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During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote a column in this paper bringing attention to a different public health problem sweeping the nation. While maybe not as physically deadly, the long-term impacts on the health of our communities were and are still as dire. I was discussing the very real pandemic of hate. The data is clear. While COVID-19 was a killer, the government's heavy-handed response was just as deadly. Deaths of despair via suicide and other destructive behavior have...
During the hectic, fluid and complex process of the 2023 legislative session, I wanted to keep our priorities front and center. I’ve been fighting to help our low-income and working families, support our veterans and military families, protect and preserve our environment, provide our students more opportunities and ensure our rural counties and cities have the resources they need to keep our communities strong. We’ve made significant progress and I wanted to share some successes we’ve had t...
I’m happy to report the Legislature finished the 2023 session with a balanced budget – and excellent transportation and construction budgets that will create jobs in the 10th district and throughout our state. Affordability The price of everything has gone up – especially housing. I know how hard this is on family budgets. It’s also tough on our economy, making the workforce shortage worse when jobs go unfilled because people can’t find housing within commuting distance. This session, the Legis...
As publisher of the Weekly News, I will be on a panel discussing “The Future of Local Journalism: Is It Important to Our Democracy?” Monday May 15 at the Mount Vernon high school. In the United States, where our Declaration of Independence holds as self-evident truth “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” self-evident also is the press’ central, fundamental role in the functioning of our democracy. Newspapers are baked into society's governance, hammered into the Constitution in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respect...
I hope I am not alone in my wry reaction to the half-page ad in the May 3 La Conner Weekly News titled, “Opportunity For Positive Change in Shelter Bay.” Among the several issues mentioned was the need to practice transparency. The ad was submitted by a group that, although located geographically, remained otherwise anonymous. Huh … excuse me? Curtis Kemp Shelter Bay...
Dear editor, Please advise, cannot understand. Good grief!? Shelter Bay, a community across the Swinomish Channel from La Conner, is under attack from an out-of-order insider group? One judge has already thrown out an unsubstantiated lawsuit for lack of material proof, so what can possibly be the reason this group continues to harass the board of volunteers who have been elected to steer the community to further the processes they have begun, specifically the extension of the lease on the land owned by the Swinomish Tribe. Anyone who lives...
Before Tom Hanks rode through post-Civil War Texas on his rescue mission bringing the 10-years old Johanna to her grandparents south of San Antonio in the film “News of the World,” there was Paulette Jiles’ 2016 novel. Her protagonist, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, was older than the century, having been born in 1798. He had first seen war in 1812 and lived through it again in 1846 in Mexico. Kidd was old, 72, and thoughtful and wise, not merely because he had experienced war three times, but because he was a printer in an era when every lette...
The circumstances at our schools have me concerned, but that’s nothing new, I’ve seen these budgetary shortcomings coming for several years now. Maybe my farm was small and inconsequential, but it was a viable business for more than a quarter century. My wife and I had to manage a budget that was produced by us, had a small staff and we didn’t get a subsidy from anyone. Research projects were funded by profits, not grants and loans. Now I’m in a quandary; can public schools legally compete and make a profit from student activities? Friday...
I was lucky enough to be a raindrop in the sea of gun reform in Washington state. My husband and I attended one of the later hearings on HB 1240, the assault weapons ban, as representatives of Safe and Sane Skagit, a charter member of The Alliance for Gun Responsibility. SaSS was begun in 2015 after nine people were shot and eight wounded at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, OR., by one person’s sense of outrage and helplessness in the face of another gun tragedy. She sent a letter to friends saying, “Let us please do SOMETHING, joi...
A majority of the current and recently past volunteer Directors of Shelter Bay (SB) have accomplished the following over the past several years. • Voted to have the members of SB pay the fine of $92,500 imposed by the Swinomish Tribe against a now-former director, who denuded Rainbow Park for his sole personal benefit, and further, and has obligated the members of SB to pay for the reforestation and maintenance of Rainbow Park at the cost of an additional $120,000. They did not legally pursue this former Director to collect the fine and d...
The Swinomish Tax Authority used the same levy rate for 2023, 2022 and 2021: $11.98 per thousand. But, the assessed value of homes in Shelter Bay and Pull & Be Damned increased from $196,279,100 to $206,399,050 over the past year. The Swinomish government aims to collect $2,440,832 in taxes from Shelter Bay, Pull & Be Damned and Thousand Trails. Three taxing districts will receive contributions from the Swinomish. These are: Fire District 13 at $400,000 for operations and maintenance, plus $90,000 impact fees from the casino, plus a medical...
I live on Whatcom Street behind Pioneer Market. There are numerous people that walk, ride bikes and use strollers and walkers on the street to and from town. Lately, the traffic has increased and the corners of Talbot and Rainier streets are being used as a shortcut to get to Maple Avenue and to town, in order to avoid the Morris Street corner stop sign congestion. What I don't appreciate is cars speeding down Whatcom and cutting the corners and/or not bothering to even stop at the stop signs. It is only a matter of time before someone is...
