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Go to Mt. Baker Theatre March 7 to hear Timothy Egan discuss his 2009 history of the nation’s largest wildfire, which in the summer of 1910 blazed out of control in Idaho and Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains, killing more than 85 people. That’s almost the same number, 86, who died in the not so poetically named Camp fire which destroyed Paradise in California last fall. This countywide Whatcom Reads is sponsored by that county’s library system. That is the power of libraries: to make connections, bring people together and open windows to view th...
My list of grievances against our government is long, built over time, and well thought out. My biggest frustration might surprise folks, given all the illegal as well as unjust wars we have fought and the people wrongly harassed, spied on, murdered and imprisoned. Perhaps because it is so personal, intruding on me twice a year, I bristle and take umbrage. Daylight saving time. My least favorite weekend of the year is in March, when we speed ahead to an imposed hour of darkness in the morning. My favorite weekend is in November, when an hour...
Before we had newspapers and journalists, we had poets. When all communities were small and tribal, poets were sometimes leaders and prophets. A prophet is a poet naming out loud the community’s pain. That is what some of the books, psalms and words of the Old Testament are. In today’s paper is a Bob Skeele poem about KeyBank closing their La Conner branch in April. It is his response to the letter they mailed customers saying that to provide better service they are moving to Mount Vernon. Skeele’s poem asks, “How are the users better served...
The three points raised in Bruce Elliott’s letter are incomplete to say the least. Please allow the La Conner School District (LCSD) and the Swinomish Tribe to jointly set the record straight. State funding does not fully support LCSD’s budgetary obligations With regard to the “McCleary Fix,” the state has made significant progress toward meeting its legal duty to fully fund basic education. Paying teachers a living wage is unquestionably a part of funding basic education. In addition, school districts are required to provide – and pay...
Here is a true fact: the Washington Street hill down to Whatcom has had more sleds than cars on it in the 10 days since the first snow of Feb. 4th. 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 with orange flags at Second and Whatcom that Monday, opened the street mid-week and closed it again Friday for the weekend. Then, wow: fresh snow Sunday night, Another snow day Feb. 11th and more sledding. If the cold and sledding...
Just a few weeks ago, I was sworn in as a representative from the 40th Legislative District in the Washington State House of Representatives. I’m proud to be the first Native American woman in state history elected to this position and am looking forward to tackling some of the key issues facing our community. As a graduate of Central Washington University, and after spending a majority of my 20 years of governmental services in the Skagit, I am honored to serve in this new position and to know my work will help create a better Washington a...
The trip, but not this editorial, was stalled by weather. Your role and participation are more important now. Since democracy never sleeps, get ready for your assignment. Thursday Mayor Ramon Hayes leads a delegation to the state legislature, taking part in City Action Days. Hayes 2019 commitment is gaining additional state funding for the La Conner regional library, perhaps matching the $500,000 secured by area legislators last year He brings a team for the meetings with our three District 10 legislators and our “neighbor,” newly elected Dis...
Over the past few weeks, a variety of community leaders and guests have visited our schools. Almost universally their comments focus on how warm and welcoming the schools feel. Our staff members often describe La Conner Schools as a family, a community, and we are so delighted that our guests picked up on the caring environment the staff works so hard to nurture each and every day. From social-emotional curriculum, lessons on caring, and opportunities to discuss challenging issues, to having a new “Braves Space” in the high school staffed by...
In the late 1970s, when I first came to live in Skagit County, it felt like coming home. That first view coming off the Conway Hill going north on I-5 brings that feeling. I have to admit that what brought me to that view point was a little more scientific. I was on my way to Anacortes. I had studied the area and Fidalgo Island was the closest landfall of the “rain shadow” from the Olympic Peninsula. I wanted to live in Western Washington, but in the least soggy parts. In the process of exploring the valley, I stumbled across La Conner. At the...
Last week’s editorial considered the struggle at this moment of our elected Congress and President to represent “We the People” and pass a budget – the primary task in keeping our Ship of State moving forward. While the Republican leadership cannot distinguish campaign promises from serving the nation in our republican structure of government, Weekly News staff reviewers sought to make it a “capital R” republican in the editorial’s title, “Our republican government.” But “small r” is correct. So is “small d” democrat here at home,...
On January 14, I had the honor of being sworn in as one of your representatives for the 10th district. I look forward to addressing tough issues like transportation infrastructure development, strengthening our public schools and developing effective and diverse college and professional-training pathways. The last topic is very important to me. I have taught in higher education for 20 years. The last 10 years, I have helped students at Skagit Valley College earn a degree or certificate that leads to a living-wage job or allows them to transfer...
We elect presidents and representatives to govern: to meet and agree on policies to move the country forward. Legislation is decided upon and passed by majority votes. Presidents are not elected to rule by fiat. Whatever is promised to supporters in an election campaign becomes law through the give and take of the legislative process. Not all rhetoric becomes law or national policy. Being insistent and banging loudest on the table does not make a president right. George W. Bush was 125 percent all in for war with Iraq in 2002 and 2003. He was...
What defines a patriot? Aren’t patriots champions of the ideals of their country, putting their neighbors, the entire populace, ahead of themselves, ready to defend woman and children, the most vulnerable, against all foes? The highest patriots are beyond political party and partisanship. People, then, can be patriotic, loyal to their country, the Constitution, the land, the great outdoors, all our confounded history and also be nonpartisan critics of the president of the United States. Of course, there are partisan critics, which is what it m...
