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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...
Three months after stepping into leadership of the Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA), Executive Director Stefano Catalani has his eye on how the museum can best reflect the complexity of artists’ voices, cultures and artistic mediums in the Northwest. As someone who has transited continents and careers, he is focused on the expansiveness of the art world today. That focus centers on the Northwest in the present, and historically. With that said, he’s quick to point out that the first phase for a di...
I found it concerning when I read the recent letters by Mr. O’Donnell on March 9 and by Mr. Elliott on March 16 about taxes paid by Shelter Bay. Anyone buying a home here on leased land is clearly informed that we live here because the Swinomish Nation has granted us the privilege. In any lease situation, we do not presume to tell our landlord how to use their income. But even more than that, a non-native living here should not be taking the same position (or taking the same for granted) as we would living on land that is solely part of the U...
Robert (Bob) Lee Olson took his first breath on earth September 18, 1938 in Sayre, PA, and his last on March 11, 2022 in Anacortes, WA. Bob found great pleasure enjoying his love of sky, sea, and land at an early age. He grew up in beautiful Elmira, New York where his playground included the lovely Finger Lakes, the Thousand Islands, Watkins Glen Racing, and Harris Hill, home to many glider plane enthusiasts. Lots of time spent hanging around the “fly boys” often got him free rides in exc...
Paul Farmer, Harvard physician and anthropologist, co-founder of Partners in Health, died on February 21 at the age 62 in Rwanda after a lifetime of caring for the poor in Haiti, Peru, Rwanda, Siberia and the Navajo Nation. He was quoted (AP) as saying,”I am not cynical, cynicism is a dead end.” I try to hold that admirable thought as we witness the unvaccinated clogging, almost breaking, hospital staffs across the United States claiming vaccination mandates designed to protect the population as a whole are “forced” vaccinations that infring...
La Conner artists Meg Holgate and Steve Klein have joined together to present “A Precarious Edge,” their exhibit opening at the Museum of Northwest Art Saturday. As successful artists do, they have created beauty and are confronting viewers with truth and a challenge: with the future of the Earth hanging in the balance how can each of us “preserve and be part of the restoration of our ecosystems?” as curator Jodie Nelson wrote in introducing the exhibit. Nelson believes that Holgate’s large-scal...
Based on recent opinion pages in the La Conner Weekly News there appears to be a lack of clear or accurate information regarding protections for riparian zones adjacent to salmon streams in general and the Lorraine Loomis Act in particular. Intact riparian zones (the land along stream banks) provide immense benefits to salmon. They provide shade to keep streams cool, they provide large pieces of wood where juvenile fish take refuge from floods and predators, they provide bank stability, they filter and absorb nutrients coming off of farms and...
In my work as your representative over the last three years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many of you and your neighbors, listen to your concerns and learn about what issues affect your daily lives. From those conversations, it is clear the Legislature should support?a sustainable economy that?allows?all members of our community?to thrive.? Our?state must?improve access to higher education and family-wage jobs, foster?economic development and recovery in rural communities and prioritize healthcare and our quality of life. This s...
It was billed as a special meeting but played out much like similar Town of La Conner audit exit sessions of the past. And that was good news for town leaders. The one difference is the 35-minute Zoom discussion between La Conner representatives and the state auditor’s office Monday afternoon, which was conducted remotely, same as the two-year audit itself. Audit Lead Christy Fazio, and Supervisor Karyna Orcutt announced clean Accountability and Financial Statement Reports, which they and Mayor Ramon Hayes confirmed included reviews of m...
Like everyone growing up in La Conner, Tristen Nelson knew each holiday season kicked off with the famed Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade televised from New York City. Unlike most here, however, she would one day be part of the storied event. That day was this past Thanksgiving when Nelson, associate director of marketing with the Funko pop culture collectibles company, helped introduce the giant Baby Yoda balloon to the rest of the country. “I’m not being biased – okay, maybe a little &ndas...
In a two-page memorandum to La Conner’s town council Dec. 6, planner Michael Davolio provided a status update on the proposed 20-unit apartment development at 306 Center Street. This followed 12 correspondences from residents by the Dec. 1 deadline in response to the town’s November public notice of preliminary determination of non-significance. A thirteenth letter came Dec. 8. Davolio noted council members “have been inundated by comments from residents regarding this proposal.” To briefly summarize comments, artist Maggie Wilder shared...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community has reason to be happy as a clam these days: The tribe has received two major grants to build the first modern-day clam garden in the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Saltonstall-Kennedy Competitive Grants Program and Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center are providing monies to build the garden, allowing the tribe to retain access to traditional foods and reinforce maricultural practices going back more than three millennia. “We are thankful to receive this f...
Gene Helfman has a whale of a story to tell. It is one the Lopez Island author is literally putting into the hands of the public – especially those concerned with the plight of threatened Southern Resident orcas. His novel, “Beyond the Human Realm,” follows the life of, Makai, a captive male orca saved from euthanasia and released into the wild. Makai then encounters whales and people instrumental in helping him gain acceptance into orca society. “I think the book will be of interest to your readership because of the intense local, regio...
