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If you’ve been following my work in the state Senate, you’ve likely picked up on some themes. In all my work, I look at the state’s policy problems through a pragmatic lens of structure, discipline and accountability. But what’s the goal? In my view, legislators have an obligation to the public to use the resources they send to state government to do the most good for the most people. One area that touches all of our lives and pocketbooks is health care. Escalating costs are a big problem for patients in Washington. You may have heard me rattle...
New Town of La Conner Mayor Marna Hanneman chaired her first town council meeting yesterday, Jan. 9. The council packet she received the week before included a memo from Town Administrator Scott Thomas. Its first point summarized for council the town’s need to plan for 124 housing units by 2045, required by the state’s Growth Management Act. Thomas writes “Of these units, 92 are expected to be occupied by low to moderate income families.” Looking at the data, 82 units, 66%, are to be priced for people making less than 80% of the area median...
How can we listen to each other and find common ground – and solutions that work for our community? I think it starts with listening to each other. The legislative session began on Jan. 8 and runs for 60 straight days, including weekends. I’d like to share two things with you this week: (1) comments and ideas from our recent 10th District survey and (2) some common-sense reforms I’m working on this session. First, your comments and ideas. Hearing directly from you is incredibly important to me...
We would like to express our gratitude and recognition for the invaluable service of our dedicated school board directors during School Board Recognition Month. By the proclamation of the governor, January is the time to acknowledge the selfless commitment and hard work of these elected community members. The La Conner School Board plays a vital role in shaping the lives of our community’s children, making decisions that impact the trajectory of public education in our district. These individuals, entrusted with the responsibility of m...
In his message for the 57th World Day of Peace this Jan. 1, Pope Francis reflected on the impact of artificial intelligence on world peace and urges the international community to adopt a binding international treaty that regulates its development and use. New technologies must always be directed to “the pursuit of peace and the common good, in the service of the integral development of individuals and communities.” Pope Francis urges world leaders to ensure that progress in developing forms of artificial intelligence “will ultimately serve...
Hello and Happy New Year! First and foremost, I hope you have been able to spend time with loved ones and had some time to reflect on 2023. Secondly, I wish you and yours a safe and prosperous New Year. May 2024 bring the necessities we need to make La Conner the best it can be. The following note represents my reflections of social, economic and environmental perspectives that impact our town as I take office. Think of it as a “State of La Conner” of sorts. One of the great things about our community is that it is a unique microcosm of a bro...
By Glen Johnson Agritourism, is it a good thing or bad? A wedding in a farmer’s backyard is a great place and time to congratulate the couple, while also putting the spready on the table. Foods from area farms could be shared, marketed and sold to these wedding attendees. Most smaller farms still have a farmyard with a barn and a storage shed or two with space between them that allows for parking that doesn’t encroach on or impede the production of crops in the field. I was in the business about two decades ago, or at least I gave it a try...
How does one thank a person who has unstintingly given 16 years of his life to our community? Ramon Hayes has been La Conner’s mayor twenty four hours a day for every one of those years. Many of us have had the pleasure of chatting with him on his daily walks, often accompanied by his smiling, gregarious wife. A useful way of taking the pulse of the town person to person, he seemed to genuinely enjoy his walks. But the mayor’s day was often much more than glad-handing. He chaired 16 years of town council meetings, some being quite con...
Many, maybe all of us, received a check from our state attorney general, Bob Ferguson. He said it was for me being overcharged for chicken. I don’t know how he knew how much chicken I bought but because of his being a candidate for governor, I suspect it made no difference: He probably just wanted to buy my vote. I am going to send my check to his Republican opponent because I noticed he said in the letter “the corporations must pay,” not that they have paid. If some of them don’t pay he will be using our tax dollars to fund his campaig...
The La Conner Volunteer Fire Department would like to thank our La Conner Community for the continued support this year! From attending parades to supporting our fundraisers, this community helps make our operations more fulfilling and successful. We want to say thank you to all of the generous sponsors of our 2023 Annual Golf Tournament. Our sponsors include: The La Conner Pub and Eatery, Calico Cupboard, Tillinghast Postal, Skagit Cellars, Olive Shoppe/ Ginger Grater, Conway Feed, Pioneer Potatoes, Sliders Cafe, The Stall, La Conner Brewing...
Dear La Conner Weekly news team, Simply put: thank you. Thank you for all of the effort you put into your stories, for connecting with the community and for the quality of your work. Your publication is a large part of what helped my spouse and I make the giant leap of faith into putting down roots of our own here. You helped us fall in love with La Conner, her history and people, while also bringing reality of daily life and important local issues to our attention. Thank you for being our storytellers, megaphone and mirror. Happy New Year!...
In 1992, two colleagues and I visited Ukraine and Russia to tour ex-Soviet research laboratories in search of interesting technologies that had been developed by their scientists and engineers. The company I worked for hoped that we’d be able to bring something valuable back to Canada, and also hoped that we could justify enough in the way of licensing fees and direct investment to help keep the scientific and engineering expertise of at least one Ukrainian or Russian lab together. Neither Ukrai...
From an editor who takes each week’s editorial very seriously, I report that this is one of my most important editorials of the year. Each December ends with shining light on unsung heroes in the community, the critical souls who day after day and every week show up, dig in and through their steadfast efforts are contributing to the larger good, making the greater La Conner region the place we are so proud to call home. I have known for months that I would praise the staff, freelancers and volunteers who make the Weekly News the success that i...
