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No building permit has yet been issued, but excavation began at the 306 Center Street condominium project site last week to find the water table on the property so that paperwork could be completed for removal of contaminated soil. Following that initial dig, a soil removal plan was drafted and submitted, according to Town of La Conner Assistant Planner Ajah Eills. Public Works Director Brian Lease approved the plan and soil removal commenced, Eills said. That work was completed and by early Friday afternoon all equipment had left the site....
Local grocery shoppers pause and compare prices. They add up the rising costs of food and wonder how they will afford their next meal. This is how Arin Magill, director of the La Conner Sunrise Food Bank, defines food insecurity: concern about where the next meal will come from. The number of people feeling food insecure is growing locally. Magill reported the food bank’s clientele has increased 15% in the last two months. Statistics gathered by Skagit County Public Health for its “Food Security Data Report” issued in August indicate 11% of co...
Don’t let December’s rain, gray skies or fields of standing water distract you into thinking it has rained a lot. November maintained 2023’s pattern of rainfall below the monthly century’s norms. While precipitation came down 22 days, half of those were under one-tenth inch. It rained daily the first two weeks, Nov. 1-13, totaling 2.5 inches, 78% of the month’s 3.2 inches. Nov. 1-4 1.2 inches fell, which grew to 1.4 inches through Nov 8. That was the longest period of higher precipitation. Another inch fell Nov. 11-13. While there were anot...
Christmas Monday, Dec.25 Closed: Everything Bank: Closed Buses: No service Library: Closed Post Office: Closed Schools: Till Jan 3 Town Hall: Dec 22-26 County government: Closed Trash Pick Up: None Weekly News: Closed And God bless us, everyone...
Samish River fishing is classified as "combat fishing" – it's so crowded fisher people jockey for a place to plunk their poles in the water. A mini-boatless Bristol Bay. Over 50 hopeful fisher people attired in hip waders, camouflage jackets, ball caps and sunglasses, holding nets and casting poles, crowded the Samish River Sunday morning at the Samish River bridge on Bayview-Edison Road west of Farm to Market Road. The bridge is across from those cool live-aboard boat moorings. At 9:30 a.m. f...
It's rare to be the recipient of a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Award, presented to those who have made significant contributions to the organization's wide range of public service programs. That being the case, local tulip grower Leo Roozen is doubly esteemed by area Rotarians. Roozen received his second Paul Harris honor during the La Conner Rotary Club's annual dinner and auction at Maple Hall Saturday night. The chapter will contribute $1,000 in his name to their international...
The couple planning to open a martial arts studio and fitness club on Maple Avenue at Washington Street didn’t face much of a fight when the project went before Town Hearing Examiner David Lowell last week. Tracy and April Emmanuelson-Barnett received overwhelming support during a well-attended one-hour public hearing on their application for a permit to revamp the former COA building on Maple Avenue. It has been vacant for two years after having been operated as restaurants since the 1970s, a non-conforming use in a residential zone. Lowell s...
The challenges of balancing preservation of farmland, forest areas and wetlands with development of affordable workforce housing in Skagit Valley are many and abundantly clear. Solutions, though, are less apparent and more elusive – but sorely needed, and now. The Skagit County League of Women Voters brought attention to the issue, organizing a 90-minute public forum in Sedro-Woolley Aug. 21, emphasizing the challenge that has priced working families out of the valley and shrunk the labor pool. Some 100 people attended and more watched on Y...
13 issues printed since July 5, 2017. 16 weeks to paper’s final issue. Monday is Labor Day, the last of the summer season holidays and the unofficial start of fall. It is the picnic and barbeque holiday, the gather friends and family together occasion, the toast the kids before they head off or back to college or return to the classroom holiday. It is a holiday that is uniquely American, as if our laborers are special, and separate from the riff raff of all the other workers around the world. The U.S. Congress created Labor Day in 1894 to d...
The Hearing Examiner’s decisions shouldn’t be a popularity contest. The code, the council, and administration shouldn’t leave it up to a hearing examiner’s decision to ensure a future with adequate housing! If the Municipal Code isn’t strong enough to preference housing over commercial use...especially in already residentially- zoned areas!... what has to change? This is not a new problem. Is it the municipal code? Or the council’s or administration’s or planning department’s commitments to housing? (Especially affordable housing... whet...
There are two candidates for Skagit County Commissioner, District 1, Ron Wesen and Rylee Fleury. I support neither, but I wish to know who will be representing the affairs of this county for the next term. Unfortunately Fleury is vague on professional experience, education and community service in the voters’ pamphlet and his personal statement sounds like it was written by someone else for him. He has a billboard on Hwy 20 as well as many yard signs and a large box truck plastered with large campaign signage on its sides. These cost a lot o...
