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I would like to commend Ken Stern for his April 20 editorial calling for creating Car Free Sundays downtown. As he points out it would reduce our carbon footprint and help clean the air for not only our citizens and our children but also those coming to visit our town. But I would like to take this one step further and suggest we have Car Free Weekends throughout the tourist season, Tulips to Christmas. And replace the cars with a shuttle service that would move folks between our two municipal parking lots as well as the parking lot near Maple...
Friday was Earth Day, an opportunity to share clean-ups, concerns and celebrations of our blue-blue spaceship planet home. Earth Day offers the chance to reflect on the critical changes we, the people, mostly of the United States, but truly all of us across the earth, must embrace and enact if the planet we say we love and cherish has a chance of healing. The environmental – or more properly, existential – news was not good over the weekend. In our backyard a report from scientists came out that the Olympic peninsula glaciers will f...
Late last August, this newspaper’s publisher – me – was seen by some in the community limping around the commercial district Wednesdays delivering the Weekly News to stores and red newspaper boxes. In October the pain from arthritis became so bad I recruited willing volunteers – Brad and Tony had offered to help and Rick already was – to take over the delivery route. In December I told my orthopedic doctor I needed to have my knee replaced and finally went under the knife on March 17. The next two issues of the Weekly N...
I am opposed to the same-ification of this place with placing still another selfie spot in a world full of them. Our rich foundational history is being lost. I would spend that money on engaging signs that inform our visitors, new residents, and our Town Staff of what used to be: • Tillinghast – the seed company. Located where the restaurant Seeds was. (I think even the seed bins are gone now with the newest iteration.) • Dunlap Towing – The log rafts are gone. The tugs are gone and soon the office will be gone. After...
The April 20 edition of the La Conner Weekly News had a Police Blotter report of a suspicious driver in a white pickup slowly cruising around La Conner streets. I want to put the residents of La Conner at ease about this report in the police blotter. I also witnessed this driver as he cruised through our neighborhood twice. He was driving slowly and stopping in front of some residences and typing on a laptop. This aroused my suspicions, and I managed to get the license number as well as the make and model of the pickup. I was contemplating...
Live and 24/7, you can tune into the Russian invasion in Ukraine at any time day or night and get up-to-date horrifying footage and totally depressing expert analysis of what’s going on right this minute. Unlike any war in the past, modern technology and streaming television accessibility means whenever we turn on the television we can see updated reports on the devastation that is taking place in real time. CNN, for example, has taken advantage of this and sent a steady stream of hosts and c...
Oh, what a sight, the osprey chasing that eagle away from her nest, on the tower that towers across the channel from downtown La Conner. I saw the scene on Sunday at 1:18 p.m., when I had come to a stop in the tricky spot next to the Calico Cupboard. That eagle had quite the evasive maneuvers, but that osprey was persistent, driving it lower and lower, until the eagle was forced to land on a piling near the boats by the Swinomish Shellfish Company. Olivia osprey was as happy as a clam at high tide, as she flew back to her nest like she was...
Earth Day is Friday. Those acting locally include the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, which will give away tree saplings, and Kelly Harper, who is organizing a Snee Oosh beach cleanup. Heavens knows, more trees need to be planted and more debris removed from beaches. But local actions need to advance beyond individual acts to governmental, institutional and corporate policies that bring decisions that greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The La Conner Regional Library committing to getting 100% of its electricity from solar panels is exactly the...
Cindy Vest and Sandy Stokes sold the Weekly News in June 2017. Cindy stayed on as production manager until August last year. She almost literally had printer’s ink running through her vein. The musings below was written in recognition of her service to newspapers and their readers in October 2019. Cindy died April 10, 2022. Last week Cindy Vest won the 2019 WNPA Dixie Lee Bradley Award, an honor the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association gives annually that “recognizes newspaper staff members who work long and hard, often behind the sce...
In the ideal world, I would like to have all of the Maple Street/ Heldlin field back again. But we don’t. It is hard to imagine something that will be a useful and attractive park in the small remaining part of the field. But I believe that the Curt Miller plan does it well. I am actually pleased with what he has presented to the Parks Commission. The design responds to every point of the citizens survey that was taken last year about what to do with that space. A rain garden, a playground, benches, native plants for the birds and p...
I commend our La Conner parks commissioners for their work on the plans for the new Maple Avenue park. Based on citizens’ input from 350 surveys completed last year, the commission hired a local landscape architect to develop a preliminary design that speaks to citizens’ interests. I had the opportunity to view the preliminary plan presented at the parks commission meeting on April 7. I was pleased to see that the plan maintains open space and creates an inviting array of amenities for young children and families. To me, it also creates a fluid...
Computers are useless. They only give you answers. — Pablo Picasso Mysticism seems to focus on the questions, on wonderment and awe. In world religions, mysticism stands in contrast to fundamentalism. Not its opposite, for I don’t believe mysticism opposes anything. It would be inclusive in its wonder, but there is a contrast between asserting dogma and a receptive state of attentiveness. (I am composing this on a computer, Pablo.) Mysticism takes a lot of a person’s time. All of it, actually! And dang, it can look like you’re doing...
John Leaver's name has been in the news a lot recently. In fact, he has been in the news consistently for more than two years. The former La Conner town council member took the initiative the first year of the pandemic, in the summer of 2020, organizing First on First as a volunteer promotion to bring La Conner residents to dine and shop on First Street Friday evenings when out of towners were mandated to stay home to stay healthy. That campaign morphed into a 2021 hotel/motel tax funds proposal for a $21,000-plus Love La Conner marketing icon...
