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Another holiday season has come to greater La Conner. Santa jump started December, showing up at the La Conner Swinomish Library to read stories to children last Wednesday. He returned twice Saturday, first fortifying himself with pancakes at the annual La Conner Rotary Club breakfast before taking kids on his lap there and again that evening when he one-two-three POOF lit the town tree in Gilkey Square. Shops are decorated for Christmas. Staff and customers alike are wearing holiday colored and themed sweaters. Saturday will be the most...
Perry Sobolik calls himself “an old newspaper junkie.” So he scours the press like a hawk for any scraps about his town, which happens to be the Seattle suburb of Kent. “We still get some attention down here, every once in a while,” he said. “Like when somebody gets killed.” When it comes to local politics, though, Kent, now a city of 139,000 people, is like “living in a desert.” “I’m not sure there was much awareness there was a local election being held,” Sobolik told me. You may have seen the news that Washington state just had the lowest v...
Holiday lights abound. As Ray Stevens said about Santa Claus, they’re everywhere! They’re everywhere! They’re all over La Conner’s homes, streetlight posts and various public spaces. The big Christmas tree in Gilkey Square dominates the north end of downtown. The tiny tree auction has come and gone at the La Conner Swinomish Library. Thousands of years ago, the tradition of holiday lighting started with simple oil or candle menorahs, which were (and still are) used by Jewish families to mark Hanukkah. In the 18th century, central Europea...
Dear Greater La Conner Community, Welcome to the La Conner Weekly News. If you are getting the paper for the first time, I hope you will find your community newspaper an enjoyable and worthwhile read. Valued subscribers, I hope this issue meets your expectations and needs. Thank you, subscribers, for your ongoing engagement with the community through these pages. This newspaper exists for everyone reading it this week That is you. Decades ago, when the local paper was The Puget Sound Mail, every issue said “Covers La Conner and its Rich A...
I recently went out for dinner with a neighbor, a part-time, mostly-here-in-the-summer kind of neighbor. He teaches at a university, leads research and publishes interesting work on human behavior. As we waited to order he mentioned his frustration at it all taking so long — to order and get served. When I responded that it was one more sign of the local housing crisis, he looked confused. He apparently didn’t understand why I was bringing up an issue in our otherwise lovely social evening, especially when it had nothing to do with the situatio...
Did you know: Jefferson County ranks 38 out of 39 counties in the state for affordability for first-time, as well as all, home buyers. Jefferson County’s vacancy rate hovers between 0-1%. The national vacancy rate is 5%. At any one moment, almost 14% – that’s 2,733 – of the houses in Jefferson County are vacant. That means as we walk through our neighborhoods, the cute houses, we know and love, are empty. No wonder things seem awfully, sort of too, quiet sometimes. But it explains all those drawn curtains and shades. 42% of Jefferson County...
The Skagit Valley Clean Energy Co-op (skagitvce.coop) is ramping up our Solarize Skagit Campaign which will start in early March 2024. SVCEC’s Solarize Campaign connects Skagit homeowners and small businesses with solarizing their homes and buildings with the benefit of volume purchasing. We are a non-profit run by volunteers writing grants and mobilizing the money available from various government entities that can cut solarizing costs with free analysis of your roof site, tax credits, group purchasing discounts and financial discount on l...
If you are heading towards Whatcom County or Canada and you are not in a hurry, Chuckanut Drive is a wonderful alternative route. Chuckanut is a winding road that goes along the Pacific coast and features beautiful forestry and spectacular views of the ocean and islands because at some points, it’s right at the edge of the continent. The southern part of the 20-mile drive features beautiful views of Mt. Baker in the distance and Blanchard Mountain nearby. You are surrounded by beautiful farmland...
This is the week we sit down with family and friends and give thanks, typically for the abundant bounty that so many Americans are privileged to have. At this time of American thanksgiving, lifting our eyes past the laden table is as necessary for our souls as it is good for the souls not attending Thursday’s feasts.. We live in, for and with the immediate world surrounding us: our home, work and community, but whether we hold it close or only hear faintly at a distance, the large world beyond our community borders exists. Many people in many p...
With a degree of urgency appropriate for the planetary catastrophe we face today, Pope Francis’ latest exhortation, Laudate Deum, “to all people of good will on the climate crisis,” builds on his 2015 encyclical letter, Laudato Si’, “On Care for our Common Home.” That the pope has explicitly described the current state of the climate as a “crisis” could be viewed as affirming what climate activist Greta Thunberg said in her 2019 address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: “Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is...
As faith leaders, elected officials, community leaders, educators and individual residents of Washington state, we are heartbroken and horrified by the escalated violence and bloodshed in Israel/Palestine. As people of all faith backgrounds and conscience, we deeply value life and are appalled by the significant loss of human life. We condemn all targeting and killing of civilians, whether Israeli or Palestinian, of any or no faith background. Such indiscriminate violence harming innocent civilians is not only a violation of law, but also of...
The ongoing emergence of low-cost energy technologies is leading to the development of a host of interesting systems that aren’t directly related to the large-scale electric grid. Read this asking yourself if and where the Town of La Conner might be able use the following. It’s become possible to use a solar array (or a solar panel mounted on, or even wrapped around, the light pole) to charge batteries mounted in a street or parking lot pole during the day. This can provide enough energy to powe...
