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Last Wednesday I screwed up my courage and went against my own caution guidelines to see the new film “West Side Story” at the Lincoln Theatre. As everyone else attending did, I showed my vaccination card to get in and I kept my mask on once I finished my popcorn. I had the entire front right section to myself. I sat in the aisle seat in the last row, my bum left leg on the arm rest of the seat in front of me. On Jan. 12, 2022, it was my first movie in about two years. I needed a night out, a night off and the pleasure of seeing a classic in...
Sunday I had a conversation with Brandon Atkinson while watching the demolition of the building behind Sliders. He is the owner and developer. I mentioned to him that we would like his project a lot more if it were solely residential and only two floors. He told me that that is what he would like as well. Incredulous, I asked him to restate multiple times. And he did. He said that he had asked for that rezone (from commercial to residential) but was told by the Town that the Town could not make that change. But they can. The Town can rezone...
I appreciate the inclusion of the “State of the Town” in the Jan. 5 Weekly News. It’s useful to hear the mayor’s thoughts in his own words. I hope you’ll ask him regularly for his views on other Town matters. I am, however, concerned with these words: “The Town has been working to achieve its population goals with the creation of two new subdivisions .... .” My concern is with his reference to the Town’s population goals. I was not aware that the Town had population goals and, if we do, where they came from or for how they are to be met. As a s...
When we Christians think of missionaries we think of dedicated Christians traveling miles to far-off lands, usually to third world countries to convert people to Christianity and to better their lives. They leave family and friends and immerse themselves in a very different culture; many times becoming martyrs and never returning home. Let me introduce you to a “modern missionary.” Fr. Sean Fox was born in Pontoon, near Foxford, in county Mayo, Ireland, in 1928. After high school he entered the seminary at All Hallows in Dublin to study for...
The Washington State Legislature convened at noon on Monday, Jan. 10, starting the clock on a 60-day legislative session. For the House of Representatives, at least for the first few weeks of session, that means another fully virtual format. For now, I am able to work out of my Olympia office. In the coming weeks, I will continue to push for changes that improve the public’s ability to take part in-person in the legislative process. Repealing the Long-Term Care Act There will be some tough public policy debates this session. One of the most c...
Almost everyone I know considers themselves a friend, family member – parent, spouse, sibling, child, cousin or other relative – an employee, teammate, buddy, sewing circle or book club member or coffee klatch participant. Very few people define themselves as citizens or patriots. Most of us are reluctant Republicans or Democrats, too often wedged into choosing the lesser of two evils or, as Ralph Nader famously put it, picking between Tweedledee and Tweedledum come election time. Almost none of us think government at any level is...
In my work as your representative over the last three years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many of you and your neighbors, listen to your concerns and learn about what issues affect your daily lives. From those conversations, it is clear the Legislature should support?a sustainable economy that?allows?all members of our community?to thrive.? Our?state must?improve access to higher education and family-wage jobs, foster?economic development and recovery in rural communities and prioritize healthcare and our quality of life. This s...
Anyone paging through a stack of 2021’s Weekly News will find the obvious bright spots: the Fourth of July parade, concert and fireworks, an absolutely stupendous Halloween Parade and the lighted boat parade. The most wonderful record, set month after month, was the over-the-top Town of La Conner sales tax revenue collections. Facing year two of the pandemic a year ago, the town guessed it might collect $328,202 in 2021. Way too conservative. Sales tax revenue is likely to exceed $630,000, 62% over the forecast. That surprise sales tax revenue...
We are now ending our second year of the coronavirus pandemic. Sadly, it now includes the adjective, just: This is just the second year of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a global catastrophe that we, the people, could have ended by following the leadership of competent and courageous public health professionals, putting a vaccination syringe through its heart. Alas, we the people refused to unite. Our unwillingness to act as one makes it possible for the pandemic to roll on, mutating its way to new headlines and more preventable deaths....
First printed Feb. 13, 2019. Here is a true fact: the Washington Street hill down to Whatcom Street has had more sleds than cars on it in the 10 days since the first snow of Feb. 4. Did everybody but me know about the street closing for sledding? I learned about this from seeing photos in the Weekly News. Town public works staff put road closed signs and orange cones at Second and Whatcom streets that Monday, opened the street midweek and closed it again Friday for the weekend. Then, wow: fresh snow Sunday night, Another snow day Feb. 11 and...
I’m addicted to my hot tub, especially on wintry days. I’m thrilled that I live on the left edge of the continent with a great view of the islands and even a glimpse of the Olympic Peninsula. Being an overactive person, these are particularly trying times for me. Often, as soon as I sit down, it occurs to me that there is something I forgot to do and I jump right up. To keep this from happening in the hot tub, I invented a little game in which I locate a small particle floating in the water. I l...
Santa Claus. What adult is not complicit at some time in holding on to the magic and, in a sense, the central falsehood of our secular celebrating of Santa Claus? The most repeatedly published editorial in history is the 1897 New York Sun’s “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” The Sun’s editorial writer speaks for parents and romantics everywhere, across all time zones and ages, exclaiming “No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will c...
I am writing because I think there may have been an error in the telling of the Rainbow Park clear-cut. In the story “Shelter Bay must pay $92,513; loses Rainbow Park clearcut appeal” (Dec. 8 Weekly News), you wrote: “Everyone in Shelter Bay had been kept informed over the last year by the board of this clear-cut case.” I do not think this is correct. There are a few who heard about what happened and attended some meetings this past year in regards to this fiasco, but I know that most of my neighbors know absolutely nothing about it, what ha...
