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Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 801 - 825 of 1886
I’ve been disappointed with the recycling services provided to residential customers by local waste haulers. Waste Management has done little to improve residential recycling. And even though they say the major obstacle to effective recycling is education they do little (nothing?) to “educate” us in best recycling practices. Nor have they increased the kinds of recyclables they accept. Subscribers who care know that they end up putting items that might be recycled into the trash and items that might not be recycled into the recycle bins. A few...
Pat Paul knows her history. She also knows the history of indigenous people throughout the Americas, enough of it that Paul took part last week in a major online global biennial conference addressing their plight. A La Conner attorney and Alaska native who resides in Swinomish Village and was recently elected president of the Skagit County Historical Society board of directors, Paul was a featured speaker at the third Indigenous World’s International Congress. Attendees spoke French, Spanish or Portuguese, primarily. Paul’s presentation Fri...
La Conner once again showed that it is the little town that can – and does – when its town council last week passed a thorough and strongly worded resolution against the Skagit County commissioners allowing Fully Contained Communities to be included in the country’s comprehensive plan. Bravo for the three council members supporting the resolution. They took an important and necessary step. It does not mean the county commissioners will read the many-pointed resolution. It has 23 “whereas,” enough to choke a horse – or a devel...
Dear citizens: I want to thank everyone who has engaged in the voting process, even if you didn’t vote for me. I certainly don’t have all the answers to our problems, yet my ideas and ideologies do fit our small town. As you all well know, it’s the tourists that butter our toast. Sure, there’s our Indian Tribe, Mavrik Marine and Dunlap Towing that assist, but without our beautiful landscape, tulip fields, swans and geese, we’d not have the tourists walking our streets. We’d be beggars with a tin cup, hoping for a nickel and a dime, to pay our...
The La Conner Parent Teacher Student Association would like to extend a huge thank you to all of the organizations that helped make the annual Halloween Parade and Trick-or-Treating possible. They include: the Town of La Conner, the Chamber of Commerce, the La Conner Fire Department, the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office detachment, the La Conner High School volunteers, La Conner United, community members and, especially, the generosity of local merchants. Without you, this highly anticipated event would not be possible. As we all know, C...
I have a chihuahua, Lilly, who is now almost 17. When I rescued Lilly, she was six months old, not spayed, and chained to a tree. She weighed 5 lbs. – the chain about 10 lbs. I was able to contact the owner, who was happy to give her away. “Too much trouble,” I was told. Daily walking my dogs is a joy I miss. Due to an accident several years ago, I had to find a dog walker. I’m happy to say I found, for seven years, the most trustworthy, caring, and loving person, Linda Renae Clark. Thanks to Linda for all those years of happiness she g...
Dear La Conner residents, Thank you so much for participating in my effort for October Around Town. The fortune lady, Lolita, was a big hit. I wrote hundreds of fortunes, which was great. It meant people were taking them. Thank you to all of you who encouraged me, helped, or donated items. I also want to thank all of you who supported my honor system flower shop behind the post office – it was a great year! And, the lockbox was only broken into once this year. I look forward to reopening in March. To all businesses, I hope we all make it...
Bill Bruch is working full time. He is out and about working for the common good of his community and beyond. No time to play hide and seek! Hard work and common sense bodes well for all in this time of turmoil. Bobbi Butterworth Shelter Bay...
Pause. Can we take a pause? Maybe it is time for a pause. The joy of Halloween is behind us and the rush to the end of the year holiday season is not yet started, although a well-planned Christmas tree is twinkling in Heather Smith’s Latitude Longitude shop. Election returns, while preliminary, may be telling – or not. The first tallies came after these words were crafted. Will election results in La Conner make people cheerful? Certainly for at least the winning candidates and their families. Will Mary Wohleb wake up to find she is t...
This is the last week of national co-op month. The theme this year, “Build Back for Impact,” is a rallying cry for all of us, whether we belong to a cooperative or not. Many – perhaps most of us – do, as consumers, producers or workers. Credit union members – not account holders, but owners – mutual insurance company policy holders – owners, again – and, of course, members of the Skagit Valley Food Co-op and Skagit Farmers Supply are owners. So are Organic Valley farmers. The theme, as co-op websites sum up,...
Have you seen Bill Bruch around town? Often? Where? When? Is Billy at the post office? Every once in a while. Is he at the fire station? Nope. Town council meetings? Not there. Oh, I know: Pioneer Park. No he is not. Maybe he is at Pioneer Market. Not shopping. On the boardwalk? No Billy there. Under the bridge, at the fish park? Nope. North of town, on the channel beach? No. Where is Billy in town? At the Tav. Didn’t see him, or the Pub, either. Is Billy at the Brewery? Nope. Dressed up with his date at Nell Thorns? Never saw Billy there, o...
Let’s start this column on a positive note. As a species, we continue to evolve. A perfect example is my buddy William Shatner, who spent many hours in space in a television series many years ago and, holy moly, just finished a real space mission sponsored by zillionaire Jeff Bezos. I’ve spent many hours with Shatner and never saw him expressing the ecstasy he showed after a real space mission. We’re starting to make some progress on combating climate change and we’ve been able to see a reversa...
