Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1 - 14 of 14
Dunlap Towing is making sure a grand old name not only rides the tide of history but also impacts the Pacific maritime industry for years to come. The La Conner-based company expanded its fleet with the launching on Jan. 20 of the “Sigrid Dunlap,” a state-of-the-art Phyllis-class ocean-going tug designed for the firm’s work towing barges between Seattle and Honolulu. “It was dark and cold at 7:30 in the morning,” said Dunlap Towing Assistant Controller Meghan Dunlap-Rice, “but the wind subsid...
The Morris Street restrooms open hours have been reduced since the first of the year, creating headaches for tourists and merchants alike. In response to the ongoing problem of “overnight camping, vandalism and loitering” the restroom, at Third Street, “is now locked from 3:30 p.m. to 7 a.m., weekends and holidays,” Public Works Director Brian Lease wrote that in his December summary report to Town Council. At the Jan 9 council meeting Lease’s focus was entirely on the three breaks in the town’s water main. Then he asked the mayor to declare...
CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE – Joining the over 300 people in Anacortes Friday evening Jan 19 were at least La Connerites Barbara and Jacques Brunisholz, Dave Buchan and Susan Macek, Dee Doyle, Rick Shorten, Tom Winn, Mary Wohleb and one intrepid photographer. – Photo by Don Coyote...
Work progressed this week on laying two water line sections to replace a failed 60-year-old main along a 1.5 mile stretch of north La Conner-Whitney Road. Crews were working on the final 100 feet of replacement line Monday afternoon, said Town Public Works Director Brian Lease. The two four-inch sections will tie into an existing 14-inch main to serve 10 homes in the affected area. An aging eight-inch La Conner-Whitney Road line dating to the 1950s ruptured last week, making necessary the emergency fix. Once the twin line sections pass...
The Town’s five council members were asked to share their hopes and goals for 2018 from their perspective as elected officials. Jacques Brunisholz, committees: Long Range Planning, Utilities, WAB, Flood Control An elected group of your fellow citizens is busy overseeing crucial and mundane tasks with the tools of a budget. We are keeping up with the maintenance of infrastructure: water lines, sewer, drainage, roads, parks, town buildings, and public safety and encouraging economic opportunities – and more. There is also a “vision” need...
Washington Reading Corp Family Literacy Night was hosted at La Conner Elementary School on January 8. It’s an annual event designed to encourage parent and caregiver involvement in student’s educational experiences in a way that is both fun and empowering. This year, the event was themed the Read Aloud Campground. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in variety of camping and nature based activities inspired by various books which were on display. Families navigated through the Campgroun...
Artists and crafts people have tools of their trade and objects on which they work. It’s paint brushes, paints and canvas for painters. Plumbers take their wrenches and soldering guns to pipes. Editors handle words, space, time and people from several angles. Only so many words can fit on a page. The words have to be accurate, telling the complete story. Being lyrical is a bonus. Readers emphasize that local means in and around La Conner. Location is a spatial factor. Everyone, from photographers and reporters to letter writers and the e...
Letters, guest columns and a guest editorial (by Janet Laurel) have appeared in the last two issues of the Weekly News. Ashley Sweeney reflects on two years of Women’s Marches and Jon Walton notices the “recent trend of partisan politics oozing into the pages of our beloved weekly paper” in today’s letters. What gets covered and printed in the Weekly News and why? This paper seeks to cover news in the La Conner region, from Anacortes to Mount Vernon and Conway up to Edison – even Bow if the event or issue is momentous: That is “of gre...
I had a good chuckle reading Alix Foster’s well-intentioned column in last week’s copy of the La Conner Weekly News. I have tried to steer clear of the recent trend of partisan politics oozing into the pages of our beloved weekly paper, but I now feel obligated to stand up for an overlooked and abused group of citizens: The poor saps who actually have to purchase Obamacare plans in Skagit County. Obamacare has been an unmitigated, slow-motion train wreck. As an Obamacare exchange customer since 2014, I have deep knowledge of the depth and mag...
Editor: With the second annual women’s march behind just us, sentiments from last year’s march are as relevant today as ever. Here are my baker’s dozen of still-salient slogans seen at last year’s march: “All Lives Matter” “Together We Rise” “Standing on the Side of Love” “Make America Kind Again” “Bridges, Not Walls” “Lady Liberty is Watching” “Will Not Go Quietly” “We are the Future” “Justice is Colorblind” “I’m With Her, and Her, and Her, and Her” “We are All Immigrants” “We Will Not be Marginalized” And perhaps my favorite sign of all: ...
To the Editor Back in October 2013 the meter which measures sewer flow from the Tribe, was found to be malfunctioning. It was reading lower than it should. Three years later, in October 2016, the meter was replaced and re-calibrated. Since then it shows an average reading of 25.49 percent of total flow from the Tribe, while the rate charged to the Tribe for 2017 was based on 18.4 percent. The Tribe owes the Town $6,565 for 2017 and for the years 2014 through 2016 the Tribe owes $33,529. In 2017 the total flow at the sewer plant from Town was...
The article on steelhead fishing in the Skagit Valley Herald on Jan. 18 had no mention of the weekly gill netting by State and tribe research vessels on the lower North fork of the Skagit River. This fishing is done whenever the powers that be decide to do so. All of the salmon and steelhead caught during this research are given to the tribes and the numbers are reported to the Fishery Dept. the same day the fish are caught. That same information is kept from the public by the Fishery Dept., who have told me that that info won’t be compiled u...
Corrine May Swanson passed away peacefully January 15, 2018. She was born in San Francisco on September 10, 1922. She moved to the La Conner area as a child. She and her brother Keith Sarkisian grew up with the Bell cousins. Corrine graduated from La Conner High School and later became an elementary school teacher in Concrete. She was married to Vernon Swanson and had five children. Corrine enjoyed painting, bridge, reading and spending time with friends and family. She was a sweet, gentle loving soul who had a kind word for all. Corrine was pr... Full story
House, the Washington legislature passed an almost $4.2 billion capital budget Jan. 18. Senate Bill 6090 included $500,000 for the La Conner New Regional Library. That quick, easy vote starts a 17-month clock for the La Conner Library Foundation. Representative Norma Smith, R-10a, noted that La Conner library board and staff members had worked hard for years to secure the appropriation. “La Conner and the surrounding community has demonstrated the need and support. There has been vision and thoughtfulness and outreach,” she said. Senator Barbar...
