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Articles from the October 17, 2018 edition


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  • Dave Hedlin manages loan funds as well as crops

    Ken Stern|Oct 17, 2018

    La Conner farmer Dave Hedlin drives a pickup truck, a tractor, and a variety of farm equipment. The much less visible seat he sits in is as a board member of Northwest Farm Credit Services, a financial cooperative that’s part of the Farm Credit System. Hedlin is one of 11 elected members of the board of directors. For three years, ending in 2017, he was board chair. He finishes his third five-year term in 2021. As a co-op member, he has taken loans with Northwest since 1979, when he and his w...

  • Candidates forum in Maple Hall Thursday

    Ken Stern|Oct 17, 2018

    Oct. 18 7 to 9 p.m. Candidates for the seven District 1 Freeholders positions for developing a Skagit County Charter have been invited to a forum at Maple Hall this Thursday, Oct. 18 to present their ideas to greater La Conner voters. There are 28 candidates. Don’t let those participating outnumber the audience. If voters pass the Charter ballot measure approving freeholders, seven District 1 positions will be filled by people voters elect Nov. 6. Sponsored by La Conner Weekly News 360-466-3315...

  • Brew on the Slough offers Northwest flavor

    MaryRose Denton|Oct 17, 2018

    “It is a growing process. You can’t just like beer. You have to start somewhere and learn the different flavors.” – Isaac Hanson. This weekend, kick back and sample the different flavors of 12 regional craft breweries, while enjoying the perfectly paired bluesy, funk rhythms of local favorite Mary Ellen Lykins & the CC Adams Band. Yes, it is that time again, for the 4th annual Brew on the Slough this Saturday at Maple Hall. The La Conner Chamber of Commerce organizes this brewfest, bringing together local breweries, merchants and enter...

  • Family Ties: All can relate to Skagit historical museum exhibit

    Bill Reynolds|Oct 17, 2018

    The Skagit County Historical Museum in La Conner has always been a family friendly place. And never more so than in its Golden Anniversary year. A new museum exhibit highlights the many contributions to Skagit history made by the Peth and Guillen families, along with the lasting impact of key figures Wallie Funk, Dick Fallis, Pete Campbell and Edna Breazeale. The new sidebar display nicely complements an ongoing celebration of the museum’s 50 years preserving and promoting Skagit culture and traditions. “These families and individuals represent...

  • Water main replacement project started

    Oct 17, 2018

    The water main replacement project from Young Road to Mclean Road on the west side of La Conner Whitney Road started Monday. It is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 11. Work hours are 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday-Thursday. This section of La Conner Whitney Road will be closed during this time, with local access only. Emergency vehicles, agricultural vehicles/equipment, utilities and local residents within the project limits will have full access. A detour route will be in place for other traffic, which includes Young Road, Best Road, and McLean...

  • STEVEN MARK PAULSON

    Oct 17, 2018

    Steven was born in Mount Vernon, Washington to A. Vernon “Pogey” Paulson and Annie E. (Kane) Paulson on December 13, 1945 and passed away on October 4, 2018 at Providence Hospital in Everett, Washington. He attended school in La Conner, Washington for the first grade. His family moved to Seattle where he attended Our Lady of the Lake, Nathan Eckstein, Roosevelt High School, Edison Tech and Shoreline Community College. He worked for beer distributors as a driver, for 25 years. Steven was a Teamster Steven is survived by his sister, Nancy Kay... Full story

  • Vote 'D' for the future

    Oct 17, 2018

    Trump? Recently the Skagit Valley Herald had two letters to the editor urging people to vote Republican. The writers have that right, but I assume that they are over 50, have no spouse, no children, and no grandchildren. Why assume that? As explained in the recent UN report on climate, without immediate action to reduce climate destroying emissions by 45 percent in the next 20 to 25 years we face a planet that is going to be ever more uncomfortable in which to exist. Many areas will not have the water or food, and for portions of the year will...

  • Vote 'No' on charter

    Oct 17, 2018

    Dear Editor I’d like to share with my fellow citizens a slightly different perspective on the proposed Skagit charter initiative. Up to last week, I supported the charter measure, for reasons eloquently stated by other readers in this space. After learning of who is funding the pro-charter campaign, I have had a change of heart. Our board of commissioners has been far from perfect. They hung out the citizens to dry with their inaction on the Great Wolf decision, standing idle as the tribe formulated the Department of Revenue’s disastrous tax...

  • Freeholder candidates forum is also citizens' forum

    Ken Stern|Oct 17, 2018

    What if they gave a candidates forum and nobody came? Or if too few came and Maple Hall echoed with the sounds of silence? The election of Freeholders is up to you. Voting is the easy part, a mere checking of names, filling in of boxes. The hard part is determining why one candidate and not another gets your vote. The challenge is to consider – indeed develop – a vision for Skagit County and articulate it, or struggle with its shape, and discuss your hopes and dreams for a future that is guaranteed to look very different from the pr...

  • You are the color of this country

    Ken Stern|Oct 17, 2018

    The election has passed. More than excited, partisan or a color, I am troubled. This is a critically important election and certainly a referendum on President Trump and the Republican Party. But whether the results are decisive for one party, giving legislative mandates, or whether we wake up November 7th with more of the same divided government, post voting, where will the nation stand as “We the People?” The only color I can see in the new year is the color of “knot,” of rancor, of dissatisfaction, unhappiness and mistrust. The only certain...

  • Taste of Skagit in La Conner schools: the proof is in the eating

    Oct 17, 2018

    EATING LOCAL: TEACHING BY EXAMPLE – It doesn’t get any more basic than this: students, teachers and a sign in the school cafeteria celebrating the bountiful harvest from Skagit Valley fields in their lunch meals the first week of October. – Photo courtesy of Georgia Johnson...

  • Author Sy Montgomery reveals her soul as well as octopuses'

    Ken Stern|Oct 17, 2018

    Not only do octopuses have souls, author Sy Montgomery told her Maple Hall audience of 120 October 8, but humanity’s successful future lies in realizing “how great the world is and how lucky we are to be alive on this planet.” The mid-career author ended her talk on the note of a minister rather than the slight librarian she appears to be. She was a natural historian and philosopher throughout, challenging the group to consider that only in science fiction or outer space would we find “someone a...

  • Vote 'No' on I-1639: It's complex and restrictive

    Scott Stoppelman|Oct 17, 2018

    I would ask our esteemed editor a couple of questions on I-1639 that he apparently wants everyone to support passage of. Have you read and fully understand the initiative? It is about 30 pages of often incoherent legalese baloney. I am guessing you are not a gun owner judging by previous comments on Second Amendment issues. Before one can opine with any credibility on such matters one should have some idea of what he speaks, am guessing you don’t. Do you know what an assault weapon is? A true assault weapon is one that has fully automatic c...

  • Charter ballot issue draws large crowd for and against

    Bill Reynolds|Oct 17, 2018

    Outside of law school and political science classrooms, it isn’t often that James Madison and his Federalist No. 51, a detailed essay on governmental checks and balances, is cited as a point of interest. Or even topic for debate. Monday night was one of those times. The name of Madison, the nation’s fourth president and widely regarded as the architect of the U.S. Constitution, was invoked during a mostly heady – though sometimes emotional – two-hour public forum on the County cha...