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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....
Seattle-area graduate students took a field trip to La Conner and the Swinomish Reservation last Wednesday and afterward gave the Swinomish Tribe high marks for its focus on environmental protection. Dubbed the Climate Impacts Group and led by University of Washington research scientist Rishi Sugla, the students met here with tribal leaders for a daylong tour that included a stop at the Swinomish Clam Garden, the first modern version in the country of an ancient form of aquaculture. The clam...
Few have taken a longer road to historic La Conner United Methodist Church than its new pastor. The Rev. Dr. Jacob Kanake, who assumed pastoral duties here this month, hails from the Kenya Methodist Church, where he served before moving with his family to the United States. The Methodist Church was planted in Kenya, an East African nation and former British colony, in the early 1860s. The Kanakes feel quite at home in Washington, where he has pastored at Colfax and St. John east of the...
La Conner Rotarians thanked the guest speaker at their Monday meeting for being right on the money. Mike Pellicciotti said doing so is merely part of his job as the state's banker. Pellicciotti, who was elected Washington state Treasurer in 2020, shared his roles and goals during a briskly paced La Conner Rotary Club program at Shawn O'Donnell's American Grill & Irish Pub. For Pellicciotti, it was his 55th Rotary Club appearance. "I think it's important to get around to local Rotary clubs," Pell...
A new entrée is part of the menu planned for the former COA restaurant building at Maple and Washington avenues. The site has been home to various eateries over the past half-century, all of them operating as a non-conforming residential use. That could change. The planning commission learned at its July 16 meeting that the new owners of what old-timers call “the old Joe’s Drive-In” want a private fitness club and martial arts studio there. Getting those plans approved could test the applicants’ strength and stamina. Assistant Planner Ajah Eil...
They're thinking nationally and acting locally. Delegates from the Skagit chapter of the League of Women Voters championed a national push to support local journalism and news coverage in Washington, D.C., in June. The Skagit chapter, in fact, had hosted public forums in Mount Vernon on the status of community journalism – purchasing print advertising to promote those meetings – well before the League of Women Voters of the United States overwhelmingly adopted a position in support of local new...
There may be no better venue than La Conner Swinomish Library for Scott Petersen, the famed Reptile Man from Monroe, to stage his popular live animal demonstrations. For one thing, the local library's solar panels work just fine and provide an ideal comfort zone for Petersen's collection of cold-blooded critters. And then there's the interactive vibe that defines the two-year-old learning resource center. "We are not a quiet library," insists its director, Jean Markert, whose assessment was...
A month ago, Skagit County Fire District 13 Chief Wood Weiss assigned crews to cover two 12-hour shifts per week at the Summit Park station on a trial basis. Initial reviews are in. So far, so good. “We’ve had some really busy days,” Capt. Chris Olbu told fire commissioners during their July 18 public meeting. “There’s also an increased probability of getting more transports.” Weiss said early returns on the trial program merit its continuation. “The rapid response to the north end of the district has been of benefit to our citizens,” he said....
Class was in session on a sunny summer Sunday at Skagit City School, and history was the main course of study. That was just fine with the "students," several of them descendants of school alumni and justifiably proud of the restored schoolhouse and exhibits displayed inside the landmark Fir Island building on Moore Road. The annual picnic, hosted by the Skagit County Historical Museum, coincided with hot weather, warm memories of days gone by and music by Conway vocalist and guitarist Marcia Ke...
La Conner fire chief Aaron Reinstra and a Sedro-Woolley builder have presented Town officials with a new option for purchase of a fire boat to safeguard the historic La Conner waterfront. “This is food for thought, another option for the fire boat,” Reinstra said as he provided copies of a proposal from TJ Lowry of Full-Time Custom Fabrication & Machine Shop to Town Council members during their 70-minute July 10 meeting at Maple Hall. Lowry is proposing to build a hull, house, and trailer for $150,000, about one-fourth the cost of a com...
Town leaders have their eyes on the future. This after having given La Conner's current five-year strategic plan a second look during the town's annual summer retreat at the Waterfront Café last month. Mayor Marna Hanneman, Town Council members, and the town's staff and department heads huddled June 24 to address current issues and long-range planning. The strategic plan, crafted in 2023 and comprised of five focal points, was the centerpiece of the retreat's afternoon session. Each of the...
During her retirement reception at Gaches Mansion on Sunday, Amy Green visualized her lengthy tenure as executive director of the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum. Then Green saw her 11-year career stop in La Conner literally unveiled before her gaze. About a half-hour into the afternoon farewell ceremony, museum board member Joy Neal surprised Green with a handsome bookshelf quilt whose squares bear images and symbols reflecting her time in La Conner and highlight many of the...
The late Clem Thein set the ceiling high when it came to extending goodwill and sharing camaraderie among his many friends here. He did the same when it came to masterful handiwork, a trait handed down to his son, Steve, and still much in evidence more than 15 years after Clem Thein's passing. For confirmation, look at the roofs of historic Magnus Anderson Cabin and the covered Native American canoe shelter below Town Hall. Clem Thein hand-split the cedar shakes protecting both structures using...
