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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...
Rep. Norma Smith announced from the House floor in Olympia March 5 that she will not run for re-election in November. The 10th District state representative explained how she is returning to a life-long calling that has defined both her personal and professional paths over the years. “Serving the people of the 10th District has been my greatest professional honor and privilege. They put their trust in me and I will be forever grateful. I have poured everything I have into our communities and s...
“We are nervous. But we are going to go out swinging!!” Seeds owner Kjendal Hicks’ reply to a Monday email surveying local restaurants was the feistiest. She also shared the difficulty decision of laying off most of her staff. For Cristal Perkins and Belen Arias, co-owners with their mom of Santo Coyote Mexican Kitchen, laying off half their staff Monday was the rough start to their day. Ted Furst, majority owner of Nell Thorn wrote that “the entire hourly staff is laid off,” on “standby” in Employment Security Department terminology....
School’s out, but not for the summer. La Conner students and staff are off campus now through April 24 due to county and state mandates designed to help curb spread of the coronavirus. The campus shutdown represents perhaps the most impactful of La Conner-related virus crisis closures. La Conner School District serves 606 students in grades K-12 and is widely recognized as a cornerstone of the community. La Conner Superintendent of Schools Dr. Whitney Meissner echoed Town Mayor Ramon Hayes’ assessment that the coronavirus poses unp...
After a crossroads election that marked the end of an era, the Swinomish Tribal Senate on Monday selected a tested leader to guide the 11-member panel on the path ahead. Steve “Rudy” Edwards, who has served as Tribal recreation director among other key roles, was the Senate’s choice to succeed Brian Cladoosby as its chairman. Cladoosby, who had chaired the Swinomish Senate for more than two decades and was widely recognized as a prominent national voice in the Native American community, was d...
Concerns of the Coronavirus have reached into La Conner. Tuesday Mayor Ramon Hayes sent this recommendation from the Skagit County Health Officer to Town Councilmembers and staff: “The community should postpone non-essential events and gatherings of ten or more people.” While there are no known infections in Skagit County, there have been local cancellations and runs on hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol and, yes, toilet paper. At the start of last week staff taped a “No masks, No Sanitizer” sign on the door of the La Conner Drug store. Saturday t...
There is a different and special one percent in our midst: the very few among us who have sought out training and are ready to save themselves and reach out to help the rest of us in the aftermath of an earthquake, volcano or tsunami, a catastrophic event that will turn life as we know it upside down. This could happen any day in the next 200 years. The last Magnitude 9.0 earthquake in the region was around 1700. Researchers say one occurs every 300 to 500 years, so maybe tomorrow or maybe not in our lifetimes the earth will shake. If it is in...
The impact of a landslide election victory has had the effect of an earthquake on Swinomish Reservation, the aftershocks from which are likely to be felt for quite some time. First-time candidate Alana Quintasket, 27, defeated incumbent Tribal Senate Chairman Brian Cladoosby 220-103 during balloting held in conjunction with the annual Swinomish General Council session on Sunday. Cladoosby, the longest serving Senate Chairman in Swinomish history and recognized as a key regional and national...
Brian Cladoosby is a recognized leader both here and in the other Washington. The longtime Swinomish Tribal Community Senate chairman, under whose tenure the local reservation has realized unparalleled economic growth along with major advances in social services and health care facilities, has during that time often shared a speaking dais with governors, state and federal lawmakers, cabinet officers, and even a U.S. President. Yet more remains on his to-do list, he told the Weekly News last...
Some 20 people accepted the La Conner School District’s invitation to informally gather for a coffee chat to find out “what’s happening” in the district last Thursday, Jan. 23. School Board Chair Susie Deyo and Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner co-hosted the evening conversation in the middle school library. Newly elected board members John Agen and Marlys Baker joined them. The topics drawing the most animated conversation were “the dissension that sprung up between the two unions and the superintendent,” asked by an elder, and the look of...
(R-Clinton) The 60-day legislative session began on January 13. While this is considered a short session, several important issues will be considered. Here are a few of the storylines: Data privacy As ranking member on the House Innovation, Technology and Economic Development Committee, I’m sponsoring legislation to address online data privacy for consumers. My goal for these bills is to empower consumers, hold corporations accountable and provide meaningful access to justice when needed to protect your rights. • House Bill 2364 would enac...
Dear Friends and Neighbors – I am pleased to be able to share a few thoughts about the current activities of the Swinomish Tribe. Swinomish has grown in the past 20 years from approximately 500 to 1,000 tribal citizens. Our governing body, the Swinomish Senate, continues to be committed to improving the lives and well-being of our tribal members by providing the very best governmental services we can, including health and social programs, affordable housing, financial services, cultural programs, education (from early childhood through...
First, Roche Harbor is the most exclusive of company towns. Second, Roche Harbor has always been a company town. Third, it is a great getaway any week of the year. And fourth, if you are a boater, you probably know all about the incredible, protected and peaceful harbor. I went as a tourist, on foot, boarding the ferry in Anacortes and taking a taxi (Roundabout, a Lions Club fundraising project) ten miles to the northwest corner of the island. Yes, I traded lodging for this story. For single peo...
