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It was another spooktacular Halloween in and around La Conner. Historic First Street, now one-way traffic, was closed to all traffic – other than the popular Meow Mix car and law enforcement vehicles – for a full hour Thursday afternoon to allow for La Conner's annual Halloween downtown pedestrian parade. After striding from Gilkey Square to Maple Hall, costumed paraders of all ages walked back to Morris Street, collecting candy along the way from La Conner merchants and business owners. "Th...
Janie Beasley didn't need to drive far to be celebrated for choosing the long road in terms of public service. A Swinomish Indian Tribal Community member and La Conner High School alum, Beasley received a 2024 Skagit Women's Alliance Network Lifetime Achievement Award during Oct. 17 ceremonies at the Swinomish Casino & Lodge. SWAN is a nonprofit organization dedicated to recognizing and supporting accomplished women throughout Skagit Valley. Upper Skagit elder Kay Knott, who like Beasley was...
Willard Cox, La Conner Yacht Club Commadore, hands Mayor Marna Hanneman a check for $500 at the Jordan Street Park on North First Street Oct. 10 to support the capital campaign to develop the park. The club has given close to $2,000 to the capital campaign, as the yacht club recognizes a waterfront park close to the La Conner Marina will be a wonderful asset to town residents and visiting boaters....
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...
Enthusiasm wasn't squashed at Christianson's Nursery northeast of La Conner Saturday. The opposite was the case. Squash, in the form of giant pumpkins, enthused throngs of people who descended upon Christianson's on a beautiful warm and sun-splashed afternoon the last day of summer. Christianson's Nursery held its annual Skagit Valley Giant Pumpkin Festival, drawing growers and fans alike from throughout the Pacific Northwest. Hundreds of parked cars made for a jam-packed Saturday afternoon,...
Katryna Barber is closing the book on her latest adventure. After six years as the youth reading specialist, starting at the La Conner Swinomish Library when it bore the name La Conner Regional Library, Barber has announced she is ready for the epilogue stage of a wide-ranging working life. The former teacher, who once served on the library board in Woodstock, N.Y. – the town famous for the 1969 music festival – is retiring at the end of the month. Her last day is Sept. 27. "We will be cel...
Join your neighbors, deputies and area police officers for coffee and conversation at Coffee with a Cop, 10 a.m. to noon Monday, Sept. 30, at Stompin’ Grounds Coffee, 306 Morris St. The mission of Coffee with a Cop (coffeewithacop.com) is to break down the barriers between deputies, police officers and the citizens they serve by removing agendas and allowing opportunities to ask questions, voice concerns and get to know the deputies in your neighborhood. This event is presented by the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office. For questions, email Cpl...
Cruising over from Shelter Bay for scoops of ice cream at O'Neil's Confectionery and Soda Fountain seems the perfect way to end a Labor Day afternoon in La Conner. And what better way to putter over, literally, than in a bright red mini tugboat complete with to-scale tire fenders? That is what Keri and Michael Palasz did about 5 p.m. Monday. Rum raisin was her first choice while he was planning on mint chocolate chip. Keri was piloting their recently acquired boat, bringing it into La Conner's...
She has owned a downtown bookstore, helped found the town's senior center and written accounts of La Conner history and her memoir. Janna Gage, who hails from a pioneer Skagit County family, is now ready for her next chapter. Seaport Books, which she and Marion Melville launched in 2017, is listed for sale. "We're not retired," quipped Gage, a 1958 La Conner High School graduate and class valedictorian. "We're just tired." But not so weary that Gage can't imagine taking on a new project or...
The Skagit Women's Alliance Network and its leadership award nominees gathered here Aug. 29 for a two-hour meet-and-greet at the La Conner Civic Garden Club. Nominees for annual SWAN awards were honored guests at the historic venue, which proved an ideal setting. That's because one of the honorees has lifelong ties to the community. La Conner High School alum and Swinomish Tribal Community elder Janie Beasley has been nominated for the 2024 SWAN Lifetime Achievement Award. Her nomination is...
Nancy Llewellyn may not have known it at the time, but her years at La Conner High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s were a prescription for future success. A positive prognosis was quite apparent even then to fellow students and faculty members alike, all of whom admired her keen academic skills, especially gifts for solving tough math problems and writing bold pieces for the campus newspaper. The 1972 La Conner grad would go on to medical school at the University of Washington and a sub...
It's rare to be the recipient of a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Award, presented to those who have made significant contributions to the organization's wide range of public service programs. That being the case, local tulip grower Leo Roozen is doubly esteemed by area Rotarians. Roozen received his second Paul Harris honor during the La Conner Rotary Club's annual dinner and auction at Maple Hall Saturday night. The chapter will contribute $1,000 in his name to their international...
HEADS UP The La Conner wastewater treatment plant will close at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 6, to septage hauling, yard waste dumping and compost pickup. The plant is expected to be closed most of the day. NOT TO BE MISSED Join local poet Susan Rich for a short introduction to writing poetry about visual art, 4-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, at the Museum of Northwest Art. Get inspired by art in MoNA’s galleries and other poets writing around you. You will have the opportunity to have your work published on MoNA’s website and to read it at the Poetry Ope...
