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La Conner is growing. In 2021 its housing stock will increase with developments on and above Maple Avenue. Ten homes will be built on the current ballfield. Mayor Ramon Hayes’ Maple View complex five blocks south adds four more. On Snapdragon Hill, C.J. Ebert is developing lots for another seven residences. These will all be market rate homes, selling for whatever price the developer and buyer agree to. These high priced homes will be good news for the town government, increasing the property tax base and adding stable dollars to its budget for...
Kel-Kahl-Tsoot was the hereditary chief of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. His great grandfather Kel-Kahl-Tsoot signed the treaty for the Swinomish tribe in 1855. After his passing the name was handed down to the late Henry Cladoosby, Mike’s uncle. After Henry’s passing in 1973 Kel-Kahl-Tsoot was handed down to Mike. Michael John Cladoosby, Sr. entered this world on August 16, 1933, born to Ernest Cladoosby, Sr. from Swinomish and Lena Shelton Cladoosby from Tulalip. He was the 6th chi...
Maya Masonholder has framed her involvements at school around sports. As a part of the state champion volleyball team, the varsity softball team and the varsity basketball teams, she lettered five times. The evolution of school sports during COVID-19 is a story in itself! She also volunteers to support other teams. Most recently she was the manager for the La Conner high school boys basketball team and filmed the boys and girls junior varsity teams. Little league baseball and little league...
The award-winning La Conner High Knowledge Bowl program is used to having all the answers. And, true to form, not even 2020’a universal campus lockdowns imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has kept team members from participating at a high level. By using technology and collaborating with other knowledge bowlers across Washington state, the team has found a way to practice and compete despite the virus crisis, which forced schools to start the academic year with remote learning formats. La Conner’s Chronically Iliad entry, com...
At a time when the national landscape is scarred with divisions wedged by alternative facts and cancel culture embraced by both left and right, time-honored values upon which participatory democracy was founded enjoy consensus support on the local level. Though political tribalism can send a polarized electorate to respective echo chambers for spin disguised as information, there remains a “we’re all in this together” mindset when it comes to recognizing critical aspects of citizenship upon which communities rely. This is especially true in th...
They go in the books as a pair of double-digit losses, but the La Conner High baseball team’s setbacks at Friday Harbor and Coupeville last week represent a win-win situation of sorts for the Braves. The team is back between the chalk lines after not seeing action since 2018. It is also, so far, prevailing over COVID-19. La Conner was unable to field a baseball team in 2019 due to low numbers. The onset of the virus crisis last spring wiped out the 2020 baseball season. Thus, the Braves’ 27-...
Let the games begin. In fact, they already have. The La Conner High track teams swept a league meet at Coupeville on Friday. The school’s softball team hosted NW2B/1B rival Darrington Saturday afternoon, dropping a 25-3 verdict in four innings. La Conner’s golf teams traveled Monday to Grace Academy, while the Braves baseball program was scheduled at Friday Harbor yesterday. Those represented the first La Conner High sports action in nearly a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed campu...
Tuesday night the La Conner Town Council had the purchase of Hedlin’s Ballfield on their agenda. The Council was to approve an agreement with Frank Jeretzky, a commercial loan officer with Mountain Pacific Bank, to buy the property for $800,000, about $25,000 more than the Town’s asking price. The deal enables Landed Gentry Homes, a leader in residential development in Skagit County for more than four decades, to build 10 single-family homes on 70 per cent of the nearly two-acre site, which for...
La Conner High spring sports teams launched their 2021 campaign earlier than usual with practices starting Monday afternoon. Even so, they have some catching up to do. After all, the 2020 season was entirely wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. The school’s softball and baseball teams managed one scrimmage together in mid-March before campuses were closed statewide in response to the virus crisis. In years past, the first day of full spring workouts would have coincided with completion of the s...
Mary Clare Nelson passed away on Sunday, February 21, 2021. She was born in Mount Vernon on January 16, 1926, the daughter of Alfred Mozart and Stella Vivian (Dunlap) Nelson. Mary Clare graduated from La Conner High School with the class of 1944. She then went on to attend Washington State College in 1944 to 1945. She attended the U of W 1946-1947 where she learned shorthand, typing and how to make a living. After college she returned to La Conner to begin her life. Her life’s trail took her o...
The Swinomish Tribal Senate is pleased to announce its approval of the Tribe’s 2021 voluntary contributions to the La Conner Regional Library, Fire District 13 and La Conner School District. The contributions will be paid from Trust Improvement Use and Occupancy taxes, which the Tribe collects from individual Tribal landowners and owners of homes built on leased Swinomish trust lands. Recognizing the economic challenges faced by some taxpayers from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tribe is also pleased to announce reduction of the 2021 tax rate to $...
La Conner High sports teams and fans have long added their own twist to the lyrics when singing the national anthem prior to games. They regularly close the first verse by emphasizing and slightly altering the final lines – “O’er the land of the free and the home of the Braves” – to reflect the school’s longtime mascot. That might change going forward. State Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bow, has introduced a bill that would ban use of Native American mascots for school sports teams in Washington. The proposed legislation, House Bill 13...
