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Like La Conner, Langley is a tourist town on the Salish Sea, on the southeast coast of Whidbey Island. La Conner's planning commissioners, staff and Councilmember Marylee Chamberlain, along with a couple of citizens, met with architect and "pocket neighborhood" designer Ross Chapin Oct. 19 to hear his views on "strong towns: resliant small towns(with) great design (and) compact" based on his 40 year career, Planning Director Michael Davolio's goal was "to provide the Planning Commission with...
Like loons calling across the water, like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," the Swinomish Canoe Family hushed the crowd of 150 people as they sang and drummed a blessing prayer, the chorus meandering its way from the majestic totem outside into the La Conner Swinomish Library Saturday afternoon. The building felt just a little more hallowed. And crowded. Whew! There were a lot of people there. The pole, made from a 400-year old western red cedar, carved by Kevin Paul and assisted by his son-in-law...
Candidates responded to these issues: 1. School District's greatest strengths. 2. Curriculum and policies valuing student voices. 3. Schools' unique features to maintain. 4. How to best support Superintendent Will Nelson. 5. High school's future if enrollment remains low. 6. Your experiences and qualities. John Agen 1. Community: La Conner has a long history of great support for our students and schools. Diversity: We have a wonderful blend that includes significant numbers of Native, Hispanic a...
Up. The Town of La Conner’s sales tax revenue is $63,276 for September, reported by the state Department of Revenue for July sales. It is the highest report for the month, the highest 2023 monthly total and the third highest monthly total ever, behind two 2022 summer months. It brings the year-to-date revenue to 76% of budget projections. This is the first 2023 month to top a 2022 same month total. As always, the special use fire tax tracks sales tax. The $6,284 matches in most ways: it is the highest 2023 monthly total, and a record for the c...
The La Conner Town Council almost doubled its hotel-motel allocation in the 2024 budget, voting to spend $342,111 at its Sept. 26 meeting. Almost 64%, $217,461 are internal expenditures, mostly for Maple Hall improvements, $132,866, up from $6,000 for security cameras for 2023. The Morris and First street restrooms and landscaping will get $63,995, a $10,139 increase. And the Town advertising budget jumped to $20,600 from $600. Grants to community organizations total $124,650. The La Conner...
Emergency management is more than a hot current topic. It will have great significance in the future as well. Which is why Skagit County Fire District 13 Capt. Ted Taylor is proposing that local schools consider teaching their students important community emergency response skills. Taylor floated the idea during the fire district’s 90-minute monthly meeting at the Snee-Oosh Road station Oct. 5. He reported on a well-received presentation he gave in September as the district’s emergency management coordinator on preparedness for natural dis...
Gov. Jay Inslee visited Anacortes last week to listen to locals discuss housing supply challenges. He left saying, “I got some good ideas here today,” while also noting, “We have more work to do.” The Tenant’s Housing Roundtable, in Anacortes on Sept.26, included about a dozen community members and elected officials from Skagit, Whatcom and Island counties. Inslee heard stories of high rent increases and frustrating regulatory and permitting processes. His questions emphasized efforts the state can take to best address the housing crisis. F...
Southern hospitality La Conner-style was on the menu at the La Conner Marina Friday night. A sold-out crowd enjoyed favorite dishes from farm and sea during the inaugural Skagit Tidewater Boil fundraiser for Genuine Skagit Valley, the organization established in 2013 to recognize the area's unique agricultural heritage. Literally taking a page from the Gulf Coast's famed southern crab boils, with prawns, spicy sausage, sweet corn, red potatoes and Dungeness crab dumped onto the two dozen tables...
Skagit Habitat for Humanity recently purchased the property on the corner of Caledonia and Third streets in La Conner. The Town of La Conner plans to change its comprehensive plan to allow multifamily housing, and the nonprofit will help build six new townhomes three years from now. The project would help alleviate the housing crisis. Tina Tate, CEO of Skagit Habitat, said these homes are for people who fall on the lower end of the median income continuum. "These are hardworking families. They...
Town Emergency Management Commission chair Bill Stokes spoke glowingly last week of how fast La Conner's public works department has acquired and made ready for use a variety of flood barriers ahead of peak king tide season. "Things are moving quickly, as quick as I've seen anything move around here," Stokes, a former town council member, told commission members during their Sept. 26 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. Within days of receiving council approval, pre-filled sandbags and Ecology Blocks...
Money talks. But last week it was Town officials who did the talking – about money, it turns out. Town Council members kicked off the 2024 budget season with a special 5 p.m. Sept. 26 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. Public works director Brian Lease and Fire Chief/Code Enforcement Officer Aaron Reinstra presented their budgets. Council is addressing two rare anticipated line-item shortfalls: the streets and facilities funds. Delaying purchase of additional speed cushions like those in use on Talbott and Center streets could reduce the streets b...
The Skagit County Fire Marshal’s Office ended the burn ban in unincorporated Skagit County Sept. 27. Residential yard and land-clearing fires are again permitted. In unincorporated Skagit County, burn permits are required for piles exceeding four feet by four feet. Burn permit requests may be phoned to 360-416-1840. Residents living in incorporated areas, or within an urban growth area need to contact their fire department for burn restriction information. In La Conner, call 360-466-3125. Contact the Skagit County Fire Marshal’s Office wit...
