Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1 - 12 of 12
The La Conner Youth Soccer Association has wrapped up another soccer season. We would like to thank our volunteer coaches who gave of their time and energy. Thank you Jason Burks, Travis and Ashley Alvord, Char Burks, Kristin and Jason Huizenga, Tracy and Robert Hancock, Leslie Swanson, Tyrone McLeod, Dawn Lee, Mike Ritchie, Adam Avery, Miguel Rivas, and Todd Wigal. Also, a huge thank you to our team sponsors this year: Country Grounds Coffee, Swanson Farm, Sundance Yacht Sales, Handmade La Conner, La Conner Brewing Company, Balance Point...
Rumors are suggesting that the La Conner Rotary Club’s Annual Smelt Derby Family Festival will not return in 2019. We beg to differ! The rumors apparently stem from the serious decline in smelt runs over the years, but we’re still going to have a festival, smelt or not. What better way to brighten the usually gloomy last Saturday in February? The 54th Annual Smelt Derby Family Festival will be held Feb. 23. Plan ahead for the pancake breakfast, fishing derby and prizes, Smelt Run, treasure hunt and other fun events that morning. Watch for det...
Running three miles a day gave Debra Lekanoff the stamina to enter a high-energy state legislative race, one that saw her campaign ring nearly 20,000 doorbells and make about half that many phone contacts. Now she’s ready to hit the ground running in Olympia, where Lekanoff will serve as the first Native American woman elected to the State House of Representatives. Lekanoff, 47, emerged the victor in a campaign opposite Republican Michael Petrish of Anacortes for the 40th District Position 1 House seat vacated by retired incumbent Democrat K...
To my dear friends of La Conner: It is fitting that I ended my seven-month odyssey of chemotherapy and radiation a few days ago, just as the season of Thanksgiving is beginning. As you can imagine, my gratitude list is long. Because when I had to face the tedious, long and seemingly never-ending treatments that began after a cancer diagnosis in early May, you have been right by my side. You brought me meals; you sat with me during the 21-day cycle of chemotherapy; you said prayers for me and over me; you massaged my tired body; you made me laug...
A bad decision, to hit and run from a motor vehicle accident on Highway 20 north of La Conner Monday afternoon, started a high-speed chase for two Highway State Patrol SUVs. At 3:25 p.m. a Skagit County Sheriff’s Office vehicle joined the chase at Best and Young Roads. It ended when the woman, coming east into La Conner on Chilberg Road, rammed her older model Mazda 626 into the island in front of the roundabout. The La Conner Hook and Ladder Company responded at 3:31 p.m., almost immediately, t...
hanksgiving is a notoriously bad day for turkeys. But not so long ago La Conner was a year-round refuge for the wild birds, a period memorialized by local artists in collage prints and sculptures still in evidence today. A favorite example remains the metal turkeys that greet residents and tourists flocking to the La Conner Regional Library Thrift Shop on Morris Street. Real turkeys, once a protected species here, were removed from La Conner about a decade ago after having ruffled feathers with...
The “flood/dike update,” a recurring item of unfinished business at La Conner Town Council meetings, became the elephant in the room at Council’s Nov. 13 meeting. Council member Jacques Brunisholz repeated his concern that the Town is not protected from a catastrophic flood, that climate change means weather is unpredictable and that he, and the Council, is not meeting its prior agreement for adding $50,000 annually to the flood control fund. “We need to have the Town protected,” he said, “all the rest is for naught. “It was set up years ago...
It was no accident the La Conner High volleyball team went undefeated in NW2B play en route to the fourth State championship in program history. Consider that seven La Conner players were All-League selections in recent polling of conference players and coaches. Leading the way was senior Matty Lagerwey, voted the NW2B Most Valuable Player for 2018. The versatile Lagerwey, a 5’-7” middle blocker and outside hitter, was just as solid in post-season after having played a key role in La Con...
The K-kids of La Conner Elementary School spearheaded a food drive through October and part of November. They labeled and placed boxes at every classroom door, counted the amount of food brought in each week and charted the progress of each classroom. Overall, the food drive brought in 1,920 items of food to provide to the food bank. Mr. Hunter’s 5th grade class won a pizza party for bringing in the most items. The students loaded the Sunrise Food Bank truck last Thursday afternoon. K-kids is t...
Fifty student chess players from nine Skagit and Whatcom County schools, including two elementary schools and seven high schools, competed in the first rated tournament event of the 2018-2019 school year. The players were organized into six divisions based on estimated NW Scholastic ratings and played a three round mini tournament. Time controls were set at Game 25 plus a five second delay. Ten players were playing in their first rated tournament, including three La Conner students. The five La...
James L. Lam died on November 9, 2018 in Skagit Valley Hospital. He was born on April 10, 1942 in Oak Harbor to John Lam and Velma Alice Balda. He grew up on Whidbey Island, playing with his brother John and his sister Sue, multitudes of cousins, Aunts and Uncles. On West Beach, in front of his grandparents Balda’s farm before there were no houses or no trespassing signs, his grandfather Balda took him, his brother and sister up on a tractor to get sticky Christmas trees. It was on that beach where he developed a deep and abiding love of the w...
Someone called the office Friday asking if anyone was reporting on a Mastiff dog running loose. No, we weren’t aware. Did the caller want to place a classified? That’s typical at your local newspaper. Covering big dogs running loose, offering classifieds for lost and found and being considered a resource in the community. In all kinds of ways the newspaper is a community resource. Does the La Conner Yacht Club or the La Conner Firefighters Association make a donation or give a scholarship? They call ahead and there’s a photo in the Weekl...