At La Conner High, where Samantha Davidson is a sophomore, student life is highlighted in the Pioneer yearbook. In Davidson’s case, that is most fitting since she has achieved pioneer status in her own right. Davidson, known to friends and family as “Sammy,” is the first girl from the tri-county Skagit-Whatcom-Island area to attain the rank of Eagle Scout. It took Davidson just two years to earn that honor, the scouting world’s top achievement and one which is realized by less than five per cen...
Stephen J. Carter, La Conner resident, died January 29, 2021 at the Skagit Regional Hospital of cardiac arrest. He was born in Spokane in 1942 and graduated from Queen Anne High School in Seattle, University of Washington, and University of Washington School of Medicine. After serving as a Naval Flight Surgeon in the U.S. Navy, he began his medical career at the UW and ultimately directed ultrasound at Veteran’s Hospital. He joined a private practice radiology group at United General Hospital in the late 1970’s. Stephen returned to the UW and...
The Soroptimist Honored Student for January, Sarah Malcomson, has learned how to be flexible and stay positive with virtual classes. Sarah, a senior at La Conner High School, enjoys having school in the comfort of her own home, while improving her time management skills. Sarah is a National Honor Society student who enjoys finding time for volunteering. English and AP Environmental Science and Geography are Sarah’s favorite classes. In college she wants to continue to explore lots of academic i...
It goes without saying that Jim Bergem thinks the world of La Conner, the hometown that helped launch a wide-ranging career that has taken him to the far reaches of the globe. Bergem, the 1986 La Conner High student body president, calls Spokane home these days. But given that he has made stops in Taiwan and Malaysia while working in media and marketing, the Inland Empire seems just a stone’s throw away. Bergem credits a lifelong love of sports, plus support from family and his La Conner teachers, with encouraging him to venture beyond the b...
Monday, Feb. 1 2:08 p.m.: Dog gone – Report of a black dog walking in the roadway. Deputy checked the area, but were unable to locate. Best / Chilberg Rds., Greater La Conner. Tuesday, Feb. 2 3:17 p.m.: Nervy thief – Caller reported the theft of a portable security camera from inside their home. Bradshaw Rd., Greater La Conner. Wednesday, Feb. 3 9:56 a.m.: Prowling around – Caller reported a vehicle prowl. The caller said her purse was taken from her unlocked vehicle and there was no damage to her car. State St, La Conner....
Daffodils will begin blooming in March. Tulips will arrive in April. Whether tourists will be allowed to follow is up in the air. “What we’re telling people is, we know we’ll be open, we just don’t know yet what the regulations will allow,” said Skagit Valley Tulip Festival Executive Director Cindy Verge. Some things are certain. There will be a Tulip Festival brochure that includes a map of daffodil and tulip fields. There will not be a Mount Vernon Kiwanis managed salmon barbecue. “There ar...
Oprah Winfrey is quoted as saying, “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” Our School District is in the process of another change, which means there is an impact on our community as well. The La Conner School District has set a target date of February 1 to begin bringing students back to school. This will be a phased approach starting with pre-first grade students in a hybrid model; the details are on the La Conner School District website. We are hopeful that by the end of...
As a parent of teens in La Conner, I would like to express deep appreciation on behalf of myself, and all of the La Conner Young Life Committee members, to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for their faithful support. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community generously donated $15,000 to La Conner Young Life. This is not the only year that the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community has donated. They have been a faithful supporter to the efforts of Young Life in La Conner for over a decade. This support has been invaluable in enabling countless...
Ann Wilder, a long-time resident of La Conner, WA and formerly of Grapeview, WA passed away in Anacortes, WA on Friday, January 15, 2021. She was born in St. Louis, MO, on June 20, 1932, to Paul and Norma Burgoldt. As a young child, Ann went to Catholic boarding school with her sister Jean, and later went to elementary/middle school in Minneapolis. They embraced wintertime and used to skate the river between towns. By high school, Ann was living in Connecticut and graduated from Greenwich High...
The La Conner School Board on Monday approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the school district and La Conner Education Association addressing requirements for returning to school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agreement focuses on putting in place health screening, masking, social distancing and room cleaning and sanitizing standards to safely bring students and staff back to school. “This gives everybody some structure with which to work through the hybrid model,” interim sup...
It is often said that an ill wind blows no good. That being the case, the storm that blew through here last week was plenty sick. Fierce winds downed trees and power lines, caused major property damage, and left some residents in the La Conner area without electricity for up to four days. Images of the early Wednesday morning storm painted a grim picture. A Ford pickup parked at Jim White’s State Street residence was totaled by a fallen tree. A large Douglas fir blew over near the community k...
La Conner students have done plenty of homework this year, due to the remote learning format adopted to curb spread of COVID-19. School officials have been loaded with homework, too. Their assignment: develop a plan to safely transition students to in-person instruction. A Feb. 1 start was part of the framework unanimously approved by school board members during a 75-minute Zoom meeting Monday night. La Conner Schools’ Director of Special Programs Andy Wheeler outlined the plan, which had been d...
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, high school sports schedules have changed again and again. Still more changes were announced last Wednesday. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) executive board, in response to new pandemic guidelines outlined by Gov. Jay Inslee, has ruled practices for the traditional fall sports season can begin Feb. 1. After several planned launches dating to last summer, the WIAA is now calling the seven-week fall campaign Season 1. “The change in guidelines,” WIAA Executive Director Mick Hof...