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In 1977 Dick Holt moved his growing family to La Conner to establish a barber shop. It was then, and still remains, the only shop in town, and over the past forty-two years has become not only a La Conner institution, but is now a three-generation family affair. Dick still fills in at the shop when necessary, but son Tony has anchored the business for many years, and recently Tony’s daughter McKeighla has joined the family in the two-chair operation. Dick began his barbering career f...
Those of you who know me realize I care deeply about children and education. My desire is always to be a part of the solution and work for unity. I know that the new food services director and her team at La Conner School District are working extremely hard to provide excellent services for everyone, and I realize they are being directed by the district office. Amber Fleck, a LCSD parent and employee, should not have to summon the courage to stand up at a school board meeting as an advocate for students to say that the meal portions have not...
Today’s front page headline urging ALL La Conner School District residents to attend tonight’s District 1 and 2 director candidates forum uses all caps to get your attention. That is a poor fix for the error made here last week, when the editorial wrongly focused on urging Fidalgo Island voters in Districts 1 and 2 to attend the forum. Wrong: In Washington all voters in a school district vote for all directors. That is an at large voting system placed on top of geographical representation by distributing directors throughout the district. I m...
I am a candidate for the La Conner School Board, I believe the District can benefit from a fresh perspective within its leadership team. As a candidate, I thought it prudent to share my opinions regarding issues that have arisen involving the Board, Superintendent Meissner and both the teachers’ union and non-classified union. Since early May, I have been a close observer of the actions taken and statements made. I understand the frustrations of all involved – mistakes have probably been made by people on all sides. I certainly have n...
Elders carried signs reading “Wake Up, the House is on Fire.” One teen asked, “if your house was on fire, would you just sit there?” and another spoke of “the (melting) polar caps are our alarms; we need to stop the fire burning in our homes now” werer part of some 250 Skagetonians of all ages gathering at the Skagit County Courthouse Friday. Hope and despair for the future of the planet – and theirs and their children’s very uncertain futures – were voiced by teens, elders and a...
I am long overdue in expressing my thanks to our local community and the Swinomish Tribal Community for supporting the youth of La Conner. A little over three years ago my then junior high daughter came home from a Young Life summer camp and expressed it was one of the best weeks of her life. She was then able to experience this magic again as a high school student when she attended the high school camp. Each year I watched as a bus full of somewhat withdrawn middle and high school students departed La Conner and then watched amazed when that...
Few have as much to celebrate these days as Katherine Paul. The daughter of local residents Kevin and Pat Paul is an acclaimed vocalist whose music was featured in a recent National Public Radio (NPR) interview with correspondent Ailsa Chang. She’s also a newlywed. And hers were no ordinary nuptials. Katherine, 30, and Camas Logue, 31, both of Portland, were wed earlier this month on the banks of the Columbia River, each having arrived on tribal canoes, an 11-minute crossing in the p...
At La Conner Elementary, it isn’t just back to school time for students and staff. The iconic campus totem pole has also returned. A large crowd gathered around the school’s parking circle last Wednesday to witness re-installation of its near quarter-century old signature landmark, which was refurbished over the summer by master carver and Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Senator Kevin Paul. The project was especially meaningful for Paul, who had joined his late father and brother, Alex Pau...
Charles Robert Hedlund passed on September 10, 2019 at the age of 81. “Chuck” to his friends, which was just about everyone, was a lifelong Skagit Valley and La Conner resident. Born on June 20, 1938 in Mt. Vernon, WA he attended Lincoln and Roosevelt grade schools until moving to La Conner in third grade. He graduated from La Conner High School in 1956 and married his high school sweetheart Marianne Swanson (La Conner class of 1957) in 1958. Right out of high school, Chuck worked for the Dunlap...
There’s little doubt Kathy Herrera puts her heart into her career. But that’s just a figure of speech compared to the sacrifice she made away from work this summer. The La Conner Middle and High School athletic director and assistant principal donated a kidney to her brother-in-law, 41-year-old Fred Schori, of Seminole, Florida, in a five-hour surgery on July 31 – just five weeks before the start of school. Yet the former college athlete was in school hallways greeting students last Wed...
