What will the new year bring?

A new year doesn’t have to bring new things. La Conner did see significant intuitional changes in 2017, first with an overwhelming passage of a school levy and Whitney Meissner’s hiring as school superintendent and then John Doyle’s retirement and Mayor Ramon Hayes tapping Scott Thomas as town administrator and attorney. Meissner and Thomas will, hopefully, be administering their respective ships of state for years, even decades. They are just getting started.

Change sometimes come as a surprise. Last January would Meissner and Thomas have been on anyone’s list of 2017 news makers?

Change sometimes is presented as a fait accompli, even though there was a process and a schedule for the town buying out Fire District 13’s share of the fire hall and changing the fire department’s name to La Conner Hook & Ladder was discussed among the volunteers and their supporters.

Some changes, obviously are more far reaching and some are more minor. At a start of a new year, when lists are often made, what changes are being planned and are in process here? Carl Sandburg wrote “ The republic is a dream. / Nothing happens unless first a dream.”

There are dreams out there for our little town. Some will be realized by next December, some will be halfway there and some will be further along in the process but not yet launched.

Mayor Hayes projects 2018 will be a settling in year. The La Conner Library Foundation’s Susan Macek is hoping she will be in high gear raising funds for a new library after the state legislature provides capital funding. Fire Department chief Josh Morrison has an entire fire hall and the moniker La Conner Hook & Ladder to try out. Museum of Northwest Art Director Christopher Shainin has a fine art collection in an aging building and the challenge of growing the museum to fit the region its name embodies. Krista Sunday wants action as well as attention and love on Morris Street. Rebecca Strong is growing the Gilkey Square Summer Concert Series.

At the start of my seventh month and first full year here, I am waiting for others to share and speak – and write, in these pages. In December, this paper offered white space for readers to fill with their ideas and their hopes. That space is always available.

I am interested in the La Conner of 2030. What will 2018 look like on the way to that now distant goal?

As this new year opens and progresses, leaders in the community will be sharing their views on the outlook for 2018 from where they stand. Your words and voice can appear in these pages, too. Where is our community now? What results do we want to be proud to have accomplished ten years hence?