Ramon Hayes, mayor of the Town of La Conner for 16 years, is retiring when his term ends after the November elections. Hayes deserves a huge thank you for his steadfastness. He deserves credit for the solid staff employed in support of the town's residents and infrastructure. Hayes can be rightfully proud of the two – three, really – most visible accomplishments under his watch. He secured critical state and local funding for the downtown channel boardwalk and the La Conner Swinomish Library. And, in the dark days of the coronavirus pan...
The Seattle author Timothy Egan's latest book, “A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them,” is a riveting saga of the Klan spreading their hatred of Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants. The leader was a predatory con man, the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, who believed he was above the law. This is the story of how the Klan held complete power over the politicians, judges and law enforcement across the state of Indiana. They then tried to spread their tentacles over the ent...
Believe it or not, I was a star athlete in high school. My senior year I was an all-county linebacker, an undefeated wrestler and a catcher in baseball who batted .517. There were scouts at all of my baseball games but I decided instead to go to Colgate University on a football scholarship but only played freshman year because I was 5’ 8” tall and weighed 175 pounds. Now at age 76, I play golf and tennis and pickleball and work out twice weekly in a gym with very healthy equipment. As a resident...
It is sad that Jack and Julie Jones moved out of Shelter Bay over misperceptions (Citizens’ View, April 19). I wish for their sake the Jones had served on the board of directors and on committees. If they had they would still be here enjoying the beauty and tranquility of our lovely community, knowing their neighbors who serve care as much about the community as they do. The Shelter Bay marina, like every popular rental property, increases in value, pays off its debt and produces cash flow. The marina pays 10% of the land lease. It would pay m...
I have always said that as long as my daughter Victoria was in La Conner schools, I was happy to be mayor. That season has come to an end, and it is time for La Conner to choose a new representative to lead the community. May 15 through 19 interested candidates will have the opportunity to file with the county’s elections office for both the mayor’s position and two other town offices. As a result, the La Conner Weekly News asked me to write a short, 500-word piece on what qualities the next mayor should possess. I agreed to provide input recog...
The 2023 legislative session ended on April 23. Over the last four months, we developed operating, transportation and capital budgets that will help our community and our state. I'll have more to say about these budgets and what they mean for our families here in the 10th District in my next column. This week, I want to give you a snapshot of how our democracy here in Olympia works – and how local community members affect that process. Passing a single bill is like running two separate m...
Saturday is the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day. In the giddy, heady days of the early 1970s – with or without pot – people celebrated recycling. Going farther meant reusing and reducing. Reflect on that, on how radical the concepts of reusing goods has become. In the 1960s parents and grandparents returned pop bottles back to the grocery and redeemed the deposit, with the bottles going back for washing and getting refilled. Fewer new glass bottles needed to be made. Aluminum cans once did not exist. And when was the last time any of us took a r...
The Democrat-dominated state legislature, fully endorsed by a sympathetic Democrat governor, has been “fine-tuning” highly restrictive measures that adversely affect gun ownership in Washington State (House Bill 1280). When enacted – likely on an "emergency" basis – this law restricts the purchase, sale, trade and importation of a variety of semi-automatic rifles erroneously referred to as "assault weapons” in the language of the bill and by the mainstream media. This misstatement of fact is done intentionally to influence public perceptio...
Recently, some friends have asked us why we moved from Shelter Bay into the town of La Conner. The simple reason is, we lost trust in the board to act in the best interest of the community and we lost faith that the board would begin to act in the best interest of the community. Our trust started eroding with the outcome of the Rainbow Park fiasco. We were told it was in the best interest of the community to bail out a sitting board member to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. When we asked questions, we were told to attend...
As a resident of Shelter Bay, I’m grateful for La Conner Weekly News coverage of the community’s recent challenges. Because we are a very significant segment of the wider community, we unquestionably have an impact outside the confines of our neighborhood. So, it is appropriate for the local newspaper to cover the activities of our board and members, despite the apparent wishes of some to avoid that particular source of light. Thorough, balanced news coverage demands skepticism, rather than meek regurgitation of officially sanctioned com...
The Rotary Club of La Conner is once again selling field cut tulips at $6/per bunch of 10, from their two booths. One is near the La Conner roundabout, the other is in Shawn O’Donnell’s Farmhouse Restaurant parking lot. Both booths are open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday to Monday, closed Tuesdays, as long as there are tulips. All profits are returned to projects here in town and to help elsewhere. See you there, Ollie Iversen La Conner...
Very few of us are racist or know people who are racist. Few of us stay quiet when racist remarks are made. That is what polling and folks discussing race in America or in their community say. Yet I know that I very definitely crossed the street once when three Black men were coming my way. Was that caution race-based? So, a few of us are racist. Many argue that there is not systematic racism. So substitute power, control and fear as motivations driving individuals and individuals in charge of institutions to act. Statistically and...
Our legislature reviews hundreds of proposed pieces of legislation during sessions. This year, with the help of our team, I have drafted and introduced twelve bills. Six passed the House and five passed the Senate. So far, two have been signed by the Governor with more scheduled. As a first-time legislator, I would like to share how proposals become law with a bill that I’ve introduced this year, House Bill 1658, which allows high school students to earn credit for paid work experience and f...