What is more American than the post office? The post office is older than the United States, established the year before the Declaration of Independence, in 1775 by perhaps the wisest and most practical of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin. He understood that to knit not only each community – say a town like La Conner – together but to forge a new nation, we had to be in communication – connected – with each other, from Rhode Island to Georgia. What leads this week’s page one news? The terrorist attack on the Skagit County Elections...
Can you imagine the Pacific Northwest without salmon? Their life cycle feeds many beings in the whole ecosystem. Salmon have been the center of spirit and community here for centuries And yet – they are at the brink of extinction in the Snake River. Research by the Nez Perce Tribe shows that: “About 40% of spring and summer Chinook populations from the Snake River are at the threshold for quasi-extinction, meaning they will likely go extinct.” And, at last count, only 110 individual coho salmon and 46 individual sockeye salmon returned to spawn...
“When the big things seem out of control … focus on what you love right under your nose” writes Charlie Mackay in his book, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.” And it does seem so, that the world is out of control. There are the Republicans, there is Hamas, Israel and the Palestinians, horrific, deadly chaos after years of neglect in Palestine, encroachment and abuse; military takeovers in southern Africa; German politics swinging right; New Zealand politics swing right, Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, Putin’s aggression everywhere; C...
It is not unusual for tourist towns to reserve a free parking lot for its visitors. For example, Sedona, AZ and Cedar Key, FL. Not to mention Anacortes and Mount Vernon locally. I think our town council should think of free parking as a form of hospitality. Free parking will welcome guests to our town. La Conner has a huge lot (on South Third Street, below Town Hall – ed.). Make this lot free so residents, employees and guests will use it. Free parking there will relieve parking on First Street, Second Street and beyond. What motivated me to w...
I would like to offer a huge thank you to the La Conner Swinomish Indian Community as well as the La Conner community at large for supporting the efforts of La Conner Young Life. Last week we had our annual fundraising dessert event and nearly 100 individuals attended. We had a fun evening of fun, games and sharing stories about the ways Young Life in La Conner has positively impacted both students and adults through the years. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community has been a loyal partner in this work for over 20 years and continues to...
The Nov. 8 story “Collaboration critical in climate change actions,” did not correctly identify Heather’s Spore’s job title nor accurately cite her point that Spore, a biologist and environmental policy analyst with Swinomish, mentioned that warmer ocean temperatures are changing food web dynamics in the ocean and increased river temperatures cause salmon pre-spawn mortality and make salmon more susceptible to disease. Climate change and sea level rise is threatening tribal and non-tribal coastal communities....
At the Skagit County Historical Museum fundraiser Nov. 4, the East Wing 2024 naming right in honor of William and Helen Roozen was purchased by Lisette Roozen Mast, John Roozen, Madeleine Roozen Cook, Debbie Roozen Scott, Michael Roozen and grandson Andrew Roozen....
It is a week after the school children of La Conner and many of their parents, families and friends swarmed up First Street in the town’s annual Halloween parade. Last weekend kids of all ages were on stage at the Lincoln Theatre, performing as Munchkins, crows, poppies, snowflakes and many more imaginative characters in wonderful performances of “The Wizard of Oz.” These are exactly the activities every child everywhere needs to be engaged in. How fortunate and privileged these Skagit Valley families are to enjoy these opportunities. And,...
The need for electric vehicle charging infrastructure will inevitably increase. People who don’t want EVs now because their initial cost is too high or their range is too low will re-evaluate that decision periodically. Some people will change their minds as EVs improve. We’ve seen this movie before and we know how it ends. When Japanese cars arrived in the U.S., only loony west coast liberals wanted them. Detroit’s Big Three laughed them off. Over the next 20 years, Japanese cars impro...
The La Conner Community Scholarship Foundation (LCCSF) began a fund drive in June that will end on Nov. 30. A service minded La Conner High School alumnus has committed to matching all contributions up to $50,000. To date, nearly 40 donors have contributed $13,385. Founded in 1989, our Foundation’s purpose is to provide scholarship monies for graduating La Conner High School students pursuing post-secondary education. Scholarship funds may pay for two or four year colleges, technical/trade schools well as other forms of continuing education. S...
In the article “Paid downtown parking an option” last week (Nov. 1), I want to make a slight correction and offer my two cents on the subject. Correction: The company making a presentation to a joint council-planning commission meeting on Nov. 28 will not be marketing “metered” parking. The solution that will be presenting requires no infrastructure (meters) aside from approximately 25 signs which his company would furnish as part of their start-up. Their parking solution is digital, cellphone based, which allows for expansion and providi...
The Problem: Vehicles parking on First Street for extended periods of time during high tourist traffic periods. Who are the primary offenders? Business owners and employees. First Street residents. Hotel guests. (All of whom should be parking off First Street during business hours.) Simplest solution: Two hour parking limit, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily and April thru September only. Why not paid parking? 1) Parking is a minimal problem October thru March 2) Pay kiosks would be detrimental to First Street’s historic character. 3) It would discourage l...
On Oct. 28, P.E.O. Chapter JG, La Conner, held a brunch and auction at Maple Hall to support women’s educational opportunities. We rely on donations from members, friends, families and merchants to help us provide the financial needs to help women enhance their lives through education. Our silent auction was a success thanks to donations from chapter members and La Conner merchants. We acknowledge and thank the following merchants for their donations to our auction: Vintage La Conner, The Stall, Country Lady, Ladder’s Clothing, Waterfront Caf...