No amount of rain was going to dampen spirits at the Skagit County Fire District 13 Open House Saturday. That is because the event’s guest of honor, retired fire district commissioner and former Shelter Bay resident Larry Kibbee, has long been admired for his sunny disposition. Kibbee served six years on the fire district’s governing panel prior to moving to Bothell. He returned to the Snee Oosh Road station for the formal dedication of a new residential building that bears his name. “I would...
The wheels are turning – first gradually, than rapidly – as Town of La Conner officials continue work on updating the transportation element of its comprehensive plan. “I’ve been working on this element for several months,” Director of Planning Michael Davolio told planning commissioners at their 90-minute Sept. 19 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall, “and one of the surprising things I’ve learned is that there is enough parking on South First Street to accommodate all the (residential and commercial) uses there. “But,” he cautioned, “it do...
Town leaders hope to spruce up La Conner’s appearance with the planting of new trees along Morris Street. The La Conner Chamber of Commerce and Town Parks Commission are teaming up on a grant application for placing street sensitive trees plus hanging baskets and updated banners to further beautify the town. “The trees will be placed into existing holes with a containment to keep the roots from streets and sidewalks,” parks commission chair Ollie Iverson said in his official report of the panel’s Sept. 13 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. Iverson...
Sometimes, at the center of a community's history is a barber's chair, swiveling this way and that and gathering up stories. Barbers are "always a repository of the past, because so much day-to-day life is part of the barbershop experience," said Mari Densmore, archivist at the Skagit County Historical Museum. Fortunately, two Skagit County barbers collected thousands of photographs that capture decades of Skagit history. The new exhibit at the Skagit County Historical Museum is "Barber...
Skagit County will host a free tire-round up for county residents Thursday-Friday Oct. 5-6 at the Skagit County Fairgrounds. Residents must register online. There is a limit of twelve road tires per household, including car, truck, motorcycle and semi-trucks. Tractor tires will not be accepted. Drop-off is at the north entrance of the fairgrounds, 1410 Virginia Street, Mount Vernon 98273. In the 2022 collection, over 40 tons of used road tires were dropped off in one day. County staff hope to collect at least that quantity again. Proper tire...
You may not know John Roozen – but you probably know his truck. On any given day, a red F250 Power Stroke diesel truck from the late 1990s may pass you on Calhoun or McLean roads – or may be parked in a field on your route. "John has about 500,000 miles on his Ford pickup," Dave Hedlin told attendees at the Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland auction last Saturday night. "About 100,000 of them are in support of the agricultural infrastructure of Skagit County, whether that's through the Ska...
Harvey Cardwell from Oregon City, Oregon grew the winning pumpkin at the 13th Annual Skagit Valley Pumpkin Festival at Christianson's Nursery Saturday. The pumpkin weighed 1,460 pounds. It was the first time he had ever grown and weighed a pumpkin in a contest. He has grown vegetables before but this was the first year he grew pumpkins. Just how much water does a giant pumpkin need? Up to 600 gallons daily during the heat of summer said Cardwell when asked. He has two more growing at home also....
The sands of time have shifted from the hourglass to poly bags that will soon be strategically placed along the La Conner waterfront ahead of king tide season. Facing an Oct. 1 deadline to install sandbags and ecology blocks in areas prone to flooding, the La Conner Town Council last week approved purchases of equipment and barriers designed to thwart the high-water damage that plagued the town last December. The council, acting upon recommendations of the Emergency Management Commission, gave Public Works Director Brian Lease the go-ahead at...
Contributions to local firefighting by retired Skagit County Fire District 13 Commissioner Larry Kibbee won’t soon – if ever – be forgotten. That is because Kibbee’s name will be associated with improvements at the district’s Snee-Oosh Road firehall. The district’s new firefighter and EMT residential units will be dedicated in honor of Kibbee’s service and showcased during a Sept. 13 public open house 12-2 p.m. at the Snee-Oosh station. “It will be a two-hour event,” district fire chief Wood Weiss said, and will include building tours, i...
Shopping at Trader Joe's in Bellingham recently, I ran into two young men who I could tell from their wardrobe were ultra-Orthodox Jews. We chatted briefly and they told me that a rabbi from Brooklyn was headed this way to start a Chabad in Skagit County. A Chabad is a congregation organized by members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty that was founded in 1775 by Rabbi Shneur Zalman in Lithuania. Chabad is a worldwide Hasidic movement known for its outreach activities. It is a system...
It's hard to take a photo of a fast-moving salmon – even when you are surrounded by them. They splash. They skitter. They hit your kayak and soak your shirt. One second they are a tiny ripple in the water and the next they speed past your camera, while you snap pictures of empty water. On Sunday morning at low tide, 10 of us welcomed chinook salmon back to the Samish River with the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. Our agenda: drift among the salmon, talk about salmon habitat and lifecycles, r...
Among its many devotees, the annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner is always a winner. Especially by the staff and volunteers at the Skagit County Historical Museum. This year was no exception as proceeds from the annual picnic in August allowed the La Conner Civic Garden Club and Skagit County Pioneer Association to contribute a total of $4,000 to the museum last week. The joint contribution by the organizations to the museum was approved during the association’s board meeting at the Skagit City School Building on Fir Island Friday afternoon. T...
Despite perfect late summer weather, thoughts of potential natural disasters – earthquakes, tsunamis, wildland fires and more – were on the minds of those visiting John K. Bob Ball Park on Swinomish Reservation Saturday afternoon. Emergency management staff and volunteers from throughout the region shared information and provided take-home items for use during major disaster events. The four-hour Swinomish Disaster Preparedness Fair, coordinated by the tribal emergency management dep...
