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La Conner schools are big on tradition. And the district’s newest tradition promises to be among the most significant in school history. The bright blue image of an eagle bearing an interlocking L and C, created by Swinomish artist Jeanette Quintasket, was introduced during the Jan. 24 school board meeting as the new La Conner Braves mascot. The colorful icon reflects regional Coast Salish artistic imagery and replaces prior Braves graphics that for decades depicted Hollywoodish Plains I...
By proclamation of the governor, January is School Board Recognition Month. It is a great time to recognize our elected community members who selflessly give their time and energy in support of high-quality public schooling for our youth. School board members in La Conner are entrusted by this community with responsibility for an annual budget of $14,070,000 for this year, fiscal year 2021-2022, an average of 555 students, 116 employees and nine buildings. School boards are charged with making decisions that can sometimes be quite difficult,...
Demolition of the old garage behind The Slider Café on a January Sunday drew plenty of attention. What was missed, however, were conditions spelled out on the Town demolition permit allowing the structure to be torn down on property eyed as the site for a 20-unit apartment complex. Planner Michael Davolio told the La Conner Planning Commission, during their monthly Zoom meeting two days later, on Jan. 18, that a stop work order was placed on the demolition because representatives of property owners KSA Investments had not conferred with...
There are victories, defeats and moral victories. The latter was the case for the La Conner Braves Friday night, Jan. 21, when they lost a hard-fought 59-49 non-conference boys’ hoops decision to 2A Sedro-Woolley at Landy James Gym. “It was a good game,” first year head coach C.J. Woods told the Weekly News afterward. “We had a chance to win.” Indeed, the 2B Braves truly had a shot to knock off their larger school foe. La Conner (4-8 overall; 2-3 in NW2B/1B play) trailed just 39-33 entering the final stanza on the strength of strong post play...
The powerhouse La Conner High School girls’ basketball team (13-1 overall) is becoming as much a threat to the electric grid as extreme winter weather. The explosive Lady Braves are threatening to short out scoreboards in area gyms with their frenzied point production of late, having broken the century mark in successive matchups with NW2B/1B foes this month. The team followed up a 104-14 rout of Concrete earlier in January with a 108-18 romp over Darrington last Thursday. Between those lopsided triumphs, they defeated 1A programs Klahowya a...
Jenna Rudig, a senior at La Conner High School is the Soroptimist International of La Conner January Honored Student. She has contributed to many causes in the community while working part time, attending Skagit Valley Community College and continuing her education at La Conner High School. Much of Jenna’s volunteerism the last three years has revolved around the LCHS Varsity Volunteer Club. One of their projects this year is the Collective Impact Project, collecting canned food for the La C...
The famed Troubadour Club in Hollywood has helped launch some of the biggest acts in the music business, from Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt to Elton John and the Eagles. Its iconic stage was also graced several times in the 1960s, during the height of the American folk music revival, by a talented southern California female teen string trio, one of whose members would later embrace La Conner as her hometown. Suzie Racanello, who still harmonizes while on car rides with local friends Faye Whi...
The La Conner High School girls’ basketball team did not plan on losing Friday night. Then again, the Lady Braves had not planned on facing undefeated 4A Eastlake on the road, either. The team’s regularly scheduled Jan. 14 tipoff with nearby 1B rival Mount Vernon Christian was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols and the open date was filled with a trip to the Sammamish Plateau and a Hoosiers-type matchup with the Lady Wolves. “We needed to pick up a non-league game for a game that wasn’t played over Christmas break, so we traveled to Eastlake s...
Some would say the La Conner High School girls’ basketball team has the sport down to a science. Count veteran head coach Scott Novak among them. “The chemistry on our team is unbelievable,” Novak insisted to the Weekly News following a convincing 70-29 non-conference home win over 1A Klahowya of Silverdale last Tuesday night, Jan 11. Indeed, the Lady Braves showcased all the elements of a championship caliber club in easily defeating their fifth larger school foe of the campaign. Four players, led by junior post Ellie Marble, finished in do...
The current COVID-19 surge has local officials modifying game plans to stem spread of the virus. The La Conner School District has adopted a two-week (Jan. 14-26) pause of spectator attendance at indoor district events, allowing only two family members per student participant or athlete to watch. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, whose public health team confirmed 35 new cases of COVID-19 between Jan. 6-10, is stressing that its members limit social gatherings and always wear masks when indoors with persons outside their households....
Winter officially started Dec. 21 – except on the calendar used by Town of La Conner Public Works Director Brian Lease. Lease and his staff began winterizing in October. No one can fault their timing, either, given the rash of snowstorms and tidal flooding conditions they have had to deal with the past couple weeks. “We prepped everything in October, from filling sandbags to getting our equipment ready,” Lease told the Weekly News during a rare break Friday. It was three months ago, for...
Scott Stephan Wilme died peacefully in his home with his family close by on December 30, 2021 in La Conner, Washington after a long hard battle with cancer. He was 53 years old. Scott grew up predominantly in Kirkland, Washington and Ocean Shores, Washington. As a teenager in Ocean Shores, he enjoyed riding his motorcycle in the sand dunes and was a volunteer fireman. He graduated from Hoquiam High School then attended Washington State University. At WSU, Scott became a member of the Pi Kappa Al...
Though idle for two weeks beforehand, the unbeaten La Conner High School girls’ basketball team had no trouble shaking off the rust at Coupeville last Tuesday, Jan 4. La Conner returned to action showing machine-like precision in its half-court offense while also scoring repeatedly off its high-octane transition game enroute to a convincing 69-13 NW2B road triumph. With icy road conditions having nixed a much-anticipated Dec. 30 matchup with 4A Kamiak, La Conner was revved up for this tipoff. “This was our first game in two weeks and we pla...
