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So much for El Nino. The climate pattern linked to warmer than normal sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and which led to forecasts of above average temperatures this winter went AWOL for more than a week. A major storm swept into Skagit County last Wednesday on the heels of an arctic blast that had earlier plunged thermometers and wind chill gauges into single digits. The result was an extended stretch of icy and snowy roads and streets that forced local business closures and pushed...
Hours before snow hit outside, the La Conner Planning Commissioners plowed through a busy agenda during their 80-minute Jan. 16 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. The pile of issues addressed were housing and parking issues, the status of the Talmon Project at 306 Center Street, population projections for the town and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s plans to convert its Maple Avenue apartment complex to a staffed home recovery facility. The tribe has designed a program for persons and families who have completed treatment at the Didgwalic W...
CONWAY — Last week’s weather paused cleanup operations of the December Olympic Pipeline gasoline spill east of Conway. By Jan. 20 excavation of impacted soil at the spill site north of SR 534 resumed. This update is from United Command press releases. SR 534 will be closed in both directions at the site in the near future for a period of four to six hours while a temporary sheet piling wall is installed to isolate the eastern bank of Hill Ditch and allow response crews to dig out the remaining impacted soil and sediment and replace it with clea...
La Conner Drug Store, established in 1877, was recognized as the oldest continuous-running drug store in Washington State by the Washington Board of Pharmacy in 2014 – sometimes under different ownership, but serving its communities without interruption. Fred Martin, a long-time La Conner resident and community activist, owned it for decades before he sold it to Aaron Syring, Pharm.D, in 2006. Now it is 2024 and Syring, founder of Island Drug, confirmed last week that both La Conner Drug and I...
Politics can get quite heated in this day and age. But on Saturday Mother Nature cooled more than campaign rhetoric. Extreme cold weather, with temperatures plunging into the low teens and below throughout greater La Conner, greatly reduced turnout at a Skagit County Republican Party caucus at the Civic Garden Club Building that morning. A couple dozen GOP and independent voters arrived the first hour of the caucus, which ran from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and chose delegates to the county and state Re...
In the event of a disaster, the single most important factor for an effective response will be availability of information, La Conner Emergency Management Commission member Jerry George said last week. “And that information,” he stressed, “has to be accurate.” George and the advisory panel are attentive to communications and information systems well ahead of the next flood, earthquake, windstorm, cold snap or heat wave. At its Jan. 2 meeting at Maple Hall commissioners heard from Skagit County Emergency Management Coordinator Joan Cromley...
Food security remains a concern locally, so organizations and volunteers are expanding their efforts to meet the need. Helping Hands at Swinomish is one such enterprise. It received 850 visits in 2023 after starting in late 2022. On Thursday afternoons, a white Helping Hands Food Bank truck from the Sedro-Woolley distribution center backs up to the Inspire Church across from Fire District 13 and unloads pallets of food and household items, including bread, meat, pasta and fresh vegetables, fruits, laundry soap and diapers. Most is salvaged...
For more than two-thirds of his life, Doug Jones has been a Rotarian. The 95-year-old Channel Drive resident joined Rotary when he was 31. He has been a Rotarian longer than the 52 years he was married to his late wife Ruth and almost, but not quite, longer than he has been a father. "Rotary has been a way of life," Jones told an appreciative crowd at the Dec. 18 La Conner Rotary Christmas party, as his 64 years with the service club were celebrated. The club has been a constant throughout his...
In La Conner, there's always one thing you can bank on. Tami Mason can be counted upon to pitch in and help when a community need arises. Mason, customer service supervisor at WaFd Bank's La Conner branch, volunteers for several organizations – from the Skagit County Historical Museum and La Conner Sunrise Food Bank boards of directors to the Chamber of Commerce and La Conner Volunteer Firefighters Association. "I love giving back to others," Mason told the Weekly News on Friday, as she w...
A smattering of Channel Cove residents took new Home Trust of Skagit Director Felicia Minot up on her offer to meet and greet them at the complex's community room Dec. 16. Each of the four residents that came out between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. could have taken a box of donuts home and boxes would have remained. Minot was hired to replace Jodi Dean in November, who retired after overseeing the completion of five owner-occupied homes on the property's north edge last summer. Many of Channel...
The new year is bringing a new opportunity for local public service. Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, Skagit County Cemetery District No. 1, needs a commissioner. Candidates must reside within the cemetery district, according to cemetery district secretary Lori Buher. “Interested persons can check their property tax statements to determine if they do reside in our district,” Buher told the Weekly News. “This position would become effective in January 2024.” The vacancy was created when Curt Miller moved to Anacortes. Duties include meeting with pa...
Skagit Transit is increasing bus service on both Route 513 and 615. Route 513 starting Jan. 2, 2024 Route 615 will run between Mount Vernon, La Conner and the March’s Point park and ride lot every two hours. Route 513 will run between Burlington and the March’s Point park and ride lot every hour. Skagit Transit is committed to providing reliable and superior service to the communities it serves. Questions: 360-757-4433....
No building permit has yet been issued, but excavation began at the 306 Center Street condominium project site last week to find the water table on the property so that paperwork could be completed for removal of contaminated soil. Following that initial dig, a soil removal plan was drafted and submitted, according to Town of La Conner Assistant Planner Ajah Eills. Public Work Director Brian Lease approved the plan and soil removal commenced, Eills said. That work was completed and by early Friday afternoon all equipment had left the site. The...