The library at La Conner High School was buzzing with questions and conversations between 45 8th graders and 18 adults. They gathered together for two hours Jan. 8 to take part in “Pizza with Professionals.” This first-time event came about through the collaborative efforts of La Conner Schools Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner, Counselor Lori Buher and Susan Macek of the La Conner Rotary. The goal was to provide an opportunity for students in middle school to engage with local rep...
Expect to see more of the orange and green Genuine Skagit Valley logo on produce and food products next year and in the coming years. The one year old certification mark program got a big boost in December, a $348,000 three year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For Skagit Valley farmers to gain more attention for their products as an organized entity, more farmers and food processors have to join the membership marketing program. The grant supports marketing the program to the agricultural community. “A lot of it helps provide f...
Well, 2019 has passed and we are all very fortunate to call our La Conner community home in 2020. With costs for services continuing to rise, the town must be ever vigilant to ensure that we are utilizing our resources as efficiently as possible. One of the administration’s main goals for 2019 was to assist the library foundation in its ardent pursuit of funding for a new facility. As many of you know, the library was successful in its endeavors, and we will see a groundbreaking for the new building in the 3rd quarter of 2020. The foundation d...
Five homes will be built in Channel Cove this year, said Home Trust of Skagit Director Jodi Dean during a phone call Monday. “Five families, five homes, Christmas 2020 is our target” is her mantra. That 2019 goal was not met. Completing the development near Caledonia Street and Maple Avenue stalled last summer over funding and getting an extensive environmental assessment done. Home Trust was awarded $600,000, part of $5.1 million granted by the Washington Department of Commerce Washington State Housing Trust Fund Dec. 19. The Housing Aut...
An optimistic and energetic District 10 State Rep. Norma Smith (R- Clinton) came to the Weekly News office Monday seeking support for her, and her Republican caucus’ agenda for the legislative session opening in Olympia Jan. 13. The six term legislator is hoping that district constituents – you – will embrace the Republican legislators positions and convince majority Democrat legislators to pass their legislation. Smith is championing three themes: 1. Maintaining the $30 car tabs passed by voters last November, while supporting a...
MILLTOWN, Wash. — The U.S. Coast Guard and a good Samaritan rescued three duck hunters after their vessel capsized Dec. 29 near where the north fork of the Skagit River enters Skagit Bay. A good Samaritan rescued one of the three hunters and brought him to a nearby marina, where he called 911. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound watchstanders received an initial request for assistance from the Skagit County Sheriff Department as deputies were attempting to rescue two men who remained stranded in mud flats roughly 200 yards from the Skagit...
Myrna, 85, of La Conner, WA, passed on December 11th, 2019. Born to Frank J. & Beatrice Shula (Patterson) Siebens, January 22, 1934 in Portland, OR. Myrna graduated from Renton High School, class of 1952. She had a long career at Boeing in Renton. She was co-President of the May Valley PTA along with her husband Donald, and co-founders of the Coalfield Five Star Athletic Club & King County Coalfield Park. She had a giving nature, such as writing personalized poems for loved ones for every occasion. Myrna was preceded in death by her husband,...
Countless people have dreamt about selling all their worldly possessions and setting sail for parts unknown. Linda Rumbolt wasn’t one of them. But that’s exactly what she and her then-husband, David Solie, did a decade ago. Their leap of faith would take them from La Conner down the Pacific Coast, through the Panama Canal, and eventually to Florida, a voyage lasting more than a year and a half. Sailing was in Dave’s blood. His dad had a sailboat that he raced on Puget Sound. Though born in Newfoundland to a family that had made its living on th...
Eras ended and started at Fire District 13’s Snee Oosh Rd fire station last week. Friday the retirements of Chief Roy Horn, his wife Maggie Horn, Battalion Chief Ted Carr and Lt. Andrew Lester were recognized. The day before, Nov. 19, the District made history when Jeremy (J.J.) Wilbur, a member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, was appointed a commissioner, filling Chuck Hedlund’s seat. Hedlund died in September. Wilbur, a member of the tribal senate, is the first Native American on the...
Local activists advocating for real-time noise monitoring of EA-18G Growler jets flown out of Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey have succeeded in having that language written into the National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Trump Friday. U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (D-Everett), a member of the conference committee, and U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) had sponsored amendments requiring such monitoring “at no fewer than two Navy installations and their associated outlying landing fields on the west coast.” The Growler is named...
Just 23, Doug Gunter was by all accounts someone who had life figured out. If only the man suspected of shooting and killing him in Burlington last Friday had lived by Gunter’s example. It was compassion and empathy, according to those who knew him best, that were the main currencies in which Gunter took stock, leaving those with whom he crossed paths all the richer for the experience. In a life ended much too soon, they say Gunter was especially kind to and respectful of those elders he encountered each day on Swinomish Reservation. Having alr...
On his fifty-first day in office, District 10 State Senator Ron Muzzall (R-Oak Harbor) spoke to a group of some 30 people at Mt Vernon High School Sunday, part of four town hall meetings he held last weekend. Muzzall, an Oak Harbor area farmer, has deep roots on Whidbey Island. His family has had their farm since 1910. He co-owns 3 Sisters Family Farm and 3 Sisters Cattle Co. with family. He highlighted those values in introducing himself, stressing his agricultural roots, his involvement on farm coop boards, including Skagit Farm Supply, and...