Those who support the reelection of Mr. Donald Trump remind us that none of us are perfect, that to lash out at one over another is unfair, that we all have our faults. It must be said, however, that some individuals appear to be more imperfect than others, especially those in high places. “The US could have averted 40% of the deaths from COVID-19,” according to a Lancet commission (England) tasked with assessing Donald Trump’s health policy record. In seeking to respond to the pandemic, Trump has been widely condemned for “not taking the pan...
I met with the mayor and the administrator of La Conner on Aug. 21. The purpose of the meeting was to see if the Town was going to contest the amount of money the Town of La Conner paid to the City of Anacortes for water for 2021 and 2022. The answer was “no.” The agreement between the town and the city calls for arbitration if there is a disagreement, but the mayor and the administrator found no problem, no need to sit down with the mayor of Anacortes. This, in spite of the fact that Anacortes, by my calculation, owes us $46,858 for 2021 and...
From 1999 – 2001, I worked for Florida Power & Light. Part of my job was to figure out how that company should make use of energy technologies that were just emerging from the laboratory into commercial use. Twenty-five years later, to borrow a line from Raul Julia in “Street Fighter,” some of the technologies I was studying “are Tuesday.” In other words, they’re no longer exotic. They no longer attract attention. They’re just what exists, barely worthy of comment. Compact fluorescent l...
How much would you spend to win a seat in the Washington state Senate? To continue representing Legislative District 10, incumbent Sen. Ron Muzzall (R-Oak Harbor) spent $462,878 ahead of the Aug. 6 primary. That is $18.72 for each of the 24,724 votes he received. That won him 48.2% of the vote. He may spend that much more trying to win reelection in November. His opponent, Janet St. Clair, an Island County commissioner, came in second, both in votes and campaign spending. In gaining 23,391...
Dredging in the Swinomish Channel will begin Sept. 9 and continue until mid-February, says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Last dredged in 2018, the 11-mile long, 100-feet wide, 12-feet deep federal navigation channel is dredged every four to six years because “navigation through the channel is essential for commerce in the area,” said Sara Young, executive director of the Port of Skagit. Most of the work during the round-the-clock, six-days-a-week project will take place at the entrances of the channel. At the south end, the Skagit Rive...
A celebration of life will be held for Mike Chevalier from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Shelter Bay clubhouse. Soft liquor will be served and Santo Coyote will cater a taco bar. Please come and share a favorite story about Mike....
July 5, 2017, was the first issue of the La Conner Weekly News published under Ken Stern’s ownership. The editor apologizes to the publisher for this typo appearing in last week’s edition, the 372nd he has edited, of the Weekly News. The Aug. 21 editorial on housing incorrectly stated that COA, the previous user at 214 Maple Ave., operated under a conditional-use permit. It operated as a pre-existing, non-conforming use. The ability to use the site as a restaurant again became invalid after six months. The property’s zoning has been resid...
It was a back-to-work Monday morning this week for La Conner High School volleyball team players and coaches. After a busy summer of team camps and open gyms, head coach Pam Keller, assistant Kamea Luna and a roster led by lone senior Addie Wigal were eager to hit the Landy James Activity Court hardwood by 9 a.m. "We're very young this year," Keller said. She guided the Braves to a state tourney berth last year in her first season as head coach. "But this is a very coachable group," Keller...
Remember “Eight Is Enough,” the popular 1970s TV drama? It’s now the new mantra for La Conner High School football, at least for the next two seasons. Faced with declining enrollment as the smallest Class 2B school system in Washington, La Conner school officials opted following the 2023 season and a series of community meetings to downsize the team to eight players. The Braves will play an independent eight-man schedule this season and next. They will not be eligible for post-season action. Playoff spots are reserved for 1B schools. Durin...
Classes haven't started yet but two La Conner High School students already have homework. Emmalin Goodman and Kellie Cayou-Lockrem will be providing feedback to school board members on the district's new cell phone policy, their first task as the board's new student representatives. "We value your input," board member John Agen told the panel's student reps. "We'd like to have you be the most engaged student representatives we've ever had." Board President Susie Deyo said that rather than assig...
La Conner businesses shared a common thread of creativity last weekend with the first annual Junior Art Walk Friday. Area tweens and teens' – our next generation of artists – artwork was displayed in merchants' windows throughout Morris and First streets. The La Conner Swinomish Library hosted weekly art-making sessions on Wednesday mornings leading up to the event. Art supplies were purchased from Mystic Art Supply based on adult mentor artists' subjects. Instruction varied from sel...
