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It’s heartbreaking to be updated on how many homeless people there are in Skagit County. Fortunately, they are no longer camping out on sidewalks in our towns. I can no longer visit my friend in San Francisco who has a nightclub because it is so upsetting for me to see so many homeless people camped out in the most expensive parts of that city. Skagit County has provided very nice grassy areas for people to pitch their tents. Some of the homeless people have addictions to alcohol and drugs, b...
The La Conner School District is among hundreds of districts nationwide examining the feasibility and long-term cost advantages of switching from diesel to electric school buses. Key advantages include: reduced use of energy for bus power, accompanied by lower net emissions; stable and predictable energy prices; reduced maintenance costs; and greater student and driver comfort with the elimination of on-board emissions and nearly silent operation. Electric vehicles have far fewer moving parts...
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration announced $1 billion in funding for more than 2,700 electric and low-emission school buses across 37 states in January. This is a second part of funding of a $5 billion, five-year initiative from the bipartisan infrastructure law. In total, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program has awarded nearly $2 billion and funded approximately 5,000 electric and low-emission school buses nationwide. Washington schools will receive a combined $14.9 million through the program. That mon...
It occurred to me: If the Democratic Party is warning their membership not to vote for a specific candidate and the MAGA Republicans are pressuring other Republicans not to support that same individual, you likely have one of the most viable presidential candidates this country has seen in a very long time. Nikki Haley is the right person at the right time to unite this country around what really matters: We’re all Americans. And make no mistake, we will either rise or fall together. As a South Carolina lawmaker, highly popular governor and wit...
This editorial is as timely and critical as when a version was published in 2022, during the last short session of our state legislature. It is updated. Your actions are still needed and needed today. Here is a nonpartisan issue that this community – and indeed, every resident in the state – can rally around in agreement: putting our Washington on standard time year round. That is right: legislation will ditch the semi-annual spring ahead fall-back scenario of artificially changing sunrise and sunset by moving clocks ahead an hour in March and...
There is only one area of the North Fork of the Skagit River used by the tribes for gill netting. It is from Blake’s Resort downstream of the mouth. The tribes have found the river above Blake’s Resort to the forks is not conducive to netting because of the snags and underwater pilings driven in the 1920s and 1930s on both sides of the river for produce loading docks. When the Hatchery King season is open for king salmon above the Mount Vernon bridge for hook and line fishermen it should also be open for the North Fork from Blake’s Resor...
Looking to give your community a Valentine gift? Giving blood takes under ten minutes and truly saves lives. There is no substitute. Please donate on Feb. 23 at the La Conner High School gym. Please call me, 360-421-9233, or Lori Buher, 360-630-0809. Either of us would love to talk with you about the process and benefits and provide you details. Thanks, Dorothy Downes, RN MSW La Conner For more information: https://www.townoflaconner.org...
Thank you for your coverage of the closing of La Conner Drugs. Your writer exposed the real reason medications cost so much in the U.S. I would like to add one additional perspective. Having served on a hospital board and chaired a local clinical board, I value the pharmacist, a local pharmacist familiar with the maladies being faced by her community and her customer/patients. The risks of unanticipated drug interactions can be critical and sometimes lethal. Having a local pharmacist manage all your prescriptions is the best guardian against...
There will be a community presentation about a feasibility study for a grant to allow solar and the storage of energy at the Town’s Fire Hall and at the La Conner School District campus Saturday, Feb. 3 at 10 a.m. at the La Conner Swinomish Library. The presentation aims to explore solar and storage opportunities and how they can help build resilience and support community needs. The Town of La Conner Emergency Management Commission will share details on their work with emergency preparedness. I encourage you to attend. And if you haven’t alr...
Last week I visited Coupeville for lunch. While there, I decided to ask a bunch of business owners and workers what they thought of the angled parking on their First Street because there is talk about doing that here. I started on the parking side of the street. “I hate it,” they’d say. And they’d go on to list the problems that they perceived slanted parking caused. “The vehicle bumpers hang over the sidewalk”, they said – and there wasn’t enough room for strollers and wheelchairs; it’s ugly and parking backs up really fast” I crossed t...
Bravo for last week’s articles and letters regarding the pharmacy benefit managers and the unfortunate closure of La Conner Drug Store, which is such a tangible example of rural America being at the mercy of big money and corporate capitalism. I too had a small business in La Conner. Luckily it still prospers, but I remember fighting to get medical insurance companies to recognize a small independent physical therapy clinic. They kept telling me that they had enough service in Mt. Vernon and Anacortes. What happened to small individual capitali...
The complete weather, Swinomish senate election and school board meeting stories from the Jan. 24 issue can be read on the Weekly News website. Subscribers can call the Weekly News office and sign up for free online access, free with their subscriptions. The stories have been made free so Bill Reynolds’ full coverage is available for readers to finish. The editor apologizes for the Jan. 24 issue’s appearance....
The La Conner drugstore closed Monday, as reported in the Weekly News, a victim of the ongoing corporatization of the American economy, where small companies are forced out because – in ways too many people don’t see or care to understand – the books are cooked and the game is rigged. Small businesses in small towns closing is not a new story, of course. That has always been the American way, the thug-like pressure to get big or get out, or, more commonly, as Judy Booth writes this week on so-called pharmacy benefit managers, the press...
