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The 126th annual La Conner High graduation ceremonies were truly the first of their kind. With the COVID-19 pandemic having nixed traditional indoor commencement exercises marked by large crowds, celebratory music, tossed mortar boards and release of balloons and confetti, the school’s Class of 2020 still wasn’t denied fanfare. La Conner High seniors were honored Thursday evening with a drive-thru graduation event outside Landy James Gym followed by a car parade through town led by fir...
Fifty-years-ago the La Conner commercial scene boasted canneries, full-service fuel stations and a major fish-food processing plant. All are gone now. But 1970 also saw the ribbon cut for launch of a new and key cog in the local economy – one that not only remains but has grown significantly over the past half-century. The first phase of the Port of Skagit’s La Conner Marina was dedicated in late May that year with a ceremony keynoted by U.S. Sen. Henry Jackson, of Everett, who twice sough...
The Swinomish Tribal Community has held Memorial Day services for three-quarters of a century, one of its longest-standing traditions. But Monday’s program at Swinomish Cemetery was like no other. The COVID-19 pandemic and a steady rainfall kept attendance down, and among those who did turn out many wore masks and observed social distancing guidelines while visiting grave sites and listening to speakers. “Times have changed for us,” said Swinomish Tribal Senator J.J. Wilbur, who served as maste...
Sally Wilbur kept secret until the last minute a birthday party parade for her 17-year-old son Danny “Dano” Rapada Sunday afternoon. But in that last minute the surprise was revealed to the guest of honor in a big way. A dozen local fire, police and emergency medical services vehicles with horns and sirens blaring, followed by a long serpentine of honking cars and trucks, twice circled past Rapada seated in a wheelchair at the front of his driveway on Swinomish Reservation to drop off a bev...
Friday afternoon the Skagit County Board of Health asked Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington Department of Health Secretary John Wiesman for a variance from the state’s Start Safe Plan criteria to allow Skagit County to move forward to Phase 2 “today, and by June 1 at the latest.” The Board’s May 22 letter followed Gov. Inslee’s May 19 announcing moving to Phase 2 of the Safe Start Plan required meeting the benchmark of fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14 day period for counties with populations over 75,000. Skagit County ne...
Joseph Wenzel Wohleb, Jr., age 96, a five-year resident of Skagit Valley passed away peacefully on May 7, 2020 in Burlington, WA. He was born on Aug. 6, 1923 in Olympia, WA the youngest son of renowned Olympia architect Joseph Henry Wohleb and Matilda (Gresl) Wohleb. He graduated from Olympia High School in 1941 and went on to attend the University of Washington when he decided to enlist in 1942. He proudly served in the U.S. Army Air Corp. during the Second World War as a waist-gunner on a...
Swinomish Tribal Community members hold memories of Tribal veterans close to heart. But this Memorial Day, those attending services at Swinomish Cemetery will observe social distancing in response to coronavirus concerns. Swinomish Cultural Affairs Director Aurelia Bailey is in the process of finalizing plans for the 10 a.m. May 25 service. Attendees are asked to use social distancing while visiting veterans’ gravesites or remain in vehicles while listening to the services over the program’s speaker system, Tribal Social Services Director Tra...
Since early April, the Town of La Conner has relied on increased signage to get the word out on social distancing requirements imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19. The message has now become less is more. The digital reader board that has projected a “Stay Home, Stay Safe” message near the roundabout has been returned to the rental company, Mayor Ramon Hayes told Town Council members during their video-conferenced May 12 session. “The reader board,” Hayes told the Weekly News afterward, “has reached the peak of its need. It has served it...
It wasn’t so long ago that Hilary Edwards was walking the halls of La Conner High School. Now the halls of Congress are in her future. The 2013 La Conner grad, a first-year law school student at Arizona State University, is one of 12 applicants nationwide to have been selected for a Native American summer congressional internship through the Udall Foundation. The foundation honors the legacies of brothers Stewart Udall and Morris Udall, whose careers fostered the causes of American Indian self-governance and healthcare as well as stewardship o...
Physical therapy dates its origins to ancient Greece and Hippocrates, widely recognized as the Father of Medicine. Much about physical therapy has changed in the ensuing 2,500 years – especially in the past few weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak. Specialists at Balance Point Physical Therapy in La Conner have joined local medical clinics in embracing telehealth methods to treat patients during the statewide “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” emergency. Conditions resulting from the COVID-19 out...
It was a rare bright shining moment last Friday for a La Conner High senior class whose school hallways remain darkened by nationwide campus closures through the rest of the academic year in response to the COVID-19 threat. The stadium lights at Whittaker Field were turned on for 20 minutes at 8:20 p.m. – 20:20 military time – to honor the Class of 2020 whose members won’t walk the stage in traditional commencement exercises in June. The “Be the Light” event, which began in Texas...
Results from an engineering feasibility study has halted plans to restore the historic Pleasant Ridge School. The study was commissioned by Cemetery District 1, which acquired the school and its surrounding acreage in 2017 from owners who had held it for about 50 years. The District wanted more acreage and hoped to turn the much-beloved schoolhouse into a meeting place for memorial services and other community events. After decades of neglect, including long years of service as a storage shed...