The ongoing lesson that all of us need to keep in mind, even if we learned it long ago, is that life is complex. Its complexity takes a long time to figure out. That is why we have schools. Schooling cost money. Good schooling, with the administrators, teachers, computers, curricula, buses and food, requires a whole lot of money. Greater La Conner residents are fortunate that their “team school” believes in this place we all call home as much as the pioneers and natives do. Everyone working for the school district is dedicated to providing the...
The upcoming Feb. 12 levy election is replacing the two-year levy voters approved in 2017; this is not a new tax. Additionally, the rate is lower than the expiring levy by about $1 per thousand. On behalf of the La Conner School District Board of Directors, we thank you, our community, for the support you provide in so very many ways. Each item on the list of Educational Programs and Operations Levy is only partially funded by levy funds. Furthermore, each item directly supports learning, often for some of our most vulnerable populations:...
Harbinger. Great word, that. It is a signaling by one thing – eight days of sunshine – of the approach of another: possibly a year of little rain. We start the third week of the new year with mild, bright blue-sky sunny weather. It might rain the rest of this week and on into next but precipitation to date, at 0.79 inches, is well below the 4.13 inches January average for this century. And the forecast, another projection, is not our friend. The models predict a winter that is warmer and dryer than normal. They do not show 3.5...
The entire country, every citizen, has been forced to confront national politics. This issue’s front-page government shutdown counter has flipped to 26 from last week’s 19. The paper is prepared to place day 33 on next week’s front page. That is not our choice. It is reporting the facts. Next week an article will look at the shutdown’s effects on the school district, the Swinomish Tribe and Skagit County, and local institutions with federal contacts. Maybe you have flown recently or plan to...
In our little town, bucolic and tucked away, almost as isolated as an island, there are those who don’t want the far away world of national politics to intrude. Some will say the paper is partisan and divisive when it criticizes the president. But every one of us living through a historical moment needs to be honest, with each other, our children and ourselves. If, as is increasingly apparent, President Trump is perhaps demented and almost certainly delusional, this paper has the responsibility, an obligation to the entire community, to p...
Last week the centerfold reprised last year’s news. This week, in this space, is a reflection on the Weekly News. This newspaper is pleased to report it is up as the year starts. Subscriptions and renewals are up, as are revenues. So are hopes. After 18 months and 80 issues the goal remains to have each issue be the best one yet. The paper comes out because of the focused, ongoing efforts of the people listed in the masthead at the bottom of this page. That is now bigger, filling all five columns so the type is larger for easier reading. T...
A friend sent me your article on Skagit Plastics and its association with Guy Lombardo. I have personally been associated with Skagit Plastics boats since my childhood. My dad, brother and I got a tour through the plant in the summer of 1957. That tour and trip to la Conner was the first time I saw the plug for what Skagit Plastics called the largest all fiberglass production cruiser in the world. I saw the completed Skagit 31 Saratogan at the 1958 model year boat show in Seattle in October of 1957. I was eleven years old and thought it was the...
The long, slow climb out of darkness has begun. Since the Dec. 21 winter solstice, we have gained seven minutes of day length. Light, which had been disappearing steadily since November, is slowly pushing into earlier sunrises and later sunsets, if just perceptibly. It will be late January before the increased length of daily light marches noticeably back into our lives. Our first post 5 p.m. sunset is the 25th. But sunlight’s presence a minute and four seconds longer daily, on average, adds up: January ends with a day 46 minutes longer than t...
Our La Conner area colleagues and neighbors have accomplished amazing successes and made invaluable contributions while quietly doing their work, paid, unpaid or under paid this past year. Mayor Hayes Ramon Hayes recognized Ollie Iversen at December’s Council meeting. Hayes has provided strong, quiet leadership himself. Heather Carter started 2018 with a grand slam home run, creating the Birds of Winter event, packing Maple Hall with residents and tourists. Susan Macek has spent 2018 raising funds to gain La Conner a new library. Library D...
It’s true that there is a “tax problem” on the Swinomish Indian Reservation, but it is much larger than the Great Wolf Lodge tax case that everyone has been hearing or reading about lately. For decades, the Swinomish Tribe has faced at least four separate but related tax problems that went largely unnoticed in the Town of La Conner until the impact of the Great Wolf Lodge decision that invalidated a state tax on the permanent improvements of lessees on federal trust land was felt by property owners of fee lands both here in town and on the r...
“My dear. Christmas Day,” was Bob Cratchit’s reply to his loving wife Martha when she wanted to scold – pile on, in modern parlance – his boss, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. What good cheer is there for us in this weary world this Christmas week, whether or not we are Christians? The ethics of any religion are grounded in peace on earth, good will to all. The Christian hymnals and our secular carols are full of joy to the world and glad tidings of comfort and joy. Who wants to be Scrooge this last week of the year – or on an...
In this season of giving, let us be courageous as well as generous in investing in Washington’s future. Governor Jay Inslee’s new budget will be considered by the state legislature in January. It proposes billions of new dollars in spending for educating our kids and our college students, saving orcas from extinction and ourselves from opioid addiction, committing to human services and the behavioral health care system and combating climate change. Paying to bring Washington into a civilized 21st century future depends on new taxes: ena...
