The proverbial "interesting times" of 2016

With 2016 in the past, new calendars pinned to kitchen walls, and a few business days into 2017, we’re looking back at a few of La Conner’s big stories of 2016, some of which will be impacting the new year as well.

School funding woes

In February, for the first time in local history, voters rejected the La Conner School District’s bid for renewed levies to replace expiring funds: one was for maintenance and operations, and another for technology. The levies would have included $1.5 million of funding for the schools for 2017 and 2018.

The school district fell victim to a local tax revolt after the so-called Great Wolf Lodge decision by a federal appellate court and the resulting tax shift. The property tax burden fell to a smaller pool of taxpayers when most of the Shelter Bay community and other privately owned homes built on leased Swinomish Reservation land were removed from the tax rolls.

After scaling the levy down to $1 million for one year – 2017 – the school district won approval in the April special election.

This February the district will again try to pass a two-year levy for $1.25 million for 2018 and 2019 for a total of $2.5 million.

Spelling champ

In March, La Conner Middle School sixth-grader Charity Jordan competed against 26 other regional spellers for the Skagit title. After prolonged sparring for an additional 26 rounds, Jordan won.

Correctly spelling “fantoccini” sent her to the National Spelling Bee held in May near Washington, D.C. (For those of us wondering, a fantoccini is a puppet show.)

At the Nationals, Charity went up against 299 other spellers from across the country. Althought she survived two rounds, she didn’t make it to the finals. Still she returned home, happy for the experience.

School resignations

Two long-time officials with the La Conner School District resigned during the year.

Tim Bruce, who had been at the helm as Superintendent for 26 years stepped down at the end of June to take a position at Western Washington University, in the Woodring College of Education.

Board President Rick Thompson ended his 21 years of service on the board in October, after shepherding the district through a tough budget year with scaled down levy funding.

Veteran educator and administrator Peg Seeling is filling the role as Superintendent this year, while the school board works to find a permanent superintendent. The school board meets Monday to hear an update on the search.

In the fall, the board appointed Lynette Cram, a physical therapist, to fill the board seat vacated by Thompson.

Development dust-up

California businessman Michael Girdner released his initial plan for the “Lighthouse” building on First Street. He had purchased the dilapidated bank-owned structure and wanted to turn it into an indoor mall downstairs with condos and offices upstairs. The renovation of the property would have expanded the building and covered the adjacent parking lot.

Dozens of town residents objected and filed hundreds of pages of letters detailing their reasons.

Girdner came back with a scaled-down project, leaving the parking lot uncovered. Despite resident objections, the new plan was granted historical design approval from the town Planning Commission and in November Hearing Examiner Bill Nielsen determined the project should move forward. Last week the state Department of Ecology gave its nod for the shoreline permits to be issued. There is still a window for the public to appeal the shoreline findings, however. If there are no objections, the shoreline permits will be effective Jan. 18.

More Great Wolf fallout

The tentacles of the federal appellate court Great Wolf decision continued to affect local residents. Homeowners grappled with higher property taxes, and residents on the east side of the Swinomish Channel sought to withdraw from Fire District 13, which has most of its emergency response calls within the Swinomish Reservation. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community has agreed to contribute $150,000 for fire service this year. Meanwhile, the district’s taxpayers will pony up more than $472,000 next year.

Residents on the east side of the channel provided 27 percent of the fire district’s property tax revenue last year, though only about 7 percent of the emergency responses served their area. The residents hope to be annexed to Fire District 2, which butts up against District 13’s eastern boundary.

Also, many taxpayers were alarmed to learn in August that a Tax Advisory memo issued by the State Department of Revenue was crafted with the help of tribal lawyers. Skagit and Snohomish county assessors were unaware that tribal attorneys, including some working for Swinomish, had a role in crafting the 2014 memo that stated all structures built on leased reservation land are immune from state and local taxes regardless of who owns the buildings. That memo was one reason 931 parcels in Shelter Bay and the Pull & Be Damned Road neighborhood were removed from county tax rolls, and the $1.8 million tax shortfall was shifted to remaining taxpayers.

Letter from the County

As the year drew to a close, the Samish Indian Nation and 347 other property owners in the March’s Point area west of the Swinomish Reservation received an ominous letter from the Skagit County Board of Commissioners warning that their land could be annexed to the reservation.

Swinomish has claimed that March’s Point, land where the Shell and Tesoro refineries are located, a strip of city of Anacortes, the Ford and Chevy dealerships and private homes, is within the original boundaries of its reservation.

A land dispute between Swinomish and Samish appears to be at the root of the controversy.

Swinomish has formally objected to efforts by Samish to build a casino on land it owns within the area Swinomish claims was in its original reservation boundaries. The Samish casino would be just down the road from the Swinomish Casino & Lodge.

Although Swinomish sent out a press release stating the “the county’s letter seems designed to cause the maximum alarm to our neighbors,” the issue is still simmering. Swinomish has stated that the county based its letter on a draft of proposed changes to the tribe’s constitution that has since been updated.