The second annual Library Giving Day on Thursday is an event that gives library lovers like you a chance to support the new La Conner Swinomish Library. Last year 192 library organizations from 39 US States and four Canadian provinces joined the #LibraryGivingDay movement and more than 4,200 donors contributed a total of $737,000. In these unprecedented times, work continues here in La Conner on the planning and design for the new library. We’re still hopeful of breaking ground later this summer. And that’s thanks to the caring support of gen...
Much of the economy has been shut down due to the coronavirus. What still pays, however, is being alert to potential mischief. “We’ve seen an uptick in theft and vandalism,” La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes told the Weekly News last Thursday. “It’s a strange time. We all feel more vulnerable.” In response, the Town earlier this month hired a private security firm to conduct downtown night patrols through May 4 while the statewide “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” emergency order is in effect. The Town Council has since authorized that the range of those pat...
This was the Saturday that the 34th Annual Not-So-Impromptu Tulip Parade did not take place in the month the Tulip Festival was cancelled, in the spring that school stopped for the rest of the year. This is the year that a novel coronavirus conquered the world. This is the time that the economy stopped and people from Washington state to Washington D.C. were told to stay home and stay out of work, to close their shops, shutter and shut down their factories. This, the year of our Lord 2020, is the year without Easter services in church for the...
Technology is helping bring people and ideas together even as social distancing has become the norm in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The latest example was an hour-long remote panel discussion conducted on the Zoom video conferencing platform in La Conner Thursday afternoon. Town, school and civic leaders logged on to share ways in which they are moving forward in the midst of a pandemic that has ground the economy to a halt. One theme that emerged is those not laid off or furloughed at present are actually working harder outside the...
La Conner area pastors spoke to empty pews on Easter Sunday, but their messages were heard by many. At La Conner United Methodist Church, it was a combination of a colorful Living Cross of spring greenery and flowers placed on the front door and use of new technology that got the word out. Meanwhile, parishioners at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in La Conner were able to view Easter Mass livestreamed in English and Spanish on social media in either real time or in an archived mode. Attempts to...
Do we really want things to go back to normal? Are you sure? One definition of normal is to be healthy in mind and body. Ahhh … that strikes a chord, doesn’t it? A global, unprecedented turn of events has focused the entire world’s attention away from life as normal. Now it’s on our collective health and its very personal impact as well as the dire, economic consequences to each individual on the planet when things go catastrophically awry. The COVID-19 virus is very different than anything we have ever faced before. It has certa...
The COVID-19 pandemic that led to a statewide Stay Home order has been brutal on local business owners and employees alike. It has also been tough on those who gladly work for free. La Conner area volunteers who log hours for service clubs, charitable organizations and a host of community-based programs and projects have had to adapt in real time with daily life being shut down to stem spread of the coronavirus. “COVID-19 has done a fine job of slowing down almost all volunteering,” lamented Town Parks Commissioner Ollie Iversen, also a La Conn...
No fooling, the national census, the Constitutionally mandated every 10 years count of every person n the United States, kicked off April 1st. Because we all count, it is critical that we all get counted. Federal funds for our communities and our state, and districting boundaries for state and national legislative seats are shaped by census results. If folks are missed, don’t get counted, everyone loses. Door-to-door canvassing is limited by the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Your patriotic duty is t...
La Conner isn’t playing around when it comes to curbing the spread of COVID-19. The Town Council moved to temporarily close the John Hammer Memorial Playground below Town Hall and the Salmon Slide at Conner Waterfront Park following its lengthy discussion via a teleconference meeting March 24. In so doing, Town officials followed the lead of other Puget Sound communities employing multiple measures to limit exposure to the novel coronavirus. Councilmembers considered but did not close the p...
The U.S. Navy will conduct real-time noise monitoring of aircraft-in-flight at Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island, WA and at NAS Lemoore, CA in 2020, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020. Reports will be submitted to the congressional defense committees by December 1. Monitoring will continue through the summer of 2021. As required, monitoring will use American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/Acoustical Society of America guidance. The Navy reports it will place at least 10 Sound Level Meters (SLM)...
The La Conner Regional Library Board of Directors is pleased to announce the hiring of Jared Fair as the new Library Director. Fair, the managing librarian for Yakima Valley Libraries, will join the La Conner Library on April 13. “Jared’s progressive managerial and leadership experience, which includes supervision of 12 libraries to date in the Yakima Valley Library District, impressed our board, staff and members of the community who participated in our interview process,” said Jean Marke...
Marlys Baker had quickly found a home on the La Conner School Board after having unseated longtime incumbent Janie Beasley in their race for the Swinomish director district seat last November. In just four months Baker had earned high praise from La Conner Schools Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner and board colleagues for her immediate impact. But when she and her family moved to Mount Vernon this month, taking residence in their new home forced Baker to turn out the lights on what was a promising start serving on the local school panel. Her...
To our valued citizens during these unprecedented and uncertain times: Although town hall is closed to the public until further notice, your local government will continue to operate and provide essential services. In an effort to stem the severity of the virus outbreak, the governor has instituted a policy of social distancing. I ask that every citizen follow this guidance. However, at this critical time there is also a great need to make sure we are looking out for our friends and neighbors. And although a face-to-face encounter is ill...
