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A recent training exercise was so well-received that Skagit County Fire District 13 officials are considering another such drill in the La Conner area later this year. The March 30 windstorm scenario was so successful that the local fire district, which serves rural La Conner and the Swinomish Reservation, may stage a wildland fire training event during the peak of dry summer conditions here. “I suggest we have a similar drill for a wildland fire on the reservation,” Capt. Ted Taylor told fire district commissioners during their meeting at the...
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 Town of La Conner will show residents the Jensen property at 4 p.m., Thursday, April 18. Meet at the Channel Cove south end parking lot. A community mingle “regarding uses” of the Jensen property will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the Civic Garden Club on South Second Street....
First Street isn't the only place in town with parking issues. The Whittaker Field parking lot on N. Sixth Street was jammed with vehicles April 10 when La Conner hosted the annual Skagit Showdown Track & Field Meet, drawing teams and fans from 2A Burlington-Edison and Sedro-Woolley and 1B Mount Vernon Christian. Some visitors thought their only parking option was inside an open gate leading to the school bus garage. One driver even parked in front of the gate, briefly causing heartburn for La...
TOWN OF LA CONNER NOTICE OF ORDINANCE Notice is hereby given that the Town Council of the Town of La Conner, Washington, passed Ordinance No. 1245 at the April 9, 2024 Town Council meeting. A summary of Ordinance No. 1245 is as follows: An Ordinance establishing the Transportation Benefit District funding. Complete copies of Ordinance No. 1245 are available at La Conner Town Hall, P.O. Box 400, La Conner, WA 98257 Dated this 10th Day of April, 2024 /s/________________ Maria DeGoede, Town Clerk Published in the La Conner Weekly News, April 17,...
It was an astounding Saturday afternoon in La Conner on several levels. That's thanks to the annual downtown Skagit Valley Tulip Festival Parade presented by Astound Broadband. A large crowd descended on First Street – cars were parked as far away as S. Fourth and Caledonia – to take in the now not-so-impromptu serpentine, which has evolved over four decades into a well-organized, half-hour, must-see event. The 2024 edition featured emergency vehicles entered by La Conner Hook & Ladder, Ska...
Brandon and Kate Atkinson, owners of the 306 Center Street La Conner property, got the letter they have long wanted: An administrative determination on April 4 from the Town of La Conner planning department approves their application for their three-story 20-unit building with “six first- floor motel-type units and 14 second and third floor long-term residential dwelling units that may be developed as apartments or condominiums.” Planning Director Michael Davolio’s letter lists 15 conditions under which the developers can proceed to apply...
A woman is elected the new mayor of a small town on the edge of the Pacific Ocean in November 2023. “I think Langley is a very sweet, quaint town. It is not homogenous. (That’s) my experience,” Mayor Kennedy Horstman told the Weekly News in a joint interview with Director of Community Planning Meredith Penny March 21. The city’s residents “are very different people passionate about a lot of things. They are not all in agreement. … We are all one community but there is a lot of diversity on views of the future,” Horstman believes. Langley, a ci...
Working with several documents the past few weeks, members of the Town Emergency Management Commission are now on the same page. The local advisory board, which is developing a Community Emergency Management Plan for La Conner, has moved closer to completing the ambitious project after reviewing similar plans from Skagit County, the City of Anacortes, Shelter Bay, the Swinomish Tribal Community and other entities. Commissioners indicated during their April 2 public meeting that they’re ready to consolidate those outside resource materials i...
There’s no dead end when it comes to debating the future of S. First Street. The oft-discussed topic was again the focal point among town residents and planning commissioners during a 90-minute public meeting April 2. The last word on the subject still appears a long way off. The panel and audience discussed one-way traffic, angled parking and retaining the status quo for the narrow street that accesses the historic waterfront and retail core. They agreed that more data is needed before forwarding recommendations to the town council. To that e...
The Town of La Conner seeks input from community members about South First Street. A survey is on its website at townoflaconner.org. Click on “Alert” at the top of the page. The nine questions will take about five minutes to complete. www.townoflaconner.org/...
Town of La Conner staff are planning a community mingle about the best use for the Jenson property. The date may be April 25 but no information has been posted on the town website as of April 8. “Town officials over the next few months will begin examining potential options for the Jenson property located south of Channel Cove near the Maple Avenue approach to Pioneer Park,” Planning Director Michael Davolio wrote to the town council in their April 9 packet in his March monthly planner’s report These forums have typically started at 6 p.m....
My name is Wood Weiss and I am the Chief of Skagit Fire District 13. Recently people have been asking me about the upcoming ballot measure for the countywide Emergency Medical Services (EMS) levy renewal. I thought it might help to clarify who we are as a fire district and how the EMS levy impacts us and the people we serve. Our district provides Fire and EMS protection for a 71 square mile area, which includes the Swinomish Tribal Reservation (Tribal village, Shelter Bay, Snee Oosh beach area, Casino), farmlands east of the Swinomish channel,...
