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In my work at both the State Legislature and at Skagit Valley College, I’ve learned that veterans face significant challenges during and after the transition to civilian life. Many face significant mental health and medical hurdles, as well as an increased risk of experiencing homelessness. Here are some quick facts about the difficulties many veterans face. Veterans are more likely to experience homelessness than non-veterans. Male veterans are twice as likely—while female veterans are three times as likely—to experience h...
Now is the time to cast your ballot. Help get all ballots counted quickly: • Vote and return your ballot now • Sign your ballot envelope • Mail your ballot by Nov. 2 Get voting information and register to vote at VoteWa.gov or contact Skagit County Elections: 360-416-1702, [email protected] Election drop boxes nearby: La Conner Regional Library, 614 E. Morris Street. Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Social Services Building, 17337 Reservation Road. Ballots must be in drop boxes by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 You can...
Ten Genuine Skagit Valley members got a combined prep talk and introduction to the program’s vision of making the Skagit Valley’s agricultural products as well known as Napa Valley wines at a rollout training Oct. 10. That’s consultant Duane Knapp’s hope for the branding program the Port of Skagit is championing to increase recognition, value and sales of agricultural goods regionally, initially – and globally in the future. The path to local agriculture’s future viability lies through a joint promise growers embrace in taking up the re...
Elaborate costumes will conceal the identities of those celebrating Halloween here next Thursday. But there’s no hiding the fact there will be plenty of fun for those partaking of the local holiday festivities. Oct. 31 looks to be a boo-tiful time for kids and adults alike, both in La Conner and on Swinomish Reservation. Festivities kick off at 3:15 p.m. with the parade and always popular downtown trick-or-treating. First Street transforms from a tourist mecca into a gateway for Halloween e...
Get your unneeded medications out of your house Oct. 26. Take them to the Swinomish Tribal Police Department, 17353 Reservation Road from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Swinomish Tribe is hosting this prescription drug take back day for both prescription and over-the-counter medications. Medications can stay in their original containers and labels do not need to be removed. Medications not in their original containers will be accepted too. United General District 304 is a partner in preventing opioid misuse in community. Erynn Sendrick, program...
This sleepy, off year election has two important contested local races and 24 total items needing your attention and decisions. Incumbent La Conner School District directors are challenged in district 1, where John Agen runs against five year veteran Kate Szurek, and district 2, which has Marlys Baker facing Board Chair Janie Beasley. Incumbent Lynette Cram in district 4 is unopposed as is appointed director Susan Deyo in district 5. Voters will decide on three changes to state law: Referendum Measure 88, which the legislature placed on the...
An attentive crowd of 80 people heard candidates for La Conner School Board District Directors 1 and 2 at a forum co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Skagit County and the La Conner Weekly News last Wednesday on the Swinomish reservation. Incumbents Kate Szurek, District 1 Director, and Janie Beasley, District 2 Director, are challenged by John Agen and Marlys Baker, respectively. The large turnout indicated the interest in the tension between the administration and the two school unions. Also, the District 2 position is a contest...
Last October Boater’s Discount in La Conner, the only marine products store in town, lost its lease with the Port of Skagit last fall. The Port has been mum as to why the lease was cancelled, but the result was that after a fire sale of marine products last winter, Boater’s Discount closed its doors at the end of February 2019. La Conner prides itself as a boating community. Between Port of Skagit moorage facilities in La Conner and the Shelter Bay Marina, hundreds of pleasure and commercial craft are home-ported in La Conner. Boaters need mar...
Chuck Hedlund enjoyed a great career, one that took him halfway across the globe as a pioneer in modern international trade. But it was what he did in retirement, back home in La Conner, that has truly made a world of difference. On that count, pretty much everyone here is agreed. “Chuck Hedlund returned home from Singapore and took on the mantle of Community Volunteer,” said Maureen Harlan, a lifelong friend and herself a local civic leader. “He was dedicated to promoting and serving the youth...
Those of you who know me realize I care deeply about children and education. My desire is always to be a part of the solution and work for unity. I know that the new food services director and her team at La Conner School District are working extremely hard to provide excellent services for everyone, and I realize they are being directed by the district office. Amber Fleck, a LCSD parent and employee, should not have to summon the courage to stand up at a school board meeting as an advocate for students to say that the meal portions have not...
John Agen, Kate Szurek, Marlys Baker, Janie Beasley. Astute readers will recognize them as the candidates in the contested races for the La Conner School District directors positions for districts 1 and 2, on south and west Fidalgo Island outside of Shelter Bay, generally. The four are taking their races seriously, campaigning to represent their respective Fidalgo Island constituents at a time of great turmoil in the school district. Szurek and Beasley are incumbents. Beasley is this year’s board president. Szurek was president in 2018. Both h...
At her job, Marlys Baker is a healer. She hopes to do the same as an elected official. “I want to be a unifying force rather than a dividing one,” says Baker, the first of four La Conner School Board candidates to respond to questions posed by the Weekly News. “I believe we can work together for positive change.” Baker, a registered nurse who serves as community health representative at the Swinomish Medical Clinic, is vying for the Board seat held by Janie Edwards Beasley, who chairs the fiv...