Within a couple of weeks, four people, the current members of the La Conner Town Council, will determine which one of the three citizens who have expressed their interest in serving will be selected to sit on council. Usually, we rely on popular elections to determine who fills our legislative positions. That is not possible here because there is a vacant seat and it must be filled. So this particular “election” has four voters – the town council members. They will decide who will do the best job and who might best represent the maj...
As Election Day approaches, I have two simple questions for all candidates for La Conner Town Council, including the three who are under consideration by the council to fill the term of Jacques Brunisholz: 1. Who won the 2020 presidential election? 2. Are you vaccinated against COVID-19? Your answers to these questions are important to many of us because they will reveal your view of the role of a public servant, at any level, in the United States of America. Your answer to Question 1 will tell us if you understand how American constitutional...
I was terribly disappointed to read the recent La Conner Weekly News article about Linda Clark and her arrest and conviction for taking a couple of dogs that she thought were being mistreated. The article was shockingly biased and presented only the facts that would present Clark in the worst possible light. There is little doubt Clark committed a crime, sure. But her only motivation (according to her guest column the week earlier) was that the dogs were being abused, and the local authorities wouldn’t intervene because one of the dog’s own...
I am writing to give my endorsement to Ivan Carlson for city council. I have known Ivan his whole life. His family is multigenerational in La Conner, he has strong, long and deep roots in the community. Ivan is committed to improvement of the quality of life in La Conner, he is constantly investing his time and energy towards civic minded projects. Ivan was a driving force in installing the speed signs on Maple Ave in a much needed effort to reduce vehicle speeding in residential areas of La Conner. As a council member, I know Ivan will keep...
We talk about community and call fellow county residents Skagitonians, a unique name marking our territory, the place we call home. We think of ourselves as neighbors finding common cause in this place where we all live, even though from Anacortes to Marblemount our physical and social landscapes and experiences are quite diverse and even unique. We, all Skagitonians, ought to be in pain over the suffering and death the coronavirus pandemic has brought to our neighbors. October began with grim milestones, with first the count of 100 people...
I remember sitting at my desk in fourth grade. It was a sunny day and out the window I could see some hills of Palouse farmland. Our teacher was covering the westward expansion of Europeans. I found myself wondering what happened to the Indigenous people and asked about it. “They moved away,” she said, “They live over toward Yakima.” I remember feeling a pain in my stomach. It didn’t feel right. She moved on to another topic and then it was recess. It wasn’t until much later that I learned the truth. For millennia our Indigenous siblings ma...
Ballots went out in the mail today for November’s election. Locally three La Conner council seats are contested. At least a couple of candidates are going door-to-door and half of them have signs in neighbors yards. Out of town, on both sides of the Swinomish Channel, both Eric Day and John Doyle want to represent residents living in Fire District 13. This is a small town and a rural fire district. The decisions on whom to vote for are important for residents, more so than the candidates. The council members and the fire district commissioner g...
To the people of La Conner: I have known Ivan Carlson his entire life. He is a volunteer for the La Conner Fire Department, he was raised here, went to school here and is raising his family here. In this time, he has proved himself a capable and reliable fireman with compassion, selflessness and his care for the community. It has been a privilege to watch him grow into the hard-working, honest, and caring person he is today. Sincerely, Aaron Reinstra La Conner...
I was disappointed to find that La Conner School Board candidates Amanda Bourgeois and Susan Deyo neglected to submit information for the voters pamphlet, which came in the mail recently. Many thanks to J.J. Wilbur for submitting his information. I don’t care if you are running unopposed, there is no excuse for not giving voters every chance to know more about you. For me, this lack of participation by Bourgeois and Deyo casts doubts on the transparency of their work on the school board and their organizational skills. Gale Fiege Pleasant R...
In late 2014, I advocated on behalf of two dogs in the town who were suffering tremendously at the hands of their owners due to inadequate protection from the elements. The dogs belonged to the town’s code enforcement officer at the time. No one in the town would help them. In fact, anyone who had the authority to do so backed off because of the interference by town officials. Because of this, I intervened by taking the dogs, trying to get them away from these owners – to no avail – although one was euthanized due to significant m...
October is here. It is an odd year, 2021. That is true in a lot of ways. One local fact is town council elections occur in odd-numbered years. For the first time since 2015 council seats are contested in La Conner. Residents are fortunate that they have a choice for each position: Ivan Carlson is challenging John Leaver. Rick Dole seeks to unseat Bill Stokes. Glen Johnson wants to replace MaryLee Chamberlain. Some candidates have been knocking on doors to introduce themselves and discuss their positions. Good for them. In this pandemic year,...
If La Conner is building another park for the use of families with children, let’s not make a mistake that exists in the two other parks. Neither of the existing parks have adequate toilet facilities, especially for children. Port a Pottys should not be the norm for a park. It is embarrassing that we allowed this for our parks. As an adult, I detest them, and avoid using them. Children should not be forced to go to that smelly and scary box. Please find funding for these parks to have suitable toilets for families....
My concern: If I need to call 911 and I can get to my phone to dial I don’t want to have to guess and wonder if or when the police are going to show up. I expect it in a reasonable amount of time. I attended the council meeting Sept. 28 and expressed this concern to the sheriff’s representatives there. They stated that there is an existing contract to provide 80 hours of service … to La Conner? My unanswered question: Is that 80 hours in La Conner or “Zone 1,” which includes Conway, Bayview, etc.? I think everyone at the meeting agreed...