A complex building project requiring the necessary permits from two separate permitting entities, a geology study, weather and possible staffing shortages – to say nothing of carving out a rock wall – has contributed to the slow progress of the Snapdragon Flats project at Maple Avenue and Park Street in La Conner. This is not the development of La Conner Heights on High Street, rather it is the start of construction for two apartment triplexes at the base of the rock outcropping. On Feb. 1, 202...
The public is getting a chance to tell Skagit Transit where to go – in a polite way, of course. The area's public transportation system, which last year celebrated its 30th anniversary, is hosting a series of open houses through April 10 designed to gather input for SKAT's long-range service plans. Skagit Transit Marketing and Public Affairs Liaison Cheryl Willis said a key component of the current open house series is to determine if there is demand for a micro-transit option on Fidalgo I...
Five years ago, 10th District State Rep. Dave Paul successfully lobbied his colleagues in Olympia to provide funding to build the La Conner Swinomish Library. Paul was at the library for a March 27 town hall that included several of La Conner's appointed and elected officials, including Mayor Marna Hanneman. Those attending the forum asked Paul questions related to education, housing and Washington State Ferries. Perhaps most important, they secured Paul's commitment to back La Conner's...
It was only fitting that town officials would meet at the La Conner Civic Garden Club building for a report on the 2024 Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The local floral extravaganza, which enjoys global popularity, was previewed by Nicole Roozen, the festival’s new executive director, as part of the town council’s March 26 public session. The council met at the historic garden club venue instead of its regular meeting site at Maple Hall because of updates to its heating and air conditioning system. Roozen, who bears an iconic name in the world of...
The La Conner Parks Commission wants to do more than plant seeds for La Conner’s future landscape. The five-member advisory board wants to plant trees, more than a dozen of them along Morris Street, at no cost to the town. Commission members Ollie Iversen, Martin Howard and Mike Bucy shared plans for the beautification project during the March 26 Town Council meeting at the Civic Garden Club. Bucy served as project spokesperson. The council endorsed the initiative. “Our proposal is to raise donations to plant trees on Morris Street with no cit...
If it wasn’t for bad luck, the La Conner High School’s softball team wouldn’t have any luck at all. For the second time in four outings, head coach Loran James’ young club came up on the short end of a one-run contest. The Lady Braves (0-4 overall; 0-2 in league) lost 7-6 March 29 to visiting NW2B/1B rival Orcas Island. La Conner had earlier dropped a 15-14 non-conference slugfest at Muckleshoot. After escaping town with its narrow triumph, Orcas (2-8 overall; 2-2 in league) pounded league foe Concrete 29-11. La Conner travels to Concret...
A dreamy, bluesy Frank Sinatra crooned the air at the 5-star Saratoga Inn in Langley as I entered the dining area for the complimentary breakfast last week. And after that, an Amy Winehouse song. Just another sweet touch to the Inn's island hospitality. Classy. A scrumptious coffee cake, laden with cinnamon and sugar, served with orange juice was the first course. Followed by a Mediterranean Strada made from sourdough bread, eggs, peppers, olives and feta cheese with a side of fresh fruit, it...
Just beyond the deer fencing, lying between this old rotting house with fruit trees just as old, between these and a dense development, lies what used to be called a “vacant lot.” It might have been called a “swamp,” also, rather than a vestige of an estuary. It did take on some water in the 2022 flood. One engineer called it a “natural catch basin.” But all that belies an amazing feature: it’s ability to grow food. Eons of decomposing salmon bodies makes this soil, like much of the Skagit Valley where I live, among the top 1% of agricultural...
We live at the bottom of Snapdragon hill, one of those beautiful, quiet islands of wildlife in town, that made La Conner’s charm. It was covered in summer with wildflowers, people would come pick blackberries, deer liked to climb up the hill, there were rabbits and once I saw a family of raccoons feasting on berries. You could hike to the top. I once had a picnic there. When I saw the contractors break and deface part of the hill or when they sprayed the hill across the street from us to kill the vegetation, I was horrified. They did, after h...
On Dec. 27, 2022, a predicted 11-foot tide in La Conner Channel was met with low atmospheric pressure, high river flow and a western wind. As a result the channel rose to over 14 feet and spilled over along lower places on the eastern bank, flooding parts of town and causing more than $1 million damage before receding. The mayor and town council created an Emergency Management Commission to deal with any future floods or other natural disasters. The sandbags that have recently been removed were placed by our incredible town public works...
TOWN OF LA CONNER NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Town of La Conner will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday April 9, 2024, to establish the funding of The Transportation Benefit District. The Public Hearing will be held during the 6:00 PM regular town council meeting located at 622 S. Second Street (Garden Club). The Public Hearing shall be for the purpose of receiving public comments, written or oral. Written comments are to be submitted by email from April 3, 2024, to no later than 12:00 PM on April 9, 2024, to...
Crime won’t be taking a holiday in La Conner anytime soon – at least in terms of the town’s popular murder mystery event. Former Weekly News reporter Nicole Jennings co-wrote the Prohibition Era murder mystery script with her mom, Chris Jennings. They’re already planning next spring’s third annual production. Nicole Jennings is developing for next year a mystery steeped in World War II intrigue. Her aim is to craft story lines around local weapons testing and espionage, with fictional plots bolstered by research into the history of nearby Nav...
