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Our nation faces many challenges. It has been decades since we have watched the horrors of war on the evening news. The atrocities of the war in Ukraine are a harsh reminder of the fragility of peace and prosperity in our world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the future of military action. While the Sound Defense Alliance supports the national security mission of the EA18-G “Growler” electronic attack aircraft and the robust training that enables our pilots to be the best in the world, we also recognize that the national security missi...
So, however you slice it, the more diverse the chances to edu-tain these tourists, the better. When tourists come and catch a sustainably raised, collaboratively grown fish, they will learn so much that their bill tips left behind would be a new income stream for the community. Here’s a quick example of a future letter from the local school superintendent to the taxpayers. Dear taxpayer: Here’s some super good news. Our recently implemented fish-based STEAM curricula have paid dividends far beyond our wildest dreams. With the collaboration of...
Over the past two decades there have been nearly 20,000 deaths due to gun violence in the United States and since 2013 over 3,500 mass shootings. More than 2,000 firearms-related bills have been intoduced to the U.S. Congress. Proponents argue the country must impose stricter regulations to address the horrifying number of gun-related deaths. Opponents say adding new gun control laws not only could infringe on Second Amendment rights but also will not deter someone determined to kill. The following are gun-related bills that have passed over...
Hatfield and McCoy were sitting solidly in their seats, holding tightly on to their bourbons and beers for dear life, drinking doubles and ordering new rounds before their glasses were empty. You could tell they were shook but it would be a long while before the drink took hold, despite their intent to put themselves to sleep and leave the communal national nightmare behind. "There is a lot I like about that Nader fella and he is right about most things, but he missed it by a mile when he said there wasn't a dime worth of difference between...
This is a once upon a time story set in our place, right here. There is not a palace but a property, and a historic La Conner couple, Donna and Gerald Blades, are at the heart of it. The Blades owned an Exxon gas station on Morris and Fourth streets, where the Slider Cafe is now, and the property behind it when those lots were zoned residential. In 1986 they must have worked arduously, lobbying the town council to rezone the three lots facing Center Street, then spelled Centre – a staff sign painting misspelling, I heard – for...
The March Point Heronry is the largest heron nesting site on the west coast of the United States and provides critical genetic diversity for the health of these beloved local birds. Due to the sensitive nature of the nesting herons, the land the March Point Heronry is located on is?closed?to public access. Human disturbance can lead to unsuccessful breeding or colony abandonment. Skagit Land Trust manages the March Point Conservation Area and asks that the public please respect the closed status of this critical nesting area. However, the...
The Rotary Club of La Conner, in partnership with La Conner Elementary School, would like to thank La Conner and the surrounding Skagit Valley for your kindness and generosity for our March Community Project “Snacks for Students.” Thanks to all of you, it was a tremendous success raising $1,600 and 80 pounds of snacks. Club President Marty Pease thanks Christi King (Rotary Club) and Tammie White (Elementary School Social Worker) for sponsoring the project to stock the student pantry. With a heart for children in their learning and literacy, the...
The introductory line to the Port’s Tuesday public session on the future of the La Conner Marina was “(we) have property ready for development.” Those words are frightening to many of us in La Conner who have experienced the Town’s eager approval of outsized, inappropriate, unimaginative and even destructive developments. We have enough trouble (and virtually, no success) keeping our own administration from facilitating oversized construction projects. And now here comes the Port – after months of study and conversations with their c...
A friend thought this was worth sharing and so do I: “There’s a strange odor in the living room,” my daughter, a first-time mom with a newborn and an acute sense of smell, said. I knew at once that the crawlspace of our vacation rental had been homesteaded by some critter. Rats? Raccoons? I fervently hoped it would not be otters. Pest control confirmed that a large animal had been making a lair. Not rats. There was evidence of an entrance under the house. We closed it, blocked other potential ones and set up a surveillance camera.. That night...
We are facing a crisis with inflation, as happened in the 1980s. Gas prices are at record levels, a different crisis from their spikes in the 1970s, when there were two Arab oil embargoes, both a result of Israeli wars. Russia’s invasion of and war with Ukraine is the precipitating factor now. There are forest fires in New Mexico and the southwest, crises that came earlier in the season than past years. There will be soon be west coast forest fires, from California north into Canada. Thankfully the fire season has not yet begun. Both r...
On March 23 I requested information from the Town regarding any rezone discussion of the property proposed for the Center Street development. On March 28 I received an answer from the town administrator saying that he had the right to take five days to answer me. And he was legally correct. On March 28 he also informed me that he would need another 10 days to get it and review it. Again he was legally correct. But being legally right and doing the right thing are not always the same, are they? I received the documents two days after the record...