It was a good news, bad news kind of night for Braves boy basketball at Coupeville last Tuesday. The good news is La Conner held unbeaten Coupeville, ranked No. 4 in state 2B boys’ polls, to nearly 20 points under their per game scoring average. The bad news is the Braves still found themselves on the short end of a 54-29 conference verdict Jan. 4, falling to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in NW2B play, La Conner played the Wolves on equal terms over the final three quarters but couldn’t overcome an early 27-2 Coupeville run fueled by three-point spe...
Stories of kids walking miles to get to and from school rain or shine are the stuff of which legends are made. But for Roy Pearmain it is a story that is both true and represents the first step in what would be his pursuit of careers from nearly all walks of life. Since graduating in 1960 as La Conner High School’s student body president, Pearmain has gone on to be a college graduate, public school teacher, aerospace scientist, writer, weather watcher and reporter, firefighter/EMT, civic l...
Curt Buher was a big guy. The hole he leaves behind is big, too. Buher, who died Dec. 20, came to town with his wife Lori in 1979 to housesit for Maxine Wyman and never left. “They knew that La Conner was where they wanted to be,” said Cathie Wyman, Maxine’s daughter-in-law and Buher’s sister. As a clerk and driver for Nelson Lumber and as a freelance laborer, Buher grew to love construction. He started Atlas Construction in 1983 with Jim Robertson, his partner for about ten years. Over the next 30 years, Buher and a crew of locals that in...
There is much David Franklin will miss about Shelter Bay when the longtime manager of the local residential community exits Jan. 28 to write a new chapter in a career that has seen him hold positions between here and southwest Alaska. In keeping with that literary theme, it is the characters that Franklin says he will miss most. “Some I work with, some are in the community, all are interesting and unpredictable,” Franklin told the Weekly News. “I can see why Tom Robbins wrote his novels here....
Louis Duane “Red” Bretvick, age 94, passed away on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021 in Mount Vernon, WA. Duane was born September 26, 1927, in Mount Vernon, WA to Laverne (nee McNeil) and Louis (Lud) Bretvick. He was raised in the family household on the north fork of the Skagit River. He attended La Conner schools and was a La Conner High School class of 1945 graduate. Following high school graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and honorably served in WWII and the Korean conflict. While in the Nav...
A La Conner High School senior is the first election winner of the new year. Not just locally, either, but on a statewide basis. Sarah Cook, a key member of the school’s undefeated girls’ basketball team, was the top online vote-getter in polling for WaFd Bank’s Washington State Athlete of the Week honors through Sunday by Scorebook Live, a major sports website. Cook was one of 19 nominees on the ballot for Dec. 20-26, a field that included Garfield boys’ hoops standout Koren Johnson, who is committed to the University of Washington men’s b...
Curtis (Curt) Anthony Buher passed away peacefully on December 20, 2021 at his home on Pleasant Ridge near La Conner, Washington. He was 66 years old. After being diagnosed with brain cancer in the Spring, Curt was able to spend his last months with family and friends. Curt was born Sept. 23, 1955 in Bremerton, Washington, to Donald and Juanita Buher. He was the youngest of four children. Curt grew up across the street from the town tennis courts and began playing with a shortened racquet when...
Bigger isn’t necessarily better. The unbeaten state champion La Conner High School volleyball team proved that repeatedly in the fall, beating several bigger schools. Now the school’s girls’ basketball program is further emphasizing the point. The NW2B leading Lady Braves (8-0 overall), with wins already this season over larger schools Lynden, Nooksack Valley and Anacortes, posted another statement win with an impressive 56-48 home game last Tuesday over previously undefeated 3A Stanwood. It very well could be La Conner’s best victory to date...
A white Christmas gave way to a blue Boxing Day. And even more blue conditions – in terms of plummeting temperatures – greeted the La Conner area this week with additional area-wide lowland snowfall anticipated Thursday. That forecast led Kamiak School District officials to announce as early as Monday that its girls’ basketball team would not travel to La Conner for a non-league basketball game scheduled here tomorrow night. The Dec. 30 La Conner High boys’ home non-conference bas...
The obscene graffiti spray-painted at the skate park on the north end of the La Conner schools campus was low-tech vandalism at its worst. But higher levels of technology have thus far been unable to help solve the troubling crime. Sgt. Jeff Willard, administrator of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office La Conner Detachment, said on Thursday that reviews of the school district’s security camera footage have not determined who defaced the park area over the Thanksgiving break. “Right now, we don’t have a suspect,” Willard told the Weekly News, “an...
The undefeated La Conner High School girls’ basketball team romped past NW2B rivals Friday Harbor and Darrington last week, posting lopsided wins. But it was last night’s much anticipated meeting with 3A Stanwood that was being eyed as a true barometer of just good La Conner is as the team braces for the midway part of its season. They already owns triumphs over larger school programs Lynden, Nooksack Valley and Anacortes. The clash with Stanwood, originally set for Monday, was another example of recent schedule changes necessitated by shortage...
La Conner High School volleyball foes were not just way out of their league this past season. They were hardly in the same state. Undefeated La Conner, which captured its third consecutive state volleyball crown last month, has continued to score points in the post-season – its players garnering a slew of All-League honors and the Lady Braves being recognized as the 2B State Team of the Month. The accolades did not stop there. Players and head coach Suzanne Marble dominate the Washington State Volleyball Coaches Association 2B All-State...