In the first paragraph of the article titled “Tracking Rainbow Park clearcut event history” (Weekly News, Dec. 15) this statement is incorrect: “The Shelter Bay Town Hall group is considering lawsuits and recalling board members.” While some may be considering such actions, it is not the Facebook Shelter Bay Town Hall group that is doing so. I began the Town Hall group so I know the intent of the group. I assure everyone concerned that the intent is not to pursue lawsuits or to recall board members or to do anything that is biased or preferenti...
As a long time neighbor of Rainbow Park, I would like to take a moment to thank Steve Swigert for his ability to get things done. It has been years since proper maintenance was administered to the little channel-side facility and its time was due. My parents purchased neighboring lots in 1969 (the same year I was born) and had completed their vision of a home five years later. As a child of theirs I frequented the park regularly and over the years I saw the little scrubby pines grow to be big scrubby dead and dying pines. They were a nice...
There was a grand convergence in last week’s edition: Reporting on the Swinomish Planning Commission upholding the Tribal planning department's $92,513 fine against the Shelter Bay board of directors and resident Steve Swigert meshed with the Weekly News annual subscription drive delivering the paper to every address in the La Conner school district. That includes some 900 homes in Shelter Bay. Credit the Shelter Bay Community's staff for sending its members an email with the planning commission's decision and order. Everyone could read the 1...
Dear Folks of La Conner, So, the rains came … and then they came some more, it even came through the door! Floodwaters submerged the not-too-distant town of Sumas, and it could have easily happened here, and it might yet! Just because the Mount Vernon floodwall worked to protect a one-mile section of town, doesn’t mean the levee is secure. This warmish wet weather has delivered more rain in November, than any November ever. The river has been at or above flood stage for at least half the days of the month. Water has been slowly s...
Every time I drive down Maple Street these days past what used to be the little league ball field, see all that heavy equipment tearing up the soil and try to envision a bunch of tacky little houses jammed in there, it turns my stomach. Yes, I know this is beating a dead horse, that the train has left the station and won't be returning, but it doesn't alter my feelings. I have no history there other than years of observation; no children of my own or that I knew ever played ball there; but the property was always an asset to the community as...
In the face of challenges like the pandemic, climate change and racism, large numbers of Americans are reporting symptoms of anxiety, depression and exhaustion. Things certainly feel bad, but focusing on doom-and-gloom stories often crowds out the more positive ones. For instance, poverty has been drastically reduced thanks to the generous provisions of the American Rescue Plan. The passage of the Infrastructure and Jobs Act has paved the way for the country to begin repairing its crumbling roadways, bridges and transit systems. And the...
Just a couple more details to add to the well written article (Dec. 8, Weekly News) regarding the Swinomish Planning Commission’s Decision ordering that Shelter Bay be fined over the 2020 clearcutting at the community’s Rainbow Park below 95 Samish Place. In July 2020 Mr. Swigert applied to the Shelter Bay Greenbelt Committee for a permit for “view restoration” on his property and a separate permit for “Greenbelt maintenance” of common land adjacent. In a letter dated Aug. 18, 2020, the Greenbelt Committee denied Mr. Swigert’s application f...
As a recent Shelter Bay lessee I was not present for the physical portion of the Rainbow Park debacle including Labor Day 2020 and into the following week. Watching and participating in dialogue along with review of the available documents over these past months allowed me to form and voice a firm stance on the position the board of Shelter Bay (SB) embarked on. SB has internal bylaws, covenants, rules and the standing committees to enforce them. Many of these controls and procedures were not exercised, and remedies are further muddied by the b...
How different La Conner and the western Skagit Valley is because a community newspaper is delivered to about 1,000 readers weekly. Stop, really, and consider how rare that is, how special and important at the end of 2021. You have your local weekly newspaper in your hands. Do you know how many people in Skagit County or the 39 counties in the state of Washington can say that? A lot fewer than could in 2020 or 2015 or 2010 or the year 2000. The La Conner Weekly News is a rare bird because hundreds of newspapers have gone out of business the...
I want to pay homage to your entire working community (of journalists), to tell you that the Pope cares about you, follows you, esteems you and considers you precious. Journalism does not come about by choosing a profession, but by embarking on a mission, a little like a doctor, who studies and works so that the evil in the world may be healed. Your mission is to explain the world, to make it less obscure, to make those who live in it less afraid of it and look at others with greater awareness, and also with more confidence. It is not an easy...
A wonderful thing happened to our neighbor and the Weekly News proofreader, Eileen Engelstad, last week, though she did not realize it until after the fact. She had to skip her Nov. 30 work shift, called to superior court in Mount Vernon for jury duty. Oh my god. How much fun is that? How stuck was she? Read her column on the right side of the page and find out how much she learned about citizenship and democracy and how we are all in this together. Yes, the people you are in the grocery store with might be your fellow jurors or judging you if...
Like many others, last month I received a summons for jury duty. Since it was the beginning of the holiday season, with upcoming events and obligations that are important to me, I did not want to have an uninvited intrusion in my life. My immediate reaction was to plead for a release from jury duty. In fact, when I returned the initial papers I “mentioned” my advanced age, 77, in hopes they would deem me unfit. Much to my chagrin, I received another letter from Skagit County Superior Court, this time welcoming me into service, thanking me for b...
