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No adage has been truer for Rocio Almaraz than the one that says home is where the heart is. Almaraz, who grew up in La Conner but now resides in Mount Vernon, drives her kids here each day to attend school because of the passion she has never lost for her hometown. "That's how much I love it," Almaraz, flanked by children Greyson and Mia Delage, stressed during emotional remarks made during groundbreaking ceremonies last Saturday highlighting Skagit Habitat for Humanity's new housing venture at...
A 48-foot sailboat at the Skagit Valley College Marine Technology Center in Anacortes is making a world of difference for SVC students. Soon it will make a difference in the world as well. The One Ocean, on display at an open house last Friday, will embark with a five-member crew next spring on a 14-month voyage around North and South America to spread awareness about oceanic health through education and the collaboration of crucial scientific research. "It's like a Jacques Cousteau floating sci...
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Help get all ballots counted quickly: * Vote and return your ballot now * Sign your ballot return envelope * Mail your ballot by Oct. 30 so it’s postmarked no later than Nov. 5 Place ballots in a Skagit County drop box by 8 p.m. Nov. 5. La Conner-area election drop boxes: * 614 Morris St. (in front of the old library) * 17337 Reservation Road (Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Social Services Building) You can register to vote on Election Day. For voting information, check VoteWa.gov or call Skagit County E...
The new one-way southbound traffic pattern on La Conner's First Street remained a major talking point two weeks after its implementation. Center Street resident Mollie Rights thanked town council members during their 90-minute meeting Oct. 22 for scuttling two-way traffic. "I want to thank you for making First Street one-way," Rights told council during public comments. "It's such a pleasure to drive down there now." Administrator Scott Thomas confirmed that there haven't been "any significant...
If not heartwarming, it was at least a homecoming when the potentially painful topic of property taxes was discussed during the Oct. 22 La Conner Town Council meeting at Maple Hall. First-term Skagit County Assessor Danny Hagen, a former Shelter Bay resident who in a past life was a La Conner High School athlete and later a Braves basketball coach, provided an update on local property value changes at the outset of the 90-minute public session last week. Hagen, who played hoops for Cal Lutheran...
Though Halloween is trick or treat time, La Conner School District officials aren't masking their glee that the district is enjoying more of the latter than the former this year. Superintendent David Cram cited for school board members at their meeting Monday night three examples of good news as sweet as any candy haul Halloween trick-or-treaters can expect. First, Cram announced that K-12 student enrollment, the key factor that drives state school funding, is higher than expected. Cram projecte...
HEADS UP Saturday with the Mayor. Come to the La Conner Swinomish Library at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, for an open conversation with Mayor Marna Hanneman. Topic: “Preparing for an Unplanned Event” by Gerry George of the town’s Emergency Management Commission. Free veterans appreciation dinner, 6-8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, at Camano Chapel, 867 W. Camano Drive, Camano Island. Keynote speaker Mary Pilkington will share POW/wartime experiences of her late husband, Col. Fred Pilkington. RSVP to 206-550-4409 or email [email protected]. Indicate your...
Halloween has morphed into Howell-oween at The Slider Café on Morris Street in La Conner. Managers Levi and Kimberly Howell have decked out the restaurant with creative and colorful decorations that celebrate the cute rather than scary elements of the otherwise spooky holiday. The Howell-oween theme has even been enlisted for their daughter Annabelle's Oct. 27 birthday party at the café. Turns out, the Howell family isn't alone when it comes to embracing the Halloween spirit. "It makes e...
NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND - Naval aviators Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay Evans, the flight officer, and Aviator Lt. Serena N. Wileman died when their EA-18G Growler crashed near Mount Rainier Oct. 15 during a routine training flight. Both were 31 and from California. The U.S. Navy released their names Monday after family were notified. The Growler aircraft from Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130 crashed east of Mount Rainier. Search and rescue teams were first dispatched from NAS Whidbey Island to...
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Help get all ballots counted quickly: Vote and return your ballot now. Sign your ballot return envelope. Mail your ballot by Oct. 30 so it’s postmarked no later than Nov. 5. Use a county dropbox. Place ballots in a drop box by 8 p.m. Nov. 5. La Conner-area election drop boxes: 614 Morris Street (in front of the old library) 17337 Reservation Road (Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Social Services Building) You can register to vote on Election Day. Voting information: register at VoteWa.gov. Skagit County E...
More rain than average fell in September, with the 1.6 inches of rain Sept. 25 almost as much rain as most Septembers have gotten this century, an average of 1.9 inches. For the month, 2 inches fell in just six days; the 0.2 inches on Sept. 14 was the only other precipitation greater than a tenth of an inch. After no rain the first nine days, it rained four of the next five days, with four events under 0.01 inch. The 2 inches of rain was the ninth year of at least 2 inches of precipitation....
Emergencies and natural disasters are no fun, but planning for them can be. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community proved as much with its second annual Emergency Preparedness Fair at John K. Bob Ball Park on Oct. 17. The event was a festive affair with fun demonstrations (the one featuring use of fire extinguishers was especially popular), blaring rock-n-roll music, a food truck and giveaways of home emergency-related items. Flu and Covid vaccinations were also made available to those...
