Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 833 - 857 of 1389
Normal life has been hammered hard by COVID-19. But the virus crisis, which led La Conner Schools to adopt a distance learning model this semester, is not stopping construction class students from continuing to build their projects. More important, the pandemic is also teaching them how to build lifelong problem-solving skills. Credit La Conner High shop teacher Daniel Castillo with laying the foundation to help his students overcome obstacles related to virtual classrooms and technology dependence. “When we come to technology challenges or lif...
The La Conner High School Green Club was formed last year by several of us. Our mission statement is to educate our classmates, family and community about the importance of being a caretaker for our planet and to support others who feel the same. We are excited to start a fundraising project, and we need your help. We are asking for donations of empty animal feed bags. We will be using them to create reusable shopping bags. We plan to sell the bags throughout the Skagit Valley. Funds collected will be used to support club activities. If you...
Monday, October 26 2:58 p.m.: Deputies on duty – Deputies were working radar in the area due to complaints of a specific speeding vehicle. Deputies caught the suspected vehicle speeding and issued the driver a citation. Laurel St. / Maple Ave., La Conner. Wednesday, October 28 3:58 p.m.: Handcuffed handoff – Oak Harbor PD requested assistance transporting two subjects to the Skagit County Community Justice Center. La Conner Whitney Rd., Greater La Conner. Thursday, October 29 9:41 p.m.: Cow mooed on – Report of a cow in the...
Halloween was full of new tricks and treats for La Conner High football players. The Braves spent two hours Saturday morning working out, starting the day wearing helmet facemasks instead of Halloween facemasks. Afterward, first-year head coach Jeff Scoma treated them to ample shares of holiday candy. Just being able to line up on Whittaker Field was Scoma’s idea of an ideal Halloween thrill. “These guys have gone a long time without football,” Scoma, previously a coach in the vaunted Belle...
Timing in life is everything. Before the COVID-10 pandemic led schools, colleges, and universities to shift courses to on-line instruction, a trio of La Conner High students were able to use the State Capitol as their government classroom. MacQuaid Hiller and siblings James and Mia Carlton served as legislative pages in Olympia, filling wide-ranging roles vital to making the lawmaking process more efficient. Hiller and the Carltons each spent a week last winter helping distribute legislative amendments and related material throughout the...
Moonlight and pumpkins set the stage for the first-ever Locals Night at Gordon Skagit Farms last Thursday. A first-quarter moon loitered over the barn. Tea lights illuminated a display of green speckled swan gourds. Lighted pumpkins spelled “Gordon’s”. La Conner High School graduate Parker Rivas unloaded purchases from carts in the weigh station. Georgia Johnson whipped up complimentary chocolate Cointreau crepes. Owners Todd and Eddie Gordon mingled with after-hours guests. The small but appre...
Wesley Royal Nelson, age 79, passed away peacefully at his home at Warm Beach Senior Community, WA on Sept. 24, 2020. Wes was born on June 15, 1941 in Nampa, Idaho, to Royal S. Nelson and Lola Lingle Nelson. Wes graduated from Warsaw High School near Winona Lake, IN. He attended Seattle Pacific College where he met Leona, both enrolled as speech majors. They were married on July 5, 1963. While in college, Wes felt a definite call to be a pastor. In his senior year, he was asked to plant a new...
La Conner, WA (formerly of Everett, WA) Gordon Craig Kimbell, 85, peacefully went to be with his Lord and Savior on October 9, 2020. Dad was born to Carl and Mildred (King) Kimbell on September 18, 1935 in Everett, WA. As their only child, he was their pride and joy. Dad graduated from Everett High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Western Washington College (now University) in Bellingham. During this time, he started courting another Everett native, Arlene G...
Mark Lee Stephens, 72, went to sleep and woke up with the Lord on October 10, 2020. He was many things- a storyteller, patriot, a corporate executive, a collector, a woodworker, a car guy, most recently, a novice crabber – but, above all, he was a loyal friend, a loving father and grandfather, and a devoted husband to his one true love. Mark was born in Ventura, CA on November 14, 1947 and raised on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. As an only child, he had fond memories of running around...
The La Conner Weekly News keeps getting better in its efforts to bring news to the community. The staff earned 15 awards at the annual Better Newspaper Contest for Washington’s community newspapers, led by Bill Reynolds’ seven. Reynolds almost swept the “personality profile, long category,” getting second place for his story on Mike Carrigan retiring after 25 years at La Conner High School. His Fisher Family tribute ahead of the 2019 Pioneer Picnic took third. Reynold gained firsts for his cov...
Spikes on the volleyball court would be a most welcome change from those in COVID-19 cases. The hope is that will soon be the case. Especially in La Conner, where the two-time defending state champion Lady Braves are cleared to resume full team activities under anti-COVID guidelines set by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), which governs school sports and extra-curricular programs in the state. “The WIAA is allowing full team practices for activities and sports that are considered low or moderate at-risk if they a...
Add one more item to the list of COVID-19 impacts here. The school board was told that the long running La Conner High senior seminar class, which featured formal student presentations before community panels, is morphing into a new program that is more technology oriented for this time of distance learning. “This year, with COVID,” La Conner Middle & High School Counselor Lori Buher told board members at their Sept. 28 video-conferenced meeting, “adding the senior seminar class is prohi...