Holiday Closures Christmas Monday, Dec.25 Closed: Everything Bank: Closed Buses: No service Library: Closed Post Office: Closed Schools: Till Jan 3 Town Hall: Dec 22-26 County government: Closed Trash Pick Up: None Weekly News: Closed And God bless us, everyone...
Four-term La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes chaired his final town council meeting Dec. 12, but it was a business-as-usual session with no celebration or reception. Hayes wouldn’t have had it any other way. “It’s just not my personality,” he told the Weekly News afterward on his reluctance to see the meeting morph into a retirement party. “Once something is done, it’s over,” he explained. “And we had a very long, grueling agenda to work through.” There was, however, mention during the meeting – which included a 20-minute executive session o...
It’s been said that an ill wind blows no good. In the case of the Skagit County Fire District 13 coverage area, which entails Swinomish Reservation and rural La Conner, a facsimile windstorm at the end of March is designed to do plenty good. Planning has started for a March 30 Emergency Operations Center Windstorm Disaster Exercise and unified command strategy. Captains Gary Ladd and Ted Taylor and Brad Reading of Shelter Bay summarized the training at the December commissioners hybrid meeting at the Snee-Oosh Road station last Thursday. ...
It’s often said that to everything there is a season. For La Conner’s emergency management commission, that means development of a comprehensive guide addressing all disaster scenarios. “We’ve been working on flooding issues hot and heavy for quite a while,” Town Administrator Scott Thomas said at the the commission’s Dec. 12 hybrid meeting. Now we need to develop a process and procedure for our (emergency management) plan.” Identifying groups within the community that will need extra assistancen is key. “How do we accommodate persons with di...
The 2023 Town of La Conner budget has met its $5.8 million revenue goal with December not yet counted. Even better, expenditures, now at $4.55 million, are likely to finish below 67% of projections. The budget surplus is $1.23 million and may still grow. Of the 12 program funds generating revenue, only the sewer fund, at 85% is below 100% of budget projections with one month still to come. The $3.58 million generated this year from the water, drainage, sewer and compost funds is the real engine of town income, bringing in 62% of total revenue....
It didn't just rain on the Swinomish Yacht Club's Lighted Christmas Boat Parade Saturday night. It rained hard after a gray day of steady rain. But that hardly dampened enthusiasm for what has become a beloved La Conner holiday season event. Downtown restaurants were filled with diners at tables with waterfront views. Folks wearing heavy coats and raingear and carrying umbrellas and glow-in-the-dark balloons on lighted poles made their way to the popular Swinomish Channel boardwalk, eager to...
Seeing might be believing, but it’s collecting data that’s confirming. That’s the approach longtime resident and former planning commissioner Linda Talman is recommending officials take regarding remedies to La Conner’s downtown parking. A week after Town officials heard a presentation on mobile paid parking systems, Talman suggested to the planning commissioners that more information should be gathered before committing to a new First Street parking scheme. “We don’t have the data that we need,” Talman said at the planning commission’s...
There was a time when La Conner’s parking problem was inverted to its present situation. When downtown Mount Vernon was lined with clunky parking meters, La Conner had little need for either a paid or timed parking system on First Street. Many storefronts here were boarded up – some year-round– before La Conner morphed into its present state as a popular destination. Change has been the defining feature over the course of 50 years. Now, with seemingly every parking space in the town’s business district contested during peak tourist season,...
La Conner's favorite tourist had a unique solution for the town's vexing parking problem during his visit here last Saturday. World renowned toymaker Santa Claus parked his large sleigh and reindeer atop Maple Hall, managing to avoid damage to the building's solar panels, while greeting local children downstairs and recording their carefully crafted Christmas wish lists. The jolly white-whiskered global goodwill ambassador was the featured guest at the La Conner Rotary Club's annual Pancake...
The most current statistics available through Skagit County Public Health (for the week of Nov. 19-25) showed moderate Covid 19 and Influenza activity, but high RSV activity. The county did not define “activity.” The county recommends staff, patients and visitors to healthcare facilities wear a well-fitting mask, and notes that RSV vaccines are still available for infants over 8 months and adults age 60 and over as well as pregnant people. To track weekly respiratory illness changes in Skagit County, visit skagitcounty.net/D...
First Street parking issues were discussed in detail at the Nov. 28 Town Council meeting. But perhaps lost amid a one-hour presentation on potential future paid parking options for the downtown business district was a brief plea by Councilmember MaryLee Chamberlain to revisit the concept of one-way traffic on increasingly congested First Street. Chamberlain suggested that dealing with downtown traffic flow should be addressed “before we venture into parking.” “We need to have this discussion. We can look at all the pros and cons,” Chamber...
Location, location, location. It’s not just the familiar real estate mantra. It’s also a key element as La Conner’s Emergency Management Commission crafts long-term disaster preparation strategies. The six-member advisory panel discussed best methods to publicize the locations and primary functions of La Conner’s network of emergency shelters at its Nov. 28 hybrid meeting. A map listing La Conner’s various shelter locations, suggested by Councilmember Rick Dole, drew the greatest support. Dole, council liaison to the commission, offered h...