This year's July 4 celebration in La Conner was a double feature times two. Several entries in the town's Independence Day parade looped downtown a second time. That evening, tribal vendors led by Rodney John filled the sky with fireworks for hours following the official pyrotechnics show over Swinomish Channel. Both the parade and fireworks received positive reviews as did the two-band holiday evening concert at the Port of Skagit's La Conner Marina. Social media was filled Thursday night and...
Amy Green has for the past decade been the very uncommon thread binding together diverse exhibits and educational programs at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum at historic Gaches Mansion. Her focus has been uncommon in that Green brought with her to La Conner in 2013 an extensive background in a wide range of artistic impression and managerial experience, including six years as director of operations at the famed Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M. Now Green is returning to...
Mayor Marna Hanneman said the blaze that destroyed one house and threatened others last month is a wake-up call for the town during a July 6 forum at La Conner Swinomish Library. She asked Fire Chief Aaron Reinstra and fire department community outreach officer Natalie Baker to reflect on the incident and share safety tips. The ensuing discussion was robust at times and informative. "I feel it's important for us to communicate with one another in an open and transparent manner," Hanneman said...
In the aftermath of a June 20 house fire that threatened neighboring homes, La Conner residents questioned growth management population projections for the town that have increased residential density as vacant lots fill in. “As everybody here knows, we’ve had a tragic fire here on Fifth Street,” Town Emergency Management Commission chair Jerry George said during that board’s July 2 meeting at Maple Hall. “That fire was hot and fast.” George lives a few paces from the home that was engulfed in flames and was among neighbors who helped wate...
One man helping shape the future of Skagit County hails from a family that has molded much of its history. Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen comes from a pioneer family that has farmed in the Bow-Edison area for more than a century and today operates a 1,100-acre organic dairy. The Wesen family will be honored Aug. 1 at the 120th annual Skagit County Pioneer Association Picnic and Business Meeting in La Conner. The Wesens, who through the decades have made significant contributions in fields...
La Conner School District Superintendent David Cram and board members approved key goals for the 2024-25 academic year at their study session Monday night. Before the meeting started, the district hired a special education director, a role former superintendent Will Nelson juggled with other administrative duties after special programs coordinator Andy Wheeler retired in 2023. Cram announced that Beth Mills, who has worked in the special education field for two decades, will run special education in La Conner. She comes from the Granite Falls...
La Conner's underground – at least on S. Maple Avenue – has been in plain sight the past few days. Welch Brothers Construction has cut deeply into and through the heavily traveled roadway's surface to extend a water main that will serve the future Didgwalic Wellness Center transitional housing and staff office facility on Maple Avenue near the east approach to the Rainbow Bridge. La Conner Public Works Director Brian Lease said on Monday that the work upgrades an existing water main to imp...
If practice makes perfect and perfect needs practice, area firefighters and emergency responders are perfectly practiced and practically perfect. This after Swinomish Reservation and the Port of Skagit's La Conner Marina were sites last week of major multi-department training exercises that participants lauded afterward for their realism and long-term value. Skagit County Fire District 13 Training Officer Capt. Chris Olbu scripted a drill for June 26 that challenged several agencies, led by La...
Town and school district officials were in full retreat June 24, though both panels spent the day charging forward with reviews of their respective five-year strategic plans. The La Conner Town Council met for seven hours at the Waterfront Café. Councilmembers, staff and Mayor Marna Hanneman addressed five focus areas – public safety, climate and environmental sustainability, capital projects and utilities, economic vibrancy and governmental organization. Council members and department heads al...
The La Conner School Board spent June 24 with interim superintendent David Cram for their annual daylong retreat. They addressed roles, responsibilities and goals for board members. Cram projected a K-12 student enrollment of 460 and beginning fund balance of $535,000 this fall. While the enrollment figure is lower than last year, the fund balance estimate represents a significant improvement. The school district opened 2023-24 in the red. Cram, who returned to La Conner as finance director in...
Basketball has always been a big deal in La Conner. But in Spokane it's a really big deal. Bigger, in fact, than almost anywhere else. As has been the case every June since 1990, thousands of hoops players and enthusiasts crowded into downtown Spokane last weekend for the largest outdoor three-on-three basketball tournament in the world. La Conner wasn't left out. La Conner High School girls' basketball head coach Joe Harper entered a local third grade boys' team in the 2024 Spokane Hoopfest, a...
A bright, sunny picture-postcard afternoon in La Conner turned tragic when a house on N. Fifth Street was destroyed by a fast-burning fire whose noxious smoke blackened the sky as it wafted across town. Tony and Jane Mitchell, members of the La Conner Firefighters Association, lost their home June 19 to a blaze that raged through their garage and into the house, sending flames shooting out from the walls and roof. A Mini Cooper in the garage was destroyed and a Volkswagen sedan on the driveway...
