Delivering the local news to you weekly

The weekly newspaper was delivered today, Wednesday, and through the end of this week around La Conner, as has been the case every week for 141 years, since 1878.

Hopefully it is your local and weekly newspaper.

To the subscribers in the greater La Conner region, the 98257 and 98273 zip codes, thank you.

To expatriates in Seattle, Portland, California and beyond, thank you.

To grown children and parents who have bought gift subscriptions for family members so those far away are kept up to date and reminded weekly of the goings on in the community in which they grew up and are perhaps temporarily removed from, thank you.

And to all those others, buying the paper with coffee or groceries or out of a red metal box, thank you.

Readers are the reason the La Conner Weekly News exist. It is your local newspaper keeping you abreast of news, art, culture, entertainment, farm harvests, sports, schools, government, kids, cats in trees, 100th birthdays and 75th wedding anniversaries – all that and much more, bigger and smaller issues, both.

To those of you surprised to have the La Conner Weekly News delivered, please read. Take the wrap-around page with you into town and visit the merchants wanting you to stop in and look for holiday gifts. Every week, every day is a good time to be shopping locally.

This issue is pretty typical. Those new to the paper missed last week’s story and photo of the La Conner High School volleyball team, repeating as state champions and undefeated for the second year in the row. Throughout November front page stories tracked the progress of John Agen and Marlys Baker, challengers who are also winners, having bested incumbents to become members of the La Conner School District Board of Directors.

If you decide to read the Dec. 18 issue, you will get a summary of the Town of La Conner’s 2020 budget, which the Council will pass on Dec. 10. In December you will see photos of kids on Santa’s lap and Santa lighting the tree on Gilkey Square and perhaps you or your children will be in that photo. There will probably be a photo of a boat – or boats – lit up like Christmas trees and motoring down the Swinomish Channel during the lighted boat parade Dec. 7.

That’s because the paper is about your community.

The Weekly News is also about democracy. That doesn’t just mean the people vote or the majority rule. Voting is the start of democracy. The heart of it is you, people engaged with your neighbors and friends and people who you may have a personal or temporary or profound disagreement with.

Keeping abreast of the news weekly in your community is more than a good idea. Your local newspaper informs and keeps you up to date on the place and the people most important to you.

If you are subscribing, thank you. I hope you find all the words above true for every issue.

If you are not subscribing, please consider doing so. The paper gets delivered to you for a $45 annual subscription, less than a dollar a week and little more than the price of a stamp. I hope you will find it is a good deal, one that you cannot afford to pass up, for your own good, for the good of your community.

Valued subscribers, I hope you want to renew. This holiday season consider giving the gift of a subscription, a love letter from the town you love to your families and friends who care so much about La Conner.