Rain rain, go away, come again some other day. No, rain please don’t go away, stay so I can breathe another day. We live in a place with a lot of rainfall, especially at this time of year. This month we’ve been surrounded by clouds and drenched with rainfall, but every few days the sun comes out and the cloud formations are breathtaking. As a movie and television director, I had to spend over 40 years based in Los Angeles, although we were filming in wonderful places like Amsterdam, Aus...
I wrote earlier that existing technologies aren’t that far from allowing us to produce sustainable energy for as little as a tenth of the cost of conventional electric generation. Solar photovoltaic costs, in particular, are still falling fast. Solar resources cannot produce energy at their lowest possible cost everywhere, but there are other low-cost renewable energy sources. Wind, hydroelectric power, advanced waste-to-energy technologies and several devices that can convert energy into u...
Tomorrow, Dec. 21, is the solstice, the shortest day of the year. In BCE, Before the Common Era, and for all the centuries in our Common Era, people have celebrated the end of the year’s dark period and the beginning again of the coming of the light. Leaders seeking followers for their new Christian religion piggybacked on the established communal gathering to herald the new light of the world, the hope for mankind, the Prince of Peace. The Christians among us believe Jesus was born on Dec. 25. Wise men and shepherds came in honor and a...
We, tell – and listen to – stories for a reason. Way before the internet or radio or even telegraph lines, communities collectively gathered around the campfire to both tell each other the important stories of the day and to recall and pass down myths, the collected wisdom from their elders and their ancestors. Today it is hard to pause and cut through the din of garbage on social media to reflect and revel in a good story that has a deep, larger meeting. Now, we don’t understand irony and are blinded by the shine of celebrities. This insta...
Did you know that in Skagit County only 2% of the farms in the valley are over a thousand acres? Did you also know that 41% of farms in Skagit County are noted as residential or lifestyle farms, aka hobby farms? The face of farming has changed: There are fewer farms that are operating at a commercial level, or what would be considered financially self-sufficient operations. There are fewer new farmers entering the industry, as there are greater barriers to entry – more so then ever before. It takes years to see a rate of return when you are s...
The Puget Sound Partnership recently released its biennial State of the Sound report concluding that while, overall, Puget Sound is holding on, its recovery remains uncertain (Puget Sound Partnership: State of the Sound (wa.gov)). This very mixed scorecard is concerning. Merely clinging to life with little movement towards improved health of the Sound, its ecosystems and species is not sufficient progress in restoring this beautiful inland sea around which we live. The report uses 44 vital signs to represent the many aspects of the Sound’s h...
Kudos to the editor for being willing to post a letter in last week’s issue that, I suspect, did not align with his perspective. This gives credence to his professed belief that a free press, uncensored, is best and open communication can, hopefully, create new channels of understanding. I can relate to the letter writer’s sense of loss (“America has changed,” Dec. 13). Yes, those golden years that we both grew up in were awesome. And yes, we miss them. But times change, conditions change and then is gone forever. Kiss it goodbye. And don’t b...
For this last subscription drive mailing editorial, because I respect everyone reading this newspaper and take my work seriously, I went to “Deadline Artists,” an anthology of newspaper columns over the last 100 years. The point of reporting is to present facts. The goal of editorials is to make readers pause, reflect and think about important issues of the day, some smaller and local, others larger and global. The New York Herald Tribune correspondent Dorothy Thompson did that in October 1938, after France and Britain, the world’s domin...
Look around: We live on the edge of the continent, less than 35 miles due east of Victoria Harbor in one of the most idyllic communities on the west coast. Positioned as a safe passage for marine travel and tied to the to the salt waters of the Salish Sea, La Conner is the true gateway to the San Juan Islands. We are blessed with tremendous soil that produces some of the highest yielding crops per acre in the world. We are a regional, national and international tourist destination and have found success in this space, in part, because we offer...
Well, once again we dodged a bullet, the atmospheric river hit mostly just south of us this time. Two years ago the atmospheric river hit the Skagit watershed pretty hard, but Whatcom County got hammered and towns along the Canadian border were devastated. This past week the Stillaguamish River at Arlington had the highest flows in history. Had either of these systems fully hit the Skagit watershed, it could have been a catastrophe for our vulnerable small town. No, this missing section of dike (ring, northeast of the schools – ed.) is an e...
Each year when I look for my unused Christmas cards and find the poem titled “The Work of Christmas” by Howard Thurman, a 20th century theologian, educator and civil rights leader, I am reminded of what is important about the season. While we celebrate with parties and gift giving with families and friends at Christmas and New Years let’s be thankful we live where we do. The poem speaks for itself and what each of us does with it determines how our lives will affect the community we so enjoy. Maybe then by extension our good will can reach...
The idea of making First Street in La Conner one way has been attempted before, over 25 years ago now. It didn’t work. The Town’s public works department used to change the traffic flow to one way during tulip festival, for a month during that time. One way traffic flow actually works very well for directing people to the parking lot at the south end of town. It impacts Second Street negatively, by increasing the number of vehicles making the loop around and around with (mostly locals) trying to get to the post office. Any time I travel I fin...