My heart soared to read “New app helps students learn Lushootseed language” article (April 6 Weekly News). Although only a handful of paragraphs were devoted to the new native language learning program to be offered at La Conner schools, it was great and happy news in a nutshell. It was not stated but hopefully the program will be offered and encouraged at all grade levels. Perhaps it is because my career was in speech-language pathology that it grieves me when I too often read of indigenous languages being lost. This is happening with ala...
The latest “Love La Conner” design for Gilkey Square seems a better one; it is shorter and includes a place to sit and ponder the Channel, Fidalgo Island and the Swinomish Reservation across the water. The “Love La Conner” theme, however, confuses me. The designers apparently believe it is important to tell visitors to "Love La Conner." If the design doesn't include those words, visitors might not know that Loving La Conner is the right response. Many people who visit La Conner do leave loving La Conner, I’m sure. But, I imagine they end up lo...
Dear Editor, I found the statement by Marna Hanneman, chair of the planning commission, that she found it a “difficult thing to go against the staff report” (Weekly News, April 6) absolutely stunning. The planning commission, as well as town council members, need to reset their thinking to realize they are called “staff” for a reason – they work for you! Just because Scott Thomas, town administrator, and Michael Davolio, town planner, feel they need to preserve their own jobs by carrying out Mayor Hayes’ pro-development agenda, doesn’t m...
On February 8 the Town of La Conner paid the City of Anacortes $6,940 for reconciliation of the water bill from 2020. The real amount owing was $3,068. Anacortes owes La Conner $3,872. The problem was that the city’s finance director failed to recognize that the former mayor committed the city to follow the Gray & Osborne study of 2005, which allocated customer records based on the number of accounts, instead of number of gallons of water usage. With 8,295 accounts in the water system, mostly in the city, it makes a big difference. Secondly, he...
I believe it was Rahm Emanuel former chief of staff for President Barak Obama who coined the expression, “never let a crisis go to waste”. In other words make it work for you politically. Well, so now Joe Biden is using the war in Ukraine in a way that is really quite cynical and insulting to the people of America and really the world. He is using this horrific event that has cost untold thousands of lives to further his green agenda by first very falsely claiming that all of our inflation and high gas prices are due to “Putin’s war” which is p...
The past seven years have transformed the relationship between the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Skagit County and local tax districts like the La Conner School District, Fire District 13 and the La Conner Regional Library. As the Swinomish Senate prepares to announce its 2022 voluntary contributions to these partners, this is a good time to reflect on their importance to our shared community and all that we have achieved together. History could have turned out very differently. After a 2014 federal court decision removed close to a...
There is a cadre of La Conner and area residents caring and committed enough to the town’s future that they show up at Thursday evening workshops addressing “Growing Pains” and Zoom in, participating in public hearings on a conditional use permit application for a 20 unit condominium building on Center Street. Like most of us, they are concerned about a future La Conner that will be unaffordable to their children or the teachers of their grandchildren. This quaint tourist town may slowly turn into a retirement village and second homes stopo...
Eighteen month ago I retired from a 35 year Boeing career and purchased Tillinghast Postal & Business Center. It truly was a dream come true. Ever since I was a young girl, my dad would bring me and my family to La Conner in search of antiques at Nasty Jack’s and other antique stores. I knew one day I would live in La Conner and always dreamed of owning a business. When I made the decision to retire, Tillinghast Postal & Business Center was listed for sale and it was perfect for me. Supply chain was my expertise, so shipping, packaging, i...
Dear Editor: I noted your comments stating: “Every word we use needs to be carefully chosen” in your editorial linking national Women’s History Month and the Russian war against the Ukraine. I thought the need to carefully choose our words is probably a universal truth. Then, I read the letter to the editor regarding leased land at Shelter Bay. I have no doubt the author of that letter has strong feelings and might be personally affected by relevant circumstances. I think a careful choice of words in expressing personal opinions would avoid...
To the Editor: I would like to add a few words to Mel Damski’s article about the birds in which he quoted me. Your readers need some suggestions of how to further learn about birds. Educate yourself. Look up abcbirds.org, allaboutbirds.org, birdweb.org to learn about our birds and how you can help. Abcbirds.org will tell you how to make your home windows and your garden safer for birds, as well as teaching you more about the challenges birds face with every migration. The other two websites will give you lots of free and good information a...
The U.S.'s national Women's History Month ends Thursday. Its theme, "Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope," is timely everywhere for our wounded, war weary world. International Women’s Day was March 8, of course. Its theme, “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,” called on people “to work towards a world that is equitable, inclusive and free from bias and discrimination so the playing field is levelled for women moving forward.” Russia's war against Ukraine prevents anyone, women, children or men, from moving forward or toward...
I don’t wish to initiate a “letter to the editor” debate, but Ms. Shimeall’s response (Weekly News 3/23) to my and Mr. O’Donnell’s recent letters begs clarification. First, she asserts that living in Shelter Bay (SB) on leased “Swinomish land” is possible because the tribe generously “granted us the privilege”. The fact is, anyone living on leased land in SB does so purely because of a business deal Axel Osberg/Osberg Construction Co. negotiated with the tribe in 1968 - the master lease - which is up for renewal in 2044. Osberg did all of t...