Last Thursday I reached out to Rep. Dave Paul (and our two other state reps as well) and shared my frustrations and asked for help over the La Conner Drug Store closing. Here is the core of my message to Rep. Paul: Don’t know if you can do anything about this but I feel you should know that Rite Aid just purchased our only local pharmacy – La Conner Drug. This little business was first established in 1877. The corporate chain operation made this acquisition only to close the store and transfer the prescription files to their store in Ana...
As a long-time (14 years) La Conner resident I have appreciated having certain local services such as a local bank branch, a grocery store, a pharmacy and a local newspaper. It has meant that I don’t need to travel far for services, supplies and information. I like personally knowing the people with whom I do business. This is the advantage of small-town living. Then I read the stunning news of the closure of the La Conner Drug Store! I have steadfastly used their pharmacy for my several prescriptions refusing mail-order offers of ...
On Jan. 16, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a resolution in the. Senate calling on the State Department to investigate requesting accountability on Israel’s misuse of American weaponry in their current genocide of the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Unfortunately the resolution did not pass. It was voted down 72-11. Eleven senators, including one Republican, voted for the resolution. I googled the results: Low and behold, our state’s Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, helped shoot the resolution down. I then goo...
The American Red Cross is facing an emergency blood shortage as the nation faces the lowest number of people giving blood in 20 years. In recent weeks, the Red Cross blood supply has fallen to critically low levels across the country. Blood products are currently going to hospitals faster than blood donations are coming in. Additional challenges lie ahead as winter weather and seasonal respiratory illnesses may create a more dire situation for the U.S. blood supply. A sufficient blood supply is critical to being able to provide timely care for...
Thanks to Ashley Sweeney for her letter in the Jan. 17 Weekly News encouraging people to read. I would add a short sentence: a person who doesn’t read is no better off than a person who can’t read. Beverly Haywood La Conner...
Safe and Sane Skagit members drove to Olympia last week to be present as five new legislative bills on gun responsibility were presented before the Legislature’s House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee. Those bill are: HB 1902/SB6004: Permit-to Purchase that would ensure that background checks occur before a firearm purchase as well as at the point of sale; HB 1903: Lost and Stolen Reporting wherein stolen guns are often diverted to an underground market, making them more easily obtained without restriction; HB 2118: Dealer Responsibility e...
Our democracy is strongest with full and equal participation in free, fair and secure elections. This means protecting your right to vote and having your vote counted. That’s why I introduced House Bill 2023, which increases language assistance in our elections. Put simply, if an individual cannot understand the ballot, they’re less likely to vote. Even for proficient English speakers, the voting process is challenging to navigate. By expanding the language requirements in the Voting Rights Act, this bill will provide voting translation res...
Town of La Conner residents have two weeks to offer their two cents – or perhaps exceedingly more valuable recommendations – as possible amendments to the town’s comprehensive plan – and the development code, too. Submittals made through Jan. 31 are free. More important is the schedule, for proposals through January are considered this year, in the 2024 cycle by the staff, planning commission and council. Stay awake. This is important for the future of anyone planning to stay or move into La Conner. The Washington state Legislature mandate...
As we start off the 2024 year, I want to personally thank all of the parents and families of our students who every day navigate all of the obstacles in life while supporting their school-aged children. We strive to create a welcoming environment and love seeing your students every day! I am grateful for your belief and trust in our staff. All of our staff work hard to ensure that our students, your children, are safe, loved and cared for, respected and experience success every day. Finances are critical and necessary to ensure that students,...
“Look for the helpers, you will always find people who are helping.” The quote from Fred Rogers’ (Mr. Rogers) was his way of helping children find comfort when something bad happens. Over the last two weeks, my family experienced the truth and beauty in Mr. Rogers’ observation that people willingly and selflessly give of themselves to help others amid a tragedy to which they are merely bystanders. On Dec. 30, 2023, just six days shy of his four-month birthday, we unexpectedly lost our beloved grandson Kobe Lynn Zavala. The devastation of hear...
As a voracious reader, I was dismayed to read in the Jan. 9 edition of The Washington Post that 46% of Americans did not read a single book in 2023. Close to a million books are traditionally published each year in the U.S. Here in La Conner, we have an outstanding new library and a wonderful independent bookstore. With all the books available in a wide number of genres (non-fiction and fiction, including literary, historical, thriller/suspense, mystery/crime, science-fiction, romance, westerns, fantasy, young adult, graphic, etc.), there is...
For the past nine years I have complained in writing about the way the City of Anacortes reconciles the amount of money its wholesale (regional) customers owe for water. Last month, Anacortes billed the Town of La Conner $444 for 2021 and $5,540 for 2022. The truth is that the City of Anacortes owes the Town of La Conner a total of $49,631.52 for both years. Counting O&M alone and considering both years, the city made a profit of $8,173,301 on water. The accountant charged “Taxes and Assessments” to both Regional Expenses (RCC) and Admin Ove...
