Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 1389
A traumatic past can give way to a healthy future. That was the hopeful message shared with La Conner students by Swinomish Tribal Community members during annual Orange Shirt Day ceremonies at Landy James Gym Monday afternoon. Orange Shirt Day, which symbolizes truth and reconciliation, honors the experiences and raises awareness of those indigenous children who attended residential schools in North America. Dean Dan Jr., of Swinomish, who keynoted the La Conner program, shared the story of...
Lydia Grossglass went for the hat trick while teammates Angie Pena, Maicy Bowles and Lily Dougliss scored one goal each as the La Conner High School girls’ soccer team improved to 3-1 with a 6-0 shutout win over the 1A Nooksack Valley Junior Varsity at Whittaker Field last Friday. Pena and Bowles got the Braves on the scoreboard with back-to-back goals. Grossglass followed with three consecutive scores and Dougliss found the net in the second half to cap the La Conner offensive onslaught. “The girls had excellent communication,” La Conne...
In an up and down week, the La Conner High School volleyball team finished strong. The Braves (5-4 overall; 1-1 in league) rebounded from a tough 3-0 Sept. 24 home loss to NW2B/1B archrival Coupeville to defeat host Friday Harbor in straight sets last Friday. La Conner captured each set against the Wolverines by double digits, defeating Friday Harbor 25-10, 25-12, 25-13. La Conner head coach Pam Keller received solid contributions from her entire roster at Friday Harbor. Freshman Nora McCormick delivered a team-high 12 kills to go along with...
Lydia Grossglass and Bailey Smith combined for three first-half goals and the La Conner High School girls' soccer team withstood a late Providence Classical Christian rally to post a 3-2 NW2B/1B triumph at Whittaker Field Friday afternoon. Smith delivered a goal 14 minutes into the contest to give La Conner an early lead. Grossglass then extended the hosts' advantage with two scores before intermission. A senior, Grossglass scored with 7:45 left in the opening half off a free kick by Angie Pena,...
Fall is definitely in the air! The kids are back in school, the weather is getting cooler and the leaves are starting to change color; all signs that the season is turning and it’s time to curl up with a good book from the library. Fall is also a season of change for the library, with Katryna retiring. We will miss her a great deal, as she has truly been the heart of our library and has touched the lives of so many in our community. We wish her the best and hope she comes back to visit often. We say hello to our newest employee, Jinda, who s...
Reporting at the Sept. 10 La Conner Town Council meeting, Sgt. Brad Holmes, the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office La Conner detachment administrator, made a plea to residents and an apology to the council. He addressed concerns voiced at the Aug. 27 council meeting over deputies’ response times to a nighttime burglary and theft incident around North Third Street that month. Holmes said that deputies had arrived in La Conner within 20 minutes of the crimes being reported and immediately began patrolling for the suspect vehicle, which staff learned...
Coach Maddie Huscher and her staff marveled at how well the La Conner High School girls’ soccer team communicated during preseason workouts a couple weeks ago. Now the La Conner coaches can’t say enough about how well their players are executing attacks in the 2024 campaign’s early going. The Braves opened non-conference action with twin romps in which they scored in double digits against both Muckleshoot Tribal School and Forest Ridge Sacred Heart. La Conner blanked Muckleshoot 11-0 and defeated Forest Ridge 11-2 last week in a pair of impre...
The start of volleyball season was a red-letter day for the La Conner High School volleyball program. The Braves, a perennial 2B state powerhouse, beat visiting Class 1A Blaine in the Sept. 10 season debut for both teams. La Conner, under second year head coach Pam Keller, edged the Borderites in four sets, 25-22, 16-25, 25-22, 26-24, before a supportive home crowd. Freshman Reese Bird was named La Conner’s Player of the Match. She led the way with eight kills, 17 assists, 28 digs, one block and a service ace. Several of her La Conner t...
The first day of school in La Conner was in the bag. La Conner Middle and High School students received something new during this year's back-to-school routine. Staff distributed magnetized Yondr bags into which students place and lock their cell phones during the school day. They can unlock the pouches to access phones when school lets out. Yondr marks the start of a project designed to increase academic engagement and eliminate distractions in classrooms. By establishing a cell-phone-free zone...
Tom Beckwith is the man with a plan that will be finalized by the end of the year. Beckwith’s firm was hired to develop a revitalization plan for the town’s formerly bustling south end industrial area by the Town of La Conner. He intends to draw heavily upon public input, he told the planning commission at its Sept. 3 meeting. Beckwith outlined the process his team will follow this fall. There will be public review sessions and meetings with the town’s advisory commissions and workshops with the town council and planning commission. “We w...
Enrollment in the La Conner School District is shrinking while costs continue to rise. Administrators need to be jugglers and magicians, both. They are. A year after climbing out of a hole from having spent too much and thus having too little set aside for reserves – and the resulting state oversight that brought – the district is in good financial shape even with the related dilemmas of fewer students and the corresponding fewer state dollars. While it is little comfort to know most school systems in the state are in similar straits, it ind...
At Saturday’s Meet the Mayor session at the La Conner Swinomish Library, Mayor Marna Hanneman ended the hour upbeat, telling the seven assembled they were awesome and that she was encouraged. “I keep saying it takes a village,” she said, suggesting, “let’s take it on the road,” to Shelter Bay and other communities, in a collaborative effort to tackle greater La Conner’s problems. And while she noted, “It’s all of us, farmers, merchants, the Tribe, Shelter Bay,” everyone at the table had faithfully attended most of these near monthly meetin...