For many years there was a Skagit County 300-acre dairy farm owned by a couple with a family. As the couple grew older, they decided to sell the farm. There was a man in Seattle who was interested in the purchase of a farm. His name was Rabbi Raphael Levine of Temple de Hirsch. He was born in Lithuania. When he enrolled in school he was mocked and insulted for being Jewish. About age seven he and his family immigrated to America. Then he went to school and experienced the same insults and mockery for being Jewish as he did in Lithuania. The you...
I am sad that La Conner School District is experiencing declining enrollment. This could force budget cuts that make it tough on kids and staff. My guess is that it has less to do with local children going to private schools or homeschooling than it does with the fact that young families cannot find affordable housing in our district. I know of several families who moved away because they could not find a place to live. Are we a rich retired community now? Gale Fiege Pleasant Ridge...
I had a luthier guest at my Airbnb for five nights from Virginia, Steve Showalter, the creator and proprietor of Showalter Guitars. Steve, a very laid back kinda guy brought two of his beautiful guitars to the show for sale. He and I shared some interesting stories about ... wood! The man is a true artisan. Since he had some extra time before the show kicked off on Friday, I took him over to meet one of La Conner’s own wood artisan’s, Stuart Welch. When I called, Stu said to tell Steve that he a had a piece of “The Tree.” Steve’s eyes lit up wh...
Good news is building around the Skagit Valley for commitments to construct apartments. In Anacortes, the Arts Festival organization will build apartments above the O Avenue Anacortes Cinemas it has purchased and will develop into a performing arts center. That must have been made possible in part from the City of Anacortes owning the property. In Burlington the American Legion and Volunteers of America Western Washington have teamed up, agreeing to demolish the Legion’s Post and replace it with apartments catering to various income levels w...
The expression “new normal” has increasingly felt like a meaningless phrase. With each new shift in the experience of the novel coronavirus pandemic, what we thought we knew had to be relearned and what served as guidance or best practices often had to be re-scripted. Normalcy suggests consistency and predictability, neither of which has been experienced since March 2020. The result has been widespread fatigue and impatience, which might explain the rise in public outbursts and misbehavior as people attempt to reintegrate into public life. And...
Citizens of greater La Conner are invited by the Town of La Conner to participate in hearings the next two weeks. The town council first holds an obligatory public hearing May 10 before applying for a $30,000 economic development planning grant. This Community Development Block Grant will support revitalizing the area around the former Moore Clark building and between Maple Hall and Pioneer Park and South Third Street and the Swinomish Channel. This is the same proposal from 2021. The goal is decent wage job development for lower income...
On April 13 a meeting of Shelter Bay homeowners was held at Summit Park Grange Hall. It was well attended and all homeowners welcomed. No elected board members chose to attend. The group sponsoring the meeting is called the Rainbow Action Committee (RAC); the name may change as the focus shifts over time. Initial concerns reflected the devastating tree clearing that occurred at Rainbow Park, the excavation of the tree stumps, potentially damaging tribal archaeological artifacts, potential environmental impact (runoff), followed by the...
I am a relative newcomer to La Conner and I have been surprised by the pending approval of the 20-unit condominium development proposed off of Center Street. As a developer of medical facilities for over thirty years, I have never seen the approval for a project like this that does not demonstrate that it can handle its own parking. I have also never seen an approval for a project that did not fit in with the current use in the proposed development neighborhood. Let’s look at the parking issue first. With 20 units you can expect that the p...
I would like to thank the La Conner Middle & High School for the wonderful 2022 spring concert on the evening of April 19. It was truly a tribute to the hard work of two teachers, Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Clark and their students! We were amazed at the complexity of some of the numbers! It is great to be able to sit in the audience and hear the music in person once again. I am looking forward to the future and more outstanding concerts. Kay York Shelter Bay...
Ria Burns, apparently the manager for the state’s Department of Ecology’s water resources, including the Skagit River, would do well to take some classes on hydraulics. The only way to harm fish by taking water from the Skagit for irrigation would be if it were taken from above the spawning grounds. From Concrete on down, if every farm along the way had irrigation pumps and all were pumping, they could not reduce the river level at the lower end enough to measure, especially with variants such as rain, wind and tides. At the worst it might inc...
Thank you for continuing to talk about our existential crisis in your last editorial, “The world after Earth Day.” I am sorry that you have not had anyone else saying that you were not radical enough but let me say it now: you were not radical enough. I have always been a nature-lover and concerned about the environment, but only began really learning about oncoming climate chaos when I retired seven years ago. I cannot believe we have only taken baby steps, and many people are still kicking and screaming about any policy that might appear to...
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...
