affordable housing, with a $500,000 ceiling for housing rehabilitation. The hearing’s purpose is pr...
The town planning commission met April 19 and approved a historic design review for a third lot of the proposed Greg Ellis housing development behind Pioneer Market. Two other lots have already been approved. Town planner Michael Davolio said he expects to be able to present the three remaining lots for review at the commission’s May meeting. Ellis anticipates breaking ground when he secures buyers for the lots, he added. Additionally, there might be even more housing options in town. The Port of Skagit is interested in re-zoning some of its pr...
Although no longer billed as the Not So Impromptu Parade, the magic remained in place in La Conner last Saturday, April 9. Now titled the Tulip Festival Parade by its organizer and sponsor, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, the 2022 version was bigger than ever, back in full swing after a two-year pandemic induced hiatus. What’s more, the Town of La Conner’s Fire Department’s 1941 white truck started up First Street on time at 2 p.m. It led some 45 entrants, some of them, thankfully, last minut...
Seasonal workers for the Washington Bulb Company are back at work after a three-day strike that made headlines throughout the state. The strike was sparked by an error the company made when calculating worker bonuses for daffodil bunches picked on Saturday, March 19. While pay for the harvest crew averages $17.50 an hour, it can fluctuate on any given day, explained Brent Roozen of Washington Bulb on March 24, when he talked to reporters in front of company headquarters. “Last Saturday, we b...
The new Island Grown Farmers Cooperative (IGFC) meat processing facility at the Port of Skagit in Burlington is a dream come true for its 80 regional members, including the Mesman Dairy. Still primarily an organic dairy, the Mesman family began raising and selling beef, lamb and pork in 2019. Besides selling meat and eggs at their farm store at Chilberg and Dodge Valley Roads, they also supply meat for several local restaurants and the La Conner School District. IGFC has been their partner all...
The March 8 La Conner Town Council meeting covered a lot of ground. Member MaryLee Chamberlain reported the newly formed communications committee is making progress. “We’re currently planning a public workshop or forum to increase the general understanding about what’s happening with growth in town. We want to provide information in context about what growth is looking like in town and get feedback from a panel of experts.” Member Mary Wohleb said the town parks commission is starting to look at designs reflecting results of a citizens’ survey...
The Swinomish Tax Authority used the same levy rate for 2022 as for 2021: $11.98 per thousand. But, the assessed value of homes in Shelter Bay and Pull & Be Damned increased from $178,838,070 to $196,284,197, an increase of $17,446,127. The Swinomish government hopes to collect $2,350,888 in taxes from Shelter Bay, Pull & Be Damned, Thousand Trails and Dunlap Towing. That’s $208,214 higher than last year. Three taxing districts will receive contributions from the Swinomish. These are: Fire District 13 at $300,000 ($100,000 more than last year),...
Work came to a near standstill for the La Conner planning commission as 2021 wound down, with successive meeting cancellations in October, November and December. The commission did not meet until Feb. 15. Davolio told commissioners that they can expect to review several project applications at their March 15 session, including the housing development proposed behind Pioneer Market and the apartment building planned for Fourth and Center streets behind The Slider Café. “After a couple of months at the end of last year where there wasn’t m...
The newly formed La Conner Town Council began laying the foundation for 2022 by finalizing committee assignments and tightening up ordinance language related to hazardous buildings during its one-hour Zoom session last week. New Councilmember Ivan Carlson, III flagged what he termed “broad” and “subjective” terminology in an ordinance section for abating structural dangers, questioning non-tangible references to infringements upon aesthetic and sensory standards. “They’re too broad,” said Carlson. “I feel there would be unintended cons...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, part of the 300-member Skagit Headwaters Coalition, is grateful for a new agreement between the government of British Columbia, Imperial Metals Corporation and the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission. Imperial Metals has agreed to surrender all its mining and related rights within the so-called Skagit River Donut Hole. The is a 22.4-square mile gap of unprotected lands surrounded by the parks in British Columbia. The headwaters of the Skagit River are inside this area, which is also a centerpiece of...
With ballots having been counted, recently elected La Conner Town Council members are now adding input regarding goals they hope to achieve in their upcoming terms. That post-election math includes factors ranging from infrastructure planning and finding solutions to La Conner’s housing crunch to improving access to town meetings and addressing sea level rise and other local environmental concerns. Rick Dole and Ivan Carlson, III, who successfully ran as challengers in this year’s elections and incumbent MaryLee Chamberlain, who won her con...
As is the case each November there is much anticipation here about the start of the La Conner High School basketball season. But this year there is also a sense of loss – one far more pronounced than can be reflected on any scoreboard – around the school’s hoops programs. Lynn Weidenbach, 81, who across several decades served various roles with both the La Conner boys’ and girls’ teams, died Nov. 8 after a brief illness. A memorial service celebrating his extraordinary life is tentatively scheduled for next summer. Few people have...
La Conner residents have likely chosen Ivan Carlson and Rick Dole to represent them on town council in this election. With 4,900 ballots counted Monday by Skagit County elections office staff, the pattern of challengers Carlson and Dole’s substantial leads continue. Carlson increased his margin over Councilmember John Leaver to 108. Dole has a 52 vote lead and 55% of the total with 238 votes, even though Councilmember Bill Stokes took 10 of the 16 La Conner ballots counted this round. Dole led by 22 votes election night. Citizens o...
In the closest race for a seat on La Conner’s town council, Councilmember Bill Stokes gained four votes as six of the eight votes counted Wednesday by Skagit County elections office staff went to him. He still trails challenger Rick Dole, 152 to 130 votes. Ivan Carlson took all nine votes, increasing his margin to 22.1% in the contest for Position 2, held by John Leaver. Councilmember MaryLee Chamberlain won seven of the eight votes cast for the Position 5 seat and now has 77.8% of the vote against Glen Johnson. For Fire District 13 C...
Years in La Conner and why applied 17 years. I am well qualified for the job as a former town council member and a longtime resident and business owner. I served on the Town Council in 2016 and 2017. I was forced to resign from the Council and move out of town due to a property management job change in June of 2017. I thought the move was permanent, but it turned out to be a 4-month project and I moved back to La Conner to be an on-site Property Manager in October 2017. Community involvement;...