It is with heavy hearts that we share that, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, Douglas Shannon "Doug" Snider passed away at the age of 79 while boating with his wife. Doug was born on Oct. 27, 1944, in Colorado Springs, Colo., to John and Elsie Snider. The family moved to Medford, Ore., a year later. After graduating from Saint Mary's School, he attended the University of Notre Dame where he received a degree in architecture. Shortly afterwards, he entered the Navy where he spent the next four years. Du...
La Conner High School was already behind the eight-ball when the Braves headed to the Yakima Valley Friday to open its first full eight-man football schedule. That’s because the Pomeroy Pirates, La Conner’s Sept. 6 foe, was coming off a 9-2 campaign in 2023 during which the southeast Washington eight-man grid power posted beatdown wins of 90-0 over Tekoa-Rosalia and 76-0 against Dayton. The Pirates resumed their swashbuckling offensive style in the ’24 debut for both clubs, recording a 64-24 victory on a neutral site chosen to split travel time...
She has owned a downtown bookstore, helped found the town's senior center and written accounts of La Conner history and her memoir. Janna Gage, who hails from a pioneer Skagit County family, is now ready for her next chapter. Seaport Books, which she and Marion Melville launched in 2017, is listed for sale. "We're not retired," quipped Gage, a 1958 La Conner High School graduate and class valedictorian. "We're just tired." But not so weary that Gage can't imagine taking on a new project or...
Elaine Stewart, longtime resident of Skagit County, passed away July 31 with family by her side, leaving behind a legacy of service, dedication and love. Following the untimely death of her mother, Elaine lived with the Diehl family, graduating Bellingham High School, class of 1949. After graduation, she went to visit the Stewart family on Decatur Island. It was there she met her husband, Robert Alan Stewart. They married in 1949, living for a time on the historic property before moving to Anacortes. Elaine worked as a meat wrapper, retiring...
Communication was the key word when the La Conner High School girls' soccer team opened preseason workouts last week. The hope is that by season's end, the rebuilding Braves program will be the talk of the perennially tough NW2B League. "The feedback we're getting is that our communication on the field is much improved," second year head coach Maddie Huscher said. "We've really stepped up with that all over the field, on offense and defense." Huscher and assistant coaches Robert Hancock and...
Defense was its calling card a year ago. This season the La Conner High School boys' soccer team is counting on its best defense being a strong offense. "We'll be more focused on attacking," head coach Galen McKnight told the Weekly News Friday afternoon as his club wrapped up its first week of preseason workouts. "Last year we played a lot of close matches, with 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2-type scores," he said. "I think we can build on that but also play more aggressively on offense." One reason for the...
The Skagit Women's Alliance Network and its leadership award nominees gathered here Aug. 29 for a two-hour meet-and-greet at the La Conner Civic Garden Club. Nominees for annual SWAN awards were honored guests at the historic venue, which proved an ideal setting. That's because one of the honorees has lifelong ties to the community. La Conner High School alum and Swinomish Tribal Community elder Janie Beasley has been nominated for the 2024 SWAN Lifetime Achievement Award. Her nomination is...
Nancy Llewellyn may not have known it at the time, but her years at La Conner High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s were a prescription for future success. A positive prognosis was quite apparent even then to fellow students and faculty members alike, all of whom admired her keen academic skills, especially gifts for solving tough math problems and writing bold pieces for the campus newspaper. The 1972 La Conner grad would go on to medical school at the University of Washington and a sub...
It's rare to be the recipient of a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Award, presented to those who have made significant contributions to the organization's wide range of public service programs. That being the case, local tulip grower Leo Roozen is doubly esteemed by area Rotarians. Roozen received his second Paul Harris honor during the La Conner Rotary Club's annual dinner and auction at Maple Hall Saturday night. The chapter will contribute $1,000 in his name to their international...
The couple planning to open a martial arts studio and fitness club on Maple Avenue at Washington Street didn’t face much of a fight when the project went before Town Hearing Examiner David Lowell last week. Tracy and April Emmanuelson-Barnett received overwhelming support during a well-attended one-hour public hearing on their application for a permit to revamp the former COA building on Maple Avenue. It has been vacant for two years after having been operated as restaurants since the 1970s, a non-conforming use in a residential zone. Lowell s...
It was a back-to-work Monday morning this week for La Conner High School volleyball team players and coaches. After a busy summer of team camps and open gyms, head coach Pam Keller, assistant Kamea Luna and a roster led by lone senior Addie Wigal were eager to hit the Landy James Activity Court hardwood by 9 a.m. "We're very young this year," Keller said. She guided the Braves to a state tourney berth last year in her first season as head coach. "But this is a very coachable group," Keller...
Remember “Eight Is Enough,” the popular 1970s TV drama? It’s now the new mantra for La Conner High School football, at least for the next two seasons. Faced with declining enrollment as the smallest Class 2B school system in Washington, La Conner school officials opted following the 2023 season and a series of community meetings to downsize the team to eight players. The Braves will play an independent eight-man schedule this season and next. They will not be eligible for post-season action. Playoff spots are reserved for 1B schools. Durin...
Classes haven't started yet but two La Conner High School students already have homework. Emmalin Goodman and Kellie Cayou-Lockrem will be providing feedback to school board members on the district's new cell phone policy, their first task as the board's new student representatives. "We value your input," board member John Agen told the panel's student reps. "We'd like to have you be the most engaged student representatives we've ever had." Board President Susie Deyo said that rather than assig...