Town Council cautioned on summer water restrictions

Town Administrator Scott Thomas is known for his occasional use of dry humor, but there wasn’t anything funny about his report to Town Council members last week regarding drought conditions this year.

“We’re already in a state of drought,” Thomas told the council during its April 23 meeting at Maple Hall. “So, we may be looking at water restrictions down the road.”

Thomas reported that Washington’s snowpack, based on state Department of Ecology statistics, stands at just 68% of its average levels.

“With chances for significant additions to the snowpack diminishing, there is simply not enough water contained in mountain +snow and reservoirs to prevent serious impacts for water users in the months ahead,” Thomas said.

He said the situation could force the town to impose restrictions on outdoor watering and washing of vehicles this summer.

Thomas referenced a recent 20-acre brush fire near Lyman.

“It’s pretty early in the season,” Thomas said of the upriver blaze. “So, this is a significant issue. And just because we live in town doesn’t mean we’re safe.”

A prolonged drought could pose financial heartburn, he said.

“We can assume there will be additional (water) costs,” he said.

It turned out that Thomas was preaching to the choir.

“It’s really early this year,” Mayor Marna Hanneman said of area wildland fire danger. “We’re thinking about this already.”

Councilor MaryLee Chamberlain agreed. “We really need to be water wise.”

Thomas’ predecessor as administrator, John Doyle, now a Skagit County Fire District 13 commissioner, addressed the council during the meeting’s public comments section and received the panel’s blessing to prepare and submit a grant application for funds to cover costs of repairing the iconic salmon slide at Conner Waterfront Park.

“We’re probably looking at $25,000 (in repairs),” said Doyle, who added that he and La Conner Rotarian and Town Parks Commissioner Ollie Iversen will lead fundraising efforts to meet the local match amount a grant award would require.

In the meantime, Doyle said he and Iversen are committed to resuming their volunteer work at the slide, which they have undertaken through the years to temporarily solve its weather-related surface blistering issues.

Doyle said receipt of the grant would be “a good opportunity to fix the slide once and for all. But Ollie and I will work on it so that it can be serviceable.”

The grant funding would let the town contract with what Doyle termed as “concrete professionals” to permanently repair the slide, which is modeled after the famous salmon slide structure at Seattle’s Carkeek Park.

The La Conner sculpture was the final creation of noted late Pacific Northwest fish artist Tom Jay and has become a local shoreline landmark.

“I’ll start writing,” Doyle said of the grant application. “It’s a project that’s dear to my heart.”

Hanneman shared that she and Thomas had recently met with Shelter Bay officials. She said they discussed with them mutual utility service topics and the status of their ongoing talks with the Swinomish Tribal Community regarding renewal of Shelter Bay’s master lease agreement.

Hanneman also said she was impressed with a recent tour of Hedlin Farms on the east edge of town.

“We’re very blessed to have stewards of the land like that,” she said of the pioneer family, now in its third and fourth generations.

The council approved some $3,200 in repairs to the stone stove at Pioneer Park’s community kitchen, which was apparently damaged by vandals.

“People are trying to start fires in that stove all the time,” Public Works Director Brian Lease said. “It looks like something went wrong when somebody was making a fire and they tried to bust the door off the stove.”

Cascade Chimney & Masonry will do the work at the historic picnic shelter, which the Civilian Conservation Corps built in the 1930s.

“Let’s hope Rotary can come up with something, even half,” Hanneman said of town efforts to defray the cost.

Council member Rick Dole said the Town Emergency Management Commission (EMC) is still looking to add a fifth member following the death of charter member Duane Carpenter earlier this year.

Commission chair Jerry George said the EMC will be further short-handed this summer as one of its members takes an extended vacation. He and Dole said the commission has one prospective new member whose availability depends on a different meeting day.

“If the commission agrees to change its meeting dates,” Hanneman said, “this person can come aboard.”

Resident Debbie Aldrich expressed lingering concerns over the conditionally approved 306 Center Street multi-unit residential project. She also reminded the council of April 26 memorial services for Glenn Bordner, whom she described as “a super volunteer” and served as the first president of the Museum of Northwest Art board.