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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...
Competition is, overall, a good thing. It is what makes our sports interesting, drives our natural environment to constantly adapt and it is also what keeps private enterprise going. It pushes a business to innovate, keep prices competitive and keep customers happy. At the heart of this competition is a desire for a mutually beneficial exchange between individuals. On the other side of this coin are monopolies. Although prohibited by federal law, they do exist. Characterized by controlling a market to ensure their profitability and viability,...
The nation’s crumbling infrastructure was suddenly a local story in your community newspaper last week. The page 1 headline blared “Shelter Bay water line break required boil water advisory.” Less conspicuously, without water constantly leaking, was the page 2 headline for the town council meeting: “Town Council reviews local infrastructure priorities.” All of a sudden, the rhetoric from the far-off other Washington has come home: water pipes on both sides of the Swinomish Channel are at the end of their lifespans. In 2018 La Conner replaced...
I have a science background and love to compare environmental systems. Some systems may mirror others to some extent but many have unique relationships. Some people have a handle on what are called key species or perhaps apex predators. These species may be important to maintain environmental balance. Often new people with a science background come into a science field with an open mind and new ideas. A new college graduate moved into the Pacific northwest with a new career in marine biology. He was stationed on the coast near saltwater. He...
Editor: Thank you for your editorial April 21, “A changing climate is deadlier than COVID-19.” In twin Earth Day messages, Pope Francis warned a gathering of world leaders and the global community at large that “we are at the edge” with climate change, and the time to take action is now. In both, Francis urged presidents and prime ministers to act courageously in addressing climate change and to learn from the coronavirus pandemic the need to create “a just, equitable, environmentally safe planet.” “Both the global catastrophes, Covid and cli...
Some Northwest artists have recently learned fairly new techniques to express the changing forms in nature. That means sculptors were painting, painters were sculpting and other new techniques were at work to express Earth’s ancient patterns. The results are on display at the latest art show at Edison’s i.e. Gallery through April 25. Allen Moe, Michael Clough and James Brems have all taken on a new – or relatively new – medium for their latest work. Sculptor Moe is displaying a ser...
My greatest priorities for the 2021 legislative session are to support economic development and recovery in rural communities, promote sustainable environmental and economic health and support families and those hit hardest by the pandemic and recession. The House recently released its operating, capital and transportation budgets. I am proud to have fought for local projects and programs that will go a long way to support these priorities. Economic Recovery Washington’s recovery begins with community, which is why House Democrats built a plan...
The La Conner School Board held a special meeting Monday that lived up to its name. It was termed “special” because it opened with a walking tour of the campus. What was truly special came next. The members convened their first in-person meeting in a year – since the COVID-19 pandemic forced closure of schools statewide last March and led the board to conduct its public sessions on the Zoom tele-conferencing platform. Masked and socially distanced, board members met in the district administration building to hear updates on La Con...
The word “environment” has become to some a political word. In the last four years the presidential administration in Washington dismantled many environmental policies and rules. For instance, the Obama-era Clean Power Plan was replaced, the Endangered Species Act was redefined and the Oil and Natural Gas extraction ban was lifted. The Coal Ash rule, which regulates the disposal of toxic coal waste, was weakened and mercury and Clean Air standards were revised. During this time a coal lobbyist and an oil and gas industry ally were leading the...
Last week the Anacortes Chamber of Commerce board of directors, consisting of community leaders, city officials and Anacortes Waterfront Festival stakeholders, met with Chamber staff to discuss the potential of hosting the festival in 2021. The group discussed general epidemiological projections, the safety of our community, volunteers, and incoming guests, and the overall operational ability to facilitate an event without knowing where our region will be in the Healthy Washington Roadmap to recovery in June. The Anacortes Chamber of Commerce...