Any other year the two-time defending state champion La Conner High volleyball team would be approaching mid-season form about now. But the COVID-19 pandemic has dictated the school sports calendar since mid-March. As a result, La Conner teams these days are content taking part through November in a modified practice format sanctioned by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), which governs school athletics and extra-curricular programs in the state. La Conner High’s v...
Monday, September 28 11:38 a.m.: Con call – Caller reported online fraud. Calhoun Rd., Greater La Conner. 2:01 p.m.: Is it junk? – Caller requested a junk vehicle inspection. Deputies completed the inspection and hulk vehicle form. Ring Ln., La Conner. 5:26 p.m.: Fishing non-ethics – Report of a freezer that had been left at this location that smelled bad. Deputies determined people had been throwing fish guts in it. Bay View Edison Rd. / W. Edison Ln, Edison. Tuesday, September 29 2:01 p.m.: State takeover – Vehicle...
A gentle giant of a man with a heart as big as he was tall, and a warm friend to many, many people, Ron Scott passed away peacefully on September 29th at his home in La Conner, his wife Elizabeth by his side. With a keen eye for organization and for human nature, Ron enjoyed a long and successful life as an organizational development consultant at the board level of many large companies, as well as an executive coach to individuals at all levels. Ron excelled at making connections between...
Good teachers have a lifelong impact. Great teachers, like Arnold Torseth and Curt McCauley, leave enduring legacies that span generations. Their many contributions here will not soon – if ever – be forgotten. The two La Conner men, each of whom passed earlier this month, for years modeled poise, wisdom and expertise in multiple areas while inspiring others to achieve their dreams. They did so from different venues; Torseth in the classroom, McCauley in the martial arts studio. They...
Sunday the Rotary Club of La Conner did a community service project weeding and cleaning up weeds, blackberry vines and ivy along the Benton Street Stairs. I would like to give a huge shout out to “Touch Up Landscape” owner Thomas Kahn, who happens to be my son, and his amazing partner Kaylie Brown, along with neighbors of the stairs, Bob Raymond and Dorothy Downs, all of whom are not members of Rotary but dedicated members of the La Conner community willing to go the extra mile and help keep La Conner beautiful during this devastating pan...
Arnold Torseth went to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, passing away peacefully in his sleep at Mountain Glen Retirement Center on September 19, 2020. Arnold was born at home in Conway, Washington to Sivert and Marit Grytbakk Torseth on March 5, 1930. He attended Conway Grade School and graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1948. He was drafted into the army and served in Korea during the Korean War. Arnold married Priscilla E. Ramsey on March 1, 1952. They would go on to enjoy...
Curtis W. McCauley of La Conner, Washington passed away on Sunday, September 13, 2020 at the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle from complications following a stroke. Curt was born on June 11, 1943 in Sacramento, California. He was named John Rudd Hart by his biological mother. When adopted shortly after birth by Lila and Carl Duncan, he was renamed Curtis Wesley Duncan. When he was seven years old, Curt moved to Washington State with his mother and step-father, George McCauley. The...
If you’re looking for poets next weekend, don’t come to Maple Hall. Or the Methodist Church. Or the Seafood and Prime Rib House. Or the Tavern. Or the La Conner Country Inn. Or any of the usual haunts that would ordinarily be teeming with poets and poetry lovers. With the Skagit River Poetry Festival postponed for at least a year, the only place you will find poets is in school. Online, of course. When schools closed unexpectedly last March, the Skagit River Poetry Foundation’s Poets in the S...
There are few names as ordinary as Bill Smith. But it also happens to be the name of a truly extraordinary character familiar to readers of award-winning La Conner author Wayne Johnston. Johnston, a retired La Conner High English teacher and former tugboat chief engineer and mate, introduced Smith in “North Fork,” his 2016 debut novel, which has since been used in classrooms between here and central California. In “The Home Stretch,” Johnston’s new release, Smith returns as the narrator in a page-turning, emotionally gripping account that addr...
The 2020-21 school year begins for La Conner students on Sept. 14. For the teachers and staff it began Sept. 2nd. For many in the administration and teaching staff, last year’s school year never ended before this new school year began. With the end of the school year our state superintendent of public instruction made a public statement that all schools would open in person come September, but to be prepared for the possibility of full online learning, or a hybrid scenario, and to take immediate steps in the preparation for all three of t...
Back to school in La Conner this year means back to the computer screen for students and teachers alike. La Conner Schools teachers and staff began training remotely last week with the new distance learning platforms that will be used to instruct students at least through fall semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On-line classes in La Conner are scheduled to start Sept. 14. For La Conner teachers and para-educators, the usual end of summer on-campus camaraderie with colleagues renewing friendships and sharing vacation updates prior to...
There won’t be any La Conner High football this fall, but grid fans here will have one player with local ties to follow when the NFL season kicks off this Sunday. Hunter Bryant, son of La Conner alum Shana Bryant and grandson of former La Conner resident Patti Beard, has made the regular season roster of the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agent tight end out of the University of Washington. “Hunter’s dream is becoming a reality,” Beard said on Monday, after the Lions announced their 53-player roster for the team’s Sept. 13 home opener with...
Skagit County is showing 68.1 new cases per 100,000 population for the two weeks through Sept. 6, as reported by the Washington Department of Health on its COVID-19 risk assessment dashboard. This is the lowest two-week case report since June. But that is not the big story, Skagit Public Health staff told the County Board of Health at its Sept. 3 meeting. The testing numbers two weeks after Labor Day, and whether they spike, as they have after every holiday since Mother’s Day, will be the big September coronavirus story. By being below 75 cases...