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Skagit County has awarded $500,000 to the Port of Skagit and NW Innovation Resource Center's TheLab@SWIFT, an innovation center for start-ups and entrepreneurs. The SWIFT Center, which stands for Sedro-Woolley Innovation for Tomorrow, is the former Northern State Hospital campus owned by the Port of Skagit. Many of the remaining buildings on the campus were used to treat and house people with mental illnesses until it closed in the early 1970s. NWIRC has already received $750,000 in state and...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community has been awarded $2.8 million in three grants by the state's Department of Commerce. The Samish Indian Nation will get $1.4 million and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe $750,000. In total Commerce awarded $52 million in grant funding to support climate resilience for 28 federally recognized tribes within Washington, as well as four federally recognized tribes with lands within the state. The funding is from Washington's Climate Commitment Act.Tribes...
Mark your calendars for these upcoming arts and entertainment activities. Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau at Museum of Northwest Art: We All Transition with Mac Scotty McGregor. 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday, July 27. What is it like to see and walk in the world from both the male and female perspectives? Mac will share his gender journey and what it taught him about life, our culture and how it affects our interactions with others. Free. RSVP to monamuseum.org/events/wealltransition. The 24th annual La Conner Classic Boat & Car Show will fill the...
Town leaders have their eyes on the future. This after having given La Conner's current five-year strategic plan a second look during the town's annual summer retreat at the Waterfront Café last month. Mayor Marna Hanneman, Town Council members, and the town's staff and department heads huddled June 24 to address current issues and long-range planning. The strategic plan, crafted in 2023 and comprised of five focal points, was the centerpiece of the retreat's afternoon session. Each of the...
Did you register for the Skagit County free vessel turn-in recycling day on July 22? If not, that ship has sailed. Boat recycling day is hosted by the Skagit County Marine Resources Committee, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Skagit County, Port of Skagit, La Conner Maritime Services, Northwest Straits Commission and Washington Department of Natural Resources. Boat recycling requires prior approval. La Conner Maritime Services, in the Port of Skagit's La Conner Marina, is the collection...
Mark your calendars for these upcoming fun activities. The 20th annual NW Art Beat Studio Tour sees 22 artists showing their works in 16 studios in a free, self-guided Skagit Valley art studio tour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 20 and 21. NW Art Beat is presented by Skagit Artists. Get the map guide and learn more at NWArtBeat.com. La Conner Live 2024 Summer Concert Series takes over Gilkey Square every Sunday from 1-4 p.m. through Sept. 8 at First and Morris streets. The lineup features Lost at Last, July 21; Mojo Cannon, July 28; Billy...
Mark your calendars for these upcoming fun activities. Skagit City School Picnic, 1-3 p.m. Sunday, July 14, 17508 Moore Road, Mount Vernon. Join us for this time-honored tradition of celebrating community. Food will be available from the La Conner Rotary Club. The 20th annual NW Art Beat Studio Tour sees 22 artists showing their works in 16 studios in a free, self-guided Skagit Valley art studio tour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 20 and 21. NW Art Beat is presented by Skagit Artists. Get the map guide and learn more at NWArtBeat.com. La Conner...
If practice makes perfect and perfect needs practice, area firefighters and emergency responders are perfectly practiced and practically perfect. This after Swinomish Reservation and the Port of Skagit's La Conner Marina were sites last week of major multi-department training exercises that participants lauded afterward for their realism and long-term value. Skagit County Fire District 13 Training Officer Capt. Chris Olbu scripted a drill for June 26 that challenged several agencies, led by La...
There's one summer rerun that's a guaranteed hit in La Conner. It's the annual Hometown Independence Day celebration here, featuring a parade down First Street, a slew of July 4 activities with live music at the La Conner Marina and a fireworks display over Swinomish Channel. "It will pretty much be the same as every year," Town Administrator Scott Thomas said. The variety of events assures that everyone in La Conner will again have a blast on the Fourth of July. The fun starts at noon with the...
Port of Anacortes presents Rock the Dock at Seafarers’ Memorial Park in Anacortes, 5-11 p.m. July 4. Free community concert featuring bands High Voltage and Point of Sail. Food and beer garden open at 5 p.m. with fireworks display at nightfall. Skagit Bay Search & Rescue Fundraiser, 1-7 p.m. July 4. Celebrate the Fourth and help our Volunteer Marine Search & Rescue team raise money. Buy ice cream, water, T-shirts or donate at the booth at La Conner Marina on N. Second Street. Museum of Northwest Art has two new exhibits through Sept. 29. J...
By There's one summer rerun that's a guaranteed hit in La Conner. It's the annual Hometown Independence Day celebration here, featuring a parade down First Street, a slew of July 4 activities with live music at the La Conner Marina and a fireworks display over Swinomish Channel. "It will pretty much be the same as every year," Town Administrator Scott Thomas said. The variety of events assures that everyone in La Conner will again have a blast on the Fourth of July. The fun starts at noon with t...
Skagit County Display Gardens Open House, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, June 29, 16650 State Route 536, Mount Vernon. Explore gardens and educational displays. Learn about container gardening and Skagit Conservation District and Skagit County Noxious Weed Control Board efforts. Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardeners will be on site with a plant clinic and plant ID, free garden tool sharpening and plant sale. Free admission. Salish Sea Early Music Festival, 7 p.m. July 2. Classical musicians Irene Roldan on harpsichord and Jeffrey Cohan on...
