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Ken Stern, editor and publisher of the La Conner Weekly News, seems determined to demonize the town administration, mayor and town council members in at least two areas: the Maple Avenue ballfield transaction and now parking fees for the new library. In a scathing editorial Aug.18 he paints an (incorrect) depiction of myself and fellow councilmen Bill Stokes delaying start of construction of the library by trying to extract parking fees for the code, which requires 10 excess (additional – ed.) parking spaces which future operation of the...
I lost my wallet. I had no idea where, it just wasn’t in my pocket or on the top of the dresser where I leave it at night. Big hassle. Canceling and replacing credit cards and ID cards and my driver’s license. Oh, let’s not forget the $400 plus I had in cash in that wallet. For starters, I got a new wallet and I carried my passport in it so I had one form of ID. I got new credit cards and spent time at the DMV waiting in line to apply for a new driver’s license. Got it all done. Big sigh of...
Is the editor of the La Conner Weekly News a crank and a scold? Does he – me – criticize the town council unfairly, randomly or casually, without cause? Do I have an agenda or a vendetta? I do, actually. Let me propose that I am just doing my job, sometimes more aware and sometimes less. My failure to pay attention earlier to all the details and the players around the sale of the Hedlin ballfield property has sharpened my focus. Then I was not on top of the issue, as your local newspaper editor has to be. What does the newspaper’s e...
The last item on the Aug. 10 La Conner Town Council agenda was a resolution for the Town to approve deferring a payment of $48,000 from the new library to the town for seven years, a fee for the building lacking 10 parking spaces required by code. Councilmember Bill Stokes immediately called to table the item, saying he needed more budget information. Planner Michael Davolio stood and explained the library could not get its permit to build without resolving the payment. Library representatives had met with the staff and Davolio had written...
The La Conner Weekly News published a table May 12 showing that the Town of La Conner made a profit of $8,075 on the sale of the Hedlin property. Now that the Hedlin ball field troubles are all over, let us take a look at the transaction. The cash basis closing statement shows that the Town netted $117,034 on the sale. Then, subtract $37,000 for a second option, plus an appraisal at $3,500 and a survey at $5,500 and you get $71,034. I think that wound up in the General Fund. Staff time and the paving of an easement are not counted. The Town...
While at the Skagit County Fair last week, I did a double take when I walked by a booth staffed by Skagit County Republicans. Two over-sized signs dominated their red, white and blue themed booth; you couldn’t miss them if you tried. The first read: “Rural Americans Against Communism.” What? Just rural Americans? What about suburban Americans? Urban Americans? All Americans? It’s inarguable that Americans of every political stripe, race, gender, ethnicity and religious affiliation stand against communism; this is not a partisan issue in a de...
Thank you Ken Stern for alerting us to the possibility of Fully Contained Communities popping up in this beautiful agriculture valley. The county commissioners “docketed” a change to the County’s comprehensive plan in May, which if enacted could change the farming/fishing culture forever. If developers are given the green light to construct these FCCs they would suck services and infrastructure like fire, schools, water and sewers from towns and cities that we taxpayers have already paid for and continue to maintain. They could line the freew...
RE: Application File # LU21-45CU Project Location: 623 Morris Street, Units E-1 and E-2 Mr. Davolio, Mayor Hayes, Councilmembers: I am writing for your consideration to not allow the proposed conditional use permit to change the use of two commercial units to guesthouse/guest rental for the above application file # LU21-45CU. The town of La Conner is a vibrant and diverse community with a vibrant and diverse mix of retail, commercial, residential and rental properties. It is known that the town does not have enough commercial units to keep the...
Dear Councilmembers: Wohleb, Chamberlain, Brunisholz, Leaver and Stokes; Mayor Hayes; Planner Davolio and Administrator Thomas: I read with alarm the La Conner Weekly News editorial on the “Contained Communities” amendment the Skagit County Planning Commission is considering. I spent considerable time trying to find hard dates on public hearings and the proposal itself. There already exists a long list of public comments regarding this matter in their web site and a general time line, but I cannot yet find dates for future hearings posted. I i...
There are certain moments that stick with me. One of those moments happened a few weeks ago at one of the Masses in Spanish at the Catholic Church in Mount Vernon. As the Eucharistic Prayer began, I noticed a three-year-old wander out into the middle of the aisle. She started spinning in a circle, a slow spinning, around and around and around. Her mother became aware of it and she reached out for her. But, without interrupting her swirl, she stepped back from her mother and kept spinning, around and around and around. Again, her mother reached...
RE-POSTING JULY 14 EDITORIAL ON FALL OF AFGHANISTAN. ESTIMATE ON TIME TILL GOVERNMENT FELL WAS OVERLY OPTIMISTIC. Here in La Conner, every week, every day, we are paying taxes to the federal government. Nationwide, $974 billion is going to the military this year. That is the treasure we dribbled out into the ground for two decades in Afghanistan. President Joe Biden rightfully called it our longest war, but it is only our latest war. If it becomes our last war, it might be from a combination of citizen exhaustion with patriotic fantasies of...
Concerned letter writers are again sharing both frustrations and hopes for involvement and for influencing decision making in the La Conner community. Are residents adequately informed by government staff and elected officials? Are citizens brought into discussions, with information shared? Is there a robust give and take and a chance to shape plans or are projects presented as done deals with all the heavy lifting, or not, done by their elected council representatives? A huge opportunity was missed last year to have a community conversation...