Years in La Conner and why applied I moved to La Conner in September of 2013. I was asked by a few people in town to apply for the vacated position on town council. Giving it much thought, knowing I would have to find someone to cover my well-attended yoga classes on Tuesday nights when the town council gathers, I decided to apply. I do feel I would bring a unique voice to the group. Community involvement; successes I have been a member of La Conner’s Parks Commission since 2017, making C...
Building a new recreation and leisure activity model here continues to be a work in progress. Town officials are stressing the progress part. A first draft of an updated Parks Element to be included in La Conner’s Comprehensive Plan has been completed and made ready for Planning Commission review. Planner Michael Davolio said he and Parks Commission Chairman Ollie Iversen had reviewed edits made by former planner Marianne Manville-Ailles to the Parks Element proposal and together had made further changes for inclusion in the present draft. “The...
I am back at the Wylie Game Range, where I take regular walks for exercise as well as to assess the changing environment. Each time there are different animal participants. In mid-September I was walking over the culvert road going to the wildlife parking lot and office. There were four gadwall ducks on the left side between the two road culverts. They acted upset and swam towards me which is unusual. I noticed behind them an obvious line of surface ripples made by something pursuing them. All...
Background and experiences Ex-New Yorker; Located La Conner 2011; Two adult sons; served U.S. Navy medical corpsman; Career: aviation field, Japan Airlines, Alaska, including service manager, project mgr. (JFK Terminal), Sales: snowplows, seating and revenue consultant. Operate (permitted) Airbnb “Super-host,” animal lover. Hobbies: Classic cars, biking and military miniatures. Appointed town council 2012. I love the town and want to contribute. Council accomplishments: Initiated “Sister Citie...
Inside a nondescript tractor storage building in La Conner farmland, glass artist Steve Klein has been testing the nature of glass. Klein has been renowned for his work with colored, kiln-formed glass for several decades and may be better known in the international glass world than he is right here at home. The creative work is taking place in his studio, facing out over the fields where he marvels over the palette of changing skies but also practices his craft of glass firing in various kilns....
If there is anything amiss, it is that our local vegetable stands are only open during the growing seasons. I should love to stop into a small local market to select the freshest of ingredients. We have driven around the valley to buy winter crops from the back of a wagon. Organic foods are favored. In our area we can now purchase locally milled flours, fresh cheeses, breads, meats and eggs. In the ideal situation, we can create our daily menus from each of these. We can also plant fruit...
A time came when Lorraine Loomis figured there was a better way to earn a living than toiling at double shifts as a fish processor. She was right. There was a better way. It just wasn’t easier. If anything, becoming a long tenured “salmon warrior” was much harder – but a career that Loomis embraced and now provides a legacy destined to have an impact for generations to come, due to her diligence and perseverance. The longtime director of the Swinomish Tribal Community Fisheries progr...
Since purchasing the Scone Lady bakery from Christie Eichler in January 2020, D.J. Gallegos and Keneisia Smart-Gallegos have gotten some puzzled looks. When customers ask Smart-Gallegos whether she is the Scone Lady, she politely says no, she is the Scone Lady’s wife. Then she introduces her husband, D.J. – Mr. Scone Lady to his bankers. Still others tell Gallegos how glad they are that his mom reopened the bakery. Confusion vanishes with the first bite. Gallegos, who met “honorary mom” Eichler when he was earning his associate degre...
On the basketball court in high school and college, Danny Hagen would be called upon to block shots. Today one of the Shelter Bay man’s callings is to make sure the disabled get a fair shot at fully participating in community life. Hagen, a residential appraiser with the Skagit County Assessor’s Office, last week joined the Chinook Enterprises board of directors. Chinook Enterprises provides job training, employment assistance and related services for people with disabilities or facing oth...
Last week the Town of La Conner applied for a $30,000 grant to the state of Washington for creating a “Subarea Plan” for redevelopment of the South Downtown Industrial Area, the area bordered roughly by Town Hall on Commercial Street to Pioneer Park and from the Swinomish Channel to South Third Street. In its application, the Town’s “vision” recognizes the significance of this area for “reasons of heritage, environment, economics, employment, and the preservation, protection and enhancement of natural and cultural resources.” In its May 20 pu...
Going on retreat was the best path forward for La Conner schools officials last week. School board members spent their three-hour retreat May 21 applying the finishing touches to the district’s new strategic plan, a process that has been two years in the making. They worked on next year’s budget and discussed capital improvements and naming two new student reps. That set the stage for formal action at its May 24 meeting. Members unanimously adopted a strategic plan designed to create a learning environment in which the academic and social emo...
On April 30, Joe Biden completed 100 days in office with approval ratings higher than any president at this stage for 40 years. He leans heavily on a brand of Catholicism that disappoints some on the left and on the right, both inside and outside the church. How is he doing? And does his Catholicism affect this governance? His political fortunes remain tied to his ability to slay the virus and get the U.S. economy opened again. Biden’s approval rating in all polls is hovering around 60 percent, the highest of any president at this stage s...