The Board of Skagit County Commissioners adopted an interim ordinance Sept. 23 imposing a moratorium on the acceptance of permits for electrical energy generation or storage facilities on Skagit farmland. The moratorium is for six months and may be extended. The Skagit County Planning Commission is considering a new ordinance for electrical energy generation and storage facilities on lands zoned Ag-NRL (natural resource land). County commissioners are concerned that the prospect of new regulation could cause a rush of new permit applications....
The community group working to secure the future of the La Conner Weekly News now has an interim board of directors and a name that reflects its mission: La Conner Community News. Board President Andrew Ashmore said the group has completed its articles of incorporation with the state and can now do business. It has an Employee Identification Number for the IRS. Tillinghast Postal & Business Center is providing a free mailbox. A Gmail account will soon be active. Joining Ashmore on the interim board are Jerry Willins, vice president; John...
Thanksgiving came a month early for members of La Conner's planning commission. Mayor Marna Hanneman expressed her thanks at their Oct. 15 meeting for the role they and others played in the conversion of downtown First Street to one-way southbound traffic. "I want to thank everyone," Hanneman said at the outset of the 75-minute public session at Maple Hall. "It's a miracle. It was a team effort on First Street." Hanneman and Fire Chief/Code Enforcement Officer Aaron Reinstra were among those...
The shorthanded La Conner Emergency Management Commission managed some heavy lifting last week. Commissioners Doug Asbe and Jerry George at their Oct. 15 meeting took a deep dive into a risk analysis of various emergency scenarios listed in a draft community Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan due for completion by the end of the year. They were joined by Administrator Scott Thomas, who called the 75-minute session “a productive meeting” after the trio discussed challenges posed by some 20 potential disaster threats ranging from storm sur...
The Mount Vernon Library Commons library opened Tuesday. Hours are 10 a.m-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m-4 p.m. Saturday. Use the main entrance on the corner of Kincaid and Second streets. Park in the lot at the old library on Snoqualmie Street. Visit and use the library. Some services may be unavailable until construction is completed. The parking garage and conference center are closed....
Karl Olson gave up hunting and sports a quarter-century ago in favor of distance walking. The former La Conner resident has for an even longer time been tracking steps taken to protect the rights and improve the quality of life for members of the developmentally disabled community. All too often, said Olson, a member of La Conner High School’s class of 1988, progress has been measured in baby steps. Olson believes that despite passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and related state and federal legislation, more can and should be d...
It is October in the western Skagit Valley and that means that tens of thousands of snow geese have migrated down from Wrangel Island in Russia for the winter. These immigrants will be flocking to farm fields, areas set aside as refuges and other lands they spot....
YOU CAN HELP La Conner Kiwanis and the La Conner High School student body are sponsoring a Halloween blood drive from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the Landy James Gym. Your donation will preserve a life. Visit bloodworksnw.org, then go to its donor portal and search for La Conner. Please call if you have clinical questions, Dorothy, RN 360-431-9234, or about required registration, Lori, 360-630-0809. HEADS UP Skagit Habitat for Humanity will break ground on three new affordable homes in La Conner. Come to the corner of S. Third and Cal...
La Conner is no one-horse town. But on Saturday it was a one Brahma bull town, and proud of it. "Little Wick," a 4-year-old purebred Brahma steer, made his way that morning up the Washington Street hill, avoiding the new one-way traffic flow downtown, to take part in the opening of the much-anticipated Wick Peth exhibit at the Skagit County Historical Museum. The late Wick Peth, of a La Conner and Burlington area pioneer family, was a legendary bullfighter who brought athleticism to rodeo...
Total turn around. The $68,591 reported in sales tax revenues to the La Conner Town Council in September by the state’s Department of Revenue is the highest ever for the month, $5,315 above last year’s, and the second highest total in 2024. After below normal collection totals four of the first five months this year, sales taxes the last three months total $203,359, 42.7% of the year’s total and putting the town on course to meet this projected income for the year. Likewise, the $6,798 firetruck sales tax receipts are a record for the month...
Great staff, great results: The La Conner Weekly News won 37 WNPA best newspaper awards at the annual Better Newspaper Contest of Washington's community newspapers, a bit short of doubling last year's total of 21. More individuals, 14, won in more categories. Weekly News staff swept first, second and third place five times, including art reviews, art features and general and topical columns. Bill Reynolds led with 11 certificates, with first place for a news and an education story. He shared...
The candidates vying to represent Washington in the U.S. Senate went head-to-head Oct. 8 at a debate in Spokane, sparring over affordability, immigration, foreign affairs and fentanyl. Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell and Republican Raul Garcia, a Yakima emergency room doctor, met at the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center at Gonzaga University for a debate hosted by The Spokesman-Review in partnership with Gonzaga University, KSPS, the Black Lens and the Washington State Debate Coalition. It was the first debate between the two...
During the week they shifted historic South First Street one-way southbound traffic flow, La Conner’s leaders put the brakes on any free-wheeling budget plans for 2025. Town Administrator Scott Thomas shared a tight financial forecast with Town Council members at their Oct. 8 meeting, confirming projections submitted in writing by Mayor Marna Hanneman. “This is a tight budget year,” Thomas stressed. “Inflationary costs have risen dramatically. Expenses are going up. I’ve told the staff this is a year that we have to cut and choose....