Our town administration agreed with the Hedlin family on a restricted covenant on the Maple Avenue property it bought. The covenant states a 24,000 square foot park in perpetuity. When does “in perpetuity” begin? Wouldn’t a rational person say, at the point of sale to the town? Not so, according to our town lawyer. In the sales agreement with the developer, Landed Gentry, are several amendments, including: “8. The seller (town) shall create a temporary construction easement in favor of the buyer (Landed Gentry) at Closing over the eastern...
Last week’s paper closed the chapter and maybe the book on the Maple Avenue ballfield controversy. It is now in the past. Or is it? (“The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” William Faulkner.) The Town’s decision has permanent effects and it may leave the council and administration open to future dispositions of public property to the benefit of private interests and real estate brokers. In the purchase and disposition of Maple Field – and as was the case with the sale of the Kirsch property – the council, the mayor and his sta...
Medical experts from the federal Centers for Disease Control are calling the surge of coronavirus cases across the United States “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Almost all new cases of COVID-19 are among people who have declined to get vaccinated. Most vaccinated people testing positive, the breakthrough cases, are asymptomatic or their illness is mild. Mask mandates are again in front of us. Public health officers of most Puget Sound countries, but not Skagit, are recommending everyone wear masks in indoor public settings – res...
At the end of their arduous trek across the country, Lewis and Clark were sitting around their campfire with the roar of the surf of the Pacific in the background when Lewis said, “I’ve been thinking.” Clark replied, “Not again. What are you thinking about this time?” “Well” Lewis said, “I’ve been thinking about these remarkable fish, the salmon. They are beautiful and good to eat. And they regularly come into the rivers from the ocean. Then they are so easy to catch. They swim from the ocean up to tiny streams where they started life, dig...
We all need to make informed decisions about masks and vaccinations based on reputable scientific data, and we also need to make those decisions based on legitimate behavioral research and data. (yale.edu) Research and casual experience show that people can influence their peers’ behavior through their own words and actions. A recent Associated Press article gave an example this. It shared an avowed anti-vaxxer’s response to contracting a severe case of COVID-19. He expressed his sheer terror at not being able to breathe and being put on a ven...
All of a sudden the windfall hits home. Last night the La Conner town council and staff started a discussion over spending almost $265,000, half of which has already been deposited into the 2021 general fund. What to do with the money? First, though, a recognition that a trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there has trickled down from the other Washington. Like every municipality in this state, and probably across the nation, La Conner is benefitting from decisions the Biden administration and congressional Democrats made early this...
I recently said goodbye to my Uncle Harry Rosenfeld. Three weeks ago, when our part of the world was experiencing record high temperatures, I flew across the country to Albany, New York to visit my famous 91-year-old uncle who had contracted COVID-19 in his retirement home. We hugged, we chatted. I took pictures of Harry and my wonderful aunt Annie and I left knowing that it was likely that this was the last time we would be together. Last week, I got to watch Harry’s funeral live online. It w...
To expand on the Maple Avenue property scorecard in last week’s Weekly News, for the record: 1. La Conner buys the Maple Avenue ballfield property from the Hedlin family. 2. La Conner creates a restrictive covenant protecting for the public “in perpetuity” 24,000 square feet. 3. La Conner creates three easements; one crosses the park parcel. 4. La Conner sells the remaining ballfield property, and the easements, to Landed Gentry. 5. As Maple Field, developer Landed Gentry presents an agreement for partial extinguishment of the park-crossing eas...
To be heard by our town administration, we were told by our town lawyer, Scott Thomas, to write to La Conner Weekly News. There seems to be a blocked pathway for citizens to reach our town administrators. Citizen letters of critical concerns go unanswered. So, if letters to the editor is the line of communication our town lawyer suggests, we should expect a reply to this letter via the same route. In the matter of exchanging clear information and concerns between our town administrators and their citizens, let the echo chamber of Maple Hall be...
The future use of the Maple Ball field and the statutory warranty deed, restrictive covenant and the 4,000 square feet missing from the park are really important community matters. But, back up a bit to decisions on use of this valuable publicly acquired property. If the ballfield had to go, I do not believe that market rate housing proposed by the developer and the Town result in a valued public purpose – which of course is the fundamental reason for Town action. And this failure in purpose applies not just to the Hedlin ballfield, but...
Dear Citizens, A contract was given to the council for discussion at the last minute last week so you are probably unaware of it. That is par for the town’s inability to provide transparency. Basically, the developer has proposed some outrageous language. The Easement Release Maple Ball Field agreement the town council received from Landed Gentry and discussed at their July 13 meeting gives no apparent advantage to the town. Encourage your favorite council member to vote against signing it. The deal is – Gentry would get what they said t...
To the Editor, The average home in La Conner consumes 324 cubic feet of water each month, and pays a sewer bill of $53.41 per month. The average inflow and infiltration (ground water) is 37.76% at the sewer plant. If I&I could be reduced by 50%, the bill for sewer service could be reduced to $40.72. At 25% the bill would be $42.69, and at 10% it would be $43.68. There is a 97% correlation between rainfall and I&I. Maybe some of the homes have their roof drains connected to the sewer. That is a no-no. The Town Council allocated $50,000 in 2020,...
Is La Conner blessed to have a cadre of concerned citizens, an ever shifting but attentive segment of our population who insist on saying “wait,” “stop” and “no,” or even “no more?” In December 2017, a group of the board of directors of the Museum of Northwest Art resigned and were critically questioning the administrative and financial management of Director Christopher Shainin. A public meeting to discuss the museum’s future in February 2018 brought a critical crowd and a robust discussion of the museum’s problems. Shainin resigned th...