Is the La Conner economy like a log floating in the Swinomish Channel, carried by the tides, up or down channel as the tide rises and falls with no momentum except moon and wind? Sometimes the log travels for miles in a single day and over the course of days or weeks, maybe helped by the breeze or a favorable obstruction or beaching. The next rising tide continues its forward direction. If progress is measured in distance, then that log may have a phenomenally successful run. Other times a log’s movement is held back for any of a host of r...
If ever someone was destined to be harbormaster at La Conner Marina, it's Charlie Knapp. And not just because he has an uncanny knack of finding smooth sailing after entering uncharted waters. "I've always enjoyed challenges," said Knapp, who grew up in Atlanta and launched his current gig with the Port of Skagit in mid-March. "I like trying new things," he told the Weekly News on Saturday. "That's how you grow." Consider that the graduate of Samford University in Homewood, Ala., has taught...
Summer doesn’t arrive for another eight days, but it sure looked and felt like summer this past weekend. After two Sundays of overcast skies and rain pouring down, this week the La Conner Live Gilkey Square concert band Adrian Xavier & Ska Island and listeners were blessed with sun, blue sky, a mild breeze and temperatures almost to 70 degrees. May Sundays all summer long be warm, but not climate change induced too hot. Next Sunday it is Skagit favorite Chris Eger Band. Concerts start at 1 p.m. through Sept. 8. Bring your lawn chair. There is a...
In terms of solving a longtime housing shortage here, the town is being asked to make the impossible possible. It will take about 20 years to tell if La Conner is successful. Town Planning Commission chair Bruce Bradburn had some gripes when reviewing state and county mandates that La Conner prepare to add 124 new housing units – one-third of which would serve low-income residents – between now and 2045. Bradburn called that a “pipe dream.” “It’s fine to say we have a goal to provide more family housing in town,” he said. Town Assistant Pla...
A couple thousand artisans, luthiers, musicians and wood millers from as far away as Italy and Spain, landed here last weekend for the sixth annual La Conner Guitar Festival to see, listen to and play the handcrafted and carefully sourced guitars and mandolins. Most prices ranged from $8,000 to $26,000. "I make high-end rectangles!" said walnut-wood lover Felly Smith. His stack of walnut and red cedar, milled to the size of the neck and body shape of a guitar, begged for a luthier. Before...
There’s supply and demand, but it can be demand and supply. The latter condition has led Skagit County Fire District 13 to assign two emergency medical technicians for 12-hour shifts two days per week at the Summit Park station near Highway 20 starting in mid-June. “We need to be out there,” Fire Chief Wood Weiss told district commissioners via Zoom during their hour-long May 9 meeting at the Snee-Oosh Road station. Weiss was in Leavenworth. He said staffing that station full-time twice weekly will help response times to a growing number of ca...
Some 13 people shared their views on the Town of La Conner's half-acre Jenson field property with Mayor Marna Hanneman Saturday at the La Conner Swinomish Library. Most had started the discussion nine days earlier at a town-organized community mingle April 25. This time Channel Drive residents Dave Buchan and Susan Macek and Pull and Be Damned resident Dana Heald came and added their perspectives. Buchan shared his concern over the dramatically declining enrollment in the local school district,...
Last Saturday some 13 people – mostly La Conner residents, along with Channel Drive and Pull and Be Damned neighbors and the Home Trust of Skagit executive director – met Mayor Marna Hanneman at the La Conner Swinomish Library for her monthly community check-in. There were mostly familiar faces around the conference room table. These residents have attended Hanneman’s earlier library gatherings, as many of them joined in town-organized community mingles on short-term rentals, First Street parking and the town-acquired Jenson property. That...
The Skagit Valley Chorale and friends are bringing audiences a musical time capsule of life in mid-twentieth century America on May 4 and 5. Artistic Director Yvette Burdick has assembled a unique program of music originally performed by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, one of America’s most popular entertainment ensembles in the last century. Under Waring the Pennsylvanians grew from a small jazz band whose members often put down their instruments and sang, to a 60-piece ensemble with big band, strings, glee club and soloists who r...
Town council members last week paved the way to pay for future work on La Conner’s streets, sidewalks and trails. The panel during its April 9 public meeting unanimously approved a 0.1% sales tax to fund the town’s new Transportation Benefit District. The council action is tentatively set to take effect July 1. Council members opted for the sales tax rather than an increase in local vehicle license fees to provide revenue for the TBD. Town Administrator Scott Thomas said the sales tax will be paid in part by those who drive to La Conner to sho...
The Anacortes City Council and the Port of Anacortes commissioners voted unanimously to authorize the Port’s executive director to enter into an interlocal agreement regarding the conceptual design of an event center at the corner of Ninth Street and R Avenue at a joint meeting at Anacortes City Hall Monday evening. The Port has been discussing a future event center for Anacortes since 2016. In 2021, it announced it would close the Transit Shed as an event center and its permanent return to maritime industrial use after 2023. It closed Dec. 3...
We have wrapped up the 2024 legislative session, and I'm pleased to report that state lawmakers worked together to pass legislation and fund projects to benefit Washingtonians. I'm especially proud that my bill to lower the cost of health care by capping the price of asthma inhalers and epi-pens passed both the House and the Senate unanimously. This is great news for families who use these life-saving medications for asthma and allergies. In addition, the Legislature passed two very important...
La Conner School District Director of Finance David Cram offered a realistic assessment last summer when presenting student enrollment numbers and the year’s budget to the school board and Superintendent Will Nelson. The head count in the elementary, middle and high schools had dropped below 500, to 490 full-time students. He projected a student population of 448 in 2026-2027. Cram’s forecast is turning into reality. His mid-March estimate for September, the 2024-2025 school year, is for 30 fewer students. His larger concern is that the new...