The book had closed on this year’s Canoe Journey, but new chapters were written on Swinomish Channel last weekend. Tribal racing canoes were on the water as a main main highlight of the three-day Swinomish Days festival the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community hosts to celebrats traditional Coast Salish history and culture. The Aug. 9-11 gathering drew participants, spectators and guests to Swinomish and La Conner from throughout the Salish Sea region with areas in and around John K. Bob Ball Park...
The Town of La Conner Public Works Department is continuing their annual fire hydrant flushing and valve checking in August, 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. If your water is discolored, run cold-water until it clears. If the water does not clear, call Chris Smith at 360-929-1004 or Chip Sherman at 360-840-3684 for assistance....
La Conner residents are asked by the City of Anacortes and Skagit Public Utility District to voluntarily reduce their water use by 10% due to seasonal low water flow in the Skagit River. Anacortes supplies La Conner’s water. The Washington State Department of Ecology has established minimum instream flows designed to protect fish habitat of 6.54 billion gallons per day for the Skagit River. In August, when the river’s flow levels fall below that number, Anacortes and the PUD are required to notify customers to conserve water voluntarily. The...
Skagit Valley arts and cultural nonprofit organizations can request funding from the Town of La Conner Hotel/Motel tax fund for 2025. In 2023 5The La Conner Town Council granted $34,650 to nine community organizations and another $90,000 to the La Conner Chamber of Commerce. Over $217,450 was allocated for internal, Town projects, primarily Maple Hall improvements, the Morris and First street restrooms and landscaping. Last year hotel/motel tax revenues were $195,784. The 2024 budget projects $1...
The first memory from the La Conner United Methodist Church memorial garden project isn’t what anyone had in mind. Town of La Conner staff last week requested that work by volunteers in the garden cease while an arborist reviews potential damage by a backhoe to the root system of a large Norwegian spruce tree. Neighbors voiced their fears that the tree’s health was compromised and now poses a threat to nearby properties and the historic church building at Second and Benton during the public comment segment of the Aug. 6 planning commission mee...
New hire, familiar face. John Tanaka, who was its assistant chief a decade ago, is returning to Skagit County Fire District 13 near La Conner as a paid consultant to help develop long-range plans for expanded services. Tanaka's resume is filled with fire service experience. Along with his stint with District 13, Tanaka has been a fire captain in Everett, a fire response lecturer and instructor, a consultant to several other departments and consulted on a project to rebuild statewide...
Perhaps the largest gathering yet met for the 10th March Against Addiction last Wednesday, a stirring and emotional four-mile trek through Swinomish Village neighborhoods to raise awareness and offer support to combat the opioid crisis. Federal lawmakers weren’t there but were clearly in step. Seven members of the U.S. House of Representatives last week co-sponsored bipartisan legislation introduced by Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, to give tribal courts and law enforcement agencies more tools and resources to battle the nation’s devastating opi...
Not all roads lead to La Conner, but enough do to support the full fleet of vintage cars, trucks and trailered boats that rolled into town last Saturday. There were over 125 entries in the 24th annual La Conner Classic Boat and Car Show in the La Conner Marina's south basin parking lot, drawing throngs of admirers on a picture postcard bright sunny summer day. Conditions were ideal for folks to merge onto Memory Lane and listen to golden oldies over the event's outdoor sound system while time...
For years various entities have tried tackling La Conner's housing crunch. Now topping the list is Skagit Habitat for Humanity. The nonprofit has purchased property off Caledonia Street as a site for three single-family "sweat equity" homes. A groundbreaking is tentatively set for October. To start the process, Skagit Habitat Homebuyer Program Manager Eshel Clayton and realtor April Patterson visited La Conner on Saturday to share key details related to affordable housing options available...
People go to great lengths to attend the annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner. Attendees traveled from near and far – one person arriving from Beijing, China, 5,350 miles distant – to enjoy the 120th gathering of Skagit County pioneers and guests. A 2024 Pioneer Picnic crowd estimated at over 200 people also included La Conner Mayor Marna Hanneman, whose home isn't much farther than the proverbial 1,000 steps from the Pioneer Park site. The continuing summer tradition features a barbecued sal...
UPDATE, Thursday, Aug. 8 This afternoon the Skagit County Health Department posted a press release with these additional closures: "Due to recent samples of shellfish containing elevated levels of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxins, the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) has closed recreational harvest for all shellfish species in the following areas: " Samish Bay, Guemes, Cypress, Sinclair. Vendovi, Hat and Saddlebag islands [and] Padilla Bay." Read the complete press release: https://www.skagitcounty.ne...
Yachts shared Swinomish Channel on Friday with ornately crafted tribal canoes resembling the region's earliest form of water transportation. It was young people who made what's old new again. Over 20 canoes pulled by crews from throughout the Salish Sea landed at Swinomish as part of the 2024 Power Paddle to Puyallup Youth Canoe Journey. Upon their arrival, the canoe families requested and were granted permission by Miss Swinomish Kialah Seymour and Junior Miss Swinomish Ruby Billy to come...