It was while selling doors for a living that Heather Fakkema realized doors were also opening for her to pursue a career in school administration. She had by then already spent two years as a teacher before stepping away from the classroom to start a family and engage in several other ventures, including a children’s ministry. The light bulb flicked on during her time with a family-owned window and door distribution firm in Seattle. Business management introduced Fakkema to concepts her t...
Truth in advertising was on display Sunday at the Andrew Johnson family farm barn on Beaver Marsh Road. Over 110 people came for an old-fashioned country pot luck, challenged to bring dishes matching the BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, spot prawns, baked potato bar and fruit crisps provided by or overseen by Georgia Johnson, chef, caterer, bakery owner and for 16 years food services director at La Conner schools. Billed as “There’s Always a Seat at Georgia’s Table: A Celebration!.” it was that, a...
While I applaud the activism of young Ms. Jones in caring about our feral cat population, her letter in last week’s Weekly News raised serious concerns. After speaking with NOAH, I learned that they have made no formal agreement with Ms. Jones to provide the services stated in her letter. The Town of La Conner was likewise unaware of this ambitious plan and it seems at odds with the current municipal code. Many cats in my neighborhood are collarless yet have homes and families who love them. Not everyone has their pet micro-chipped. Pet o...
Painful stories of trauma are at the heart of the homeless crisis found in most every community in our country. Job loss, health emergencies, domestic violence, substance abuse or physical, emotional or mental health problems put neighbors, family members or friends out of their homes and on the street, said Jennifer Johnson, Skagit County Department of Public Health director, in introductory remarks Monday at a forum on homelessness organized by the League of women Voters of Skagit County and t...
First a retreat, then some tentative steps forward. That’s the path upon which La Conner Schools Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner and leaders of two staff union groups that have rebuked her management skills now find themselves. All parties vow to move in the same direction, serving the best interests of students, but whether they can do so side-by-side remains unclear. The unions have issued votes of no-confidence in Meissner and called for her ouster, alleging she has created a negative work environment, concerns that arose last spring and...
Two truths about agriculture: One: Farmers have always promoted their products and seek to expand their markets and Two: Farmers are always getting older, and also younger. Even in our “more is better” culture, the best thing is to add value by improving the worth of a crop. Sometimes worth can be increased by asserting the intrinsic value inherent in the harvest. The creators of Genuine Skagit Valley, the marketing program for agricultural products and related services originating in Skagit County, believe that to be the case. From asp...
Dear Editor: There are more than 110,000 residents of our state living with Alzheimer’s disease and more than 348,000 family members and friends are acting as unpaid caregivers. Fellow Washingtonians who joined the 1,200 attendees at the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement Advocacy Forum in April in Washington, DC, said Congress was listening to their explanation of the burden that Alzheimer’s places on our state and nation. This advocacy is important to me because I lost my husband to Lewy Body Disease which began with Alzheimer’s and I know the hea...
Dear School Board Members, Your letter to the community does not address the damage that has been done to individuals and the larger culture in La Conner schools. It’s clearly an attempt to assuage the public without any substantial change being made. It appears that you are attempting to protect the superintendent at the expense of the school district, its employees and students. It’s the employees and students that need protecting. It is time for action. There needs to be an investigation of the “leadership” that perpetrated intimid...
Wood Weiss is used to taking big steps. The Fire District 13 assistant chief is a regular participant in the annual Columbia Tower Stair Climb in Seattle, a major fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. “It’s 69 flights of stairs, over 1,300 steps,” siad Weiss, a chiropractor, firefighter and emergency medical technician. Soon he’ll take a big career step as well, and add another hat – make that, fire helmet – to his resume. Weiss has been tabbed by District 13 Commiss...
He has alternately been a Port of Skagit manager, Town Councilmember, Mayor of La Conner, and Skagit County Treasurer. And a dishwasher and real estate agent. Plus a U.S. Navy captain. Now, just 16 months shy of his 90th birthday, Dan O’Donnell has embraced the role as La Conner’s man of letters. Refusing to make concessions to age, O’Donnell remains a frequent contributor to the La Conner Weekly News Letters to the Editor section, as he did previously with the Channel Town Press. O’Don...
The Fourth of July is still a week away, but there were early fireworks aplenty when the La Conner School Board met in a tense, sometimes heated session before a standing room only audience Monday evening in the district’s administrative building. The two-hour meeting dealt mostly with issues related to second-year Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner, the subject of recent no-confidence votes taken by members of the district’s two employee unions, who allege her management has been ine...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community will contribute $750,000 toward the construction of a new library, the La Conner Regional Library District announced Monday. The facility, located at 520 Morris Street, will be named the La Conner-Swinomish Library. The grant supports the building’s construction over the next two years. Projected opening date is in the fourth quarter of 2021. The library is designed to be a multi-cultural resource center for information and learning. It will double the size of the current building, be wired to provide h...
Yet another chapter in the saga unfolded Saturday. More than $50,000 was added to the cause during the annual A Novel Affair luncheon and auction at Maple Hall keynoted by best-selling Seattle author Robert Dugoni. Support from the sold-out event, which filled the downtown venue to capacity, came on the heels of a recent $720,000 allocation by state lawmakers toward the $3.74 million project, designed to provide La Conner library users expanded floor space and services for all ages. For the...
