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I also think the Town should keep the Kirsch property. Once the publicly-owned waterfront is gone it is gone for good. I would think between Town, county, state and feds, working together to save the jewel of the county and state, enough money should be raised to build the ring dike in stages like Mount Vernon did. Mary Lam, Oak Harbor...
Dear La Conner Community, Our small but mighty community came through with gusto on the first Library Giving Day, April 10! You raised $47,475.69 for the new library project, and that includes a $25,000 matching gift! Could we reach $50,000 by the end of the month? I am hopeful. The outpouring of support for a new library continues to amaze me. On behalf of the Library and Foundation boards and staff, our heartfelt thank you to the best community in Skagit Valley. That includes our newspaper publisher and editor Ken Stern. His eloquent and...
I am concerned with the future of our community, especially in regard to sea level rise. Given the science regarding climate change it seems likely that in as few as 100 years sea levels will have risen around 3 ft at a minimum and it is my understanding that those estimates are now considered to be conservative. This will result in a considerable challenge to keep not only La Conner from flooding, but the entirety of Skagit Valley. I remember a day in the mid 80’s when the barometric pressure was very low and tides were very high when I was t...
Town Hall will be closed through April 18. That was the surprise agenda item at La Conner’s April 9 Town Council meeting. The closure dates were announced on the Town’s website April 10. Mold in the Town Hall bank vault has spread into the front reception area. It requires immediate maintenance to ensure staff safety. Signs were on the front doors before the end of last week. Closure started Tuesday. Administrator Scott Thomas did not yet have a repair agreement at the meeting. SERVPRO quoted $1...
There was a time, not all that long ago, when dentistry on Swinomish Reservation was conducted in a single-wide trailer by young practitioners using outdated instruments. Tribal officials today like to think of those days as ancient history. That view was reinforced with the much-anticipated grand opening and blessing of the gleaming new expanded Swinomish Dental Clinic Thursday morning. An overflow crowd wedged into the facility, located in the shadow of the iconic Swinomish totem pole on...
COUPEVILLE — The U.S. Navy is moving full steam ahead to bring 36 EA-18G Growler aircraft to its Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, having rejected every request for studies, mitigation and citizen collaboration to reduce jet noise. Friday night 350 area citizens and members of the Sound Defense Alliance crowded into Crockett Barn, near the Whidbey Island shore west of Coupeville. Annie Jesperson, a farmer, tapped the energy of the sympathetic audience getting them to stand and raise their...
It wouldn’t have been a Tulip Parade without some wind and rain. Fortunately, there was much more in the forecast here on Saturday – at least in terms of colorful entries that lightened even the gloomiest outlook. As has been the case each April since the late 1980s, La Conner didn’t let drizzly, gusty conditions blow an opportunity to put its best foot forward. It did so again with the 33rd annual Kiwanis Not-So-Impromptu Parade, part of the nationally acclaimed Skagit Valley Tulip Festiv...
Todd Duitsman remembers the exact minute he went from being an active sports-oriented realtor and businessman to a paraplegic bound to a wheelchair. He was, both literally and figuratively, riding a wave of high expectations, full of life and believing all things were possible. But the wave crashed hard. Five years ago, Duitsman and his family were enjoying their second Hawaiian vacation in three summers when a sudden body surfing accident profoundly altered the 45-year-old Lakewood man’s p...
While searching for photo albums and scrapbooks prior to a recent family reunion, former Pleasant Ridge residents Jim and Kay Frey came across an unexpected gem. It was a plain, parcel-sized envelope filled with yellowed news clippings. Not just any clippings, mind you. These were from more than a half-century ago, dating to the fall of 1968. That was among the best of times for the Freys, who now reside in Mount Vernon. Then Jim coached football and taught at La Conner High School. That...
A primary theme at last week’s joint Town Council-Planning Commission meeting was housing – densifying, increasing the housing stock and getting more units on lots. The subtext in the discussion was affordable housing: how to get folks on grocery and school employee wages into some of those additional La Conner homes. Town master plans allow 1,200 housing units. That’s a three-fold increase from today’s 385 units. Left to the “market” the unbridled hand of capitalism, very few homes will be built for the wage workers among us. Mostly we w...
Donald Richard Henkle passed away peacefully at age 90 in La Conner, WA on April 6, 2019 after an eight year battle with multiple myeloma. Don was born in Auburn, WA and grew up in Seattle with his parents, Tolly Henkle and Marion (Hostetter) Henkle. He attended Seattle’s Fairview Grade School, John Marshal Junior High School, Roosevelt High School (class of 1946) and graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Business Administration in 1950. During high school, Don played the trumpet in the dance band “Gentlemen of Rhythm” and w...