It was while selling doors for a living that Heather Fakkema realized doors were also opening for her to pursue a career in school administration. She had by then already spent two years as a teacher before stepping away from the classroom to start a family and engage in several other ventures, including a children’s ministry. The light bulb flicked on during her time with a family-owned window and door distribution firm in Seattle. Business management introduced Fakkema to concepts her t...
The future is now for La Conner football. Youth league players who someday hope to fill the ranks of La Conner High’s grid program have kicked off yet another season of their own. And done so in divine fashion. The La Conner juniors, coached by Charlie Edwards, Sonny James and Kyle Ryan, defeated Concrete 6-0 with a Hail Mary pass as time expired in the team’s recent season opener. “It was pretty amazing,” said Edwards, who is also the league’s vice president. The winning play was set up by a Co...
On the radio dial, 95 is often the golden oldies station. For La Conner’s Fred Mesman, the number 95 sends a totally different signal. Sunday it had less to do with his age than it did with being a good reason for the sage nonagenarian to party. Which is exactly what he did, enjoying birthday cake, music and a bountiful pig roast on a beautiful sunlit afternoon complete with spectacular views from his and wife Arlene’s unique straw bale insulated Pleasant Ridge home. But more than anything, Fre...
Whit was born in Seattle on November 6, 1930, to Willard Milton Hansen and Marjorie Whitney Hansen; he passed away at his home in La Conner on August 2, 2019, surrounded by his loving family. Whit grew up on Hunts Point in Bellevue, WA, where he learned to love everything about being on the water; boating, camping, swimming, water skiing, and fishing. He graduated from Bellevue High School in 1948, where he excelled academically and in sports. He accepted an appointment to the United States...
The La Conner School District Board of Directors doubled the high school student representation on the Board to two, approving Yareli Lopez and Domenic Wilbur to start their year-long term in September. They approved raises of 3.8% for the five administrators. For seven exempt employees, raises ranged from 2.1% to 18.4%. Documents are on the school district website. They accepted $5,000 from the Town of La Conner to support the after schools Braves Club and approved an agreement with the Swinomish Department of Environmental Protection for...
First a retreat, then some tentative steps forward. That’s the path upon which La Conner Schools Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner and leaders of two staff union groups that have rebuked her management skills now find themselves. All parties vow to move in the same direction, serving the best interests of students, but whether they can do so side-by-side remains unclear. The unions have issued votes of no-confidence in Meissner and called for her ouster, alleging she has created a negative work environment, concerns that arose last spring and...
Dear Editor: I am saddened by the ongoing turmoil within our school district. In my teaching career, in another school district, we had a divisive situation. I believe the lessons from that experience could be useful in La Conner: Our elementary principal died suddenly one morning, discovered when he didn’t show up for school. A retired principal was hired to finish out the year, and then a new, and unknown to us, principal was hired for the next school year. What the staff didn’t know was that “Mike” was hired to make some significant changes...
Warm weather made for warm memories at the 115th annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner Thursday, drawing a festive group ranging from toddlers to local centenarian Joyce Johnson. A good time was had by all, especially those who have attended regularly through the decades. Don Wick, one of the more recognizable personalities in Skagit County, has marked the Pioneer Picnic on his calendar since the early 1970s. Wick, then working for radio station KBRC, was assigned to set up the sound system for...
A new Skagit County Historical Museum exhibit highlights the area’s hometown sports heroes. Matt Thurmond, the reigning Pac-12 Men’s Golf Coach of the Year, fills a unique category in that regard. He’s a Hometown Hero 2.0. A graduate of Burlington-Edison High School, Thurmond is also claimed by La Conner, and rightfully so. His parents, Joe and Kathy Thurmond, are La Conner High alums, as are other of his family members. His sister and brother-in-law, Kate and Dr. Brandon Atkinson, recen...
Almost one year after collecting weapons from the public – aiming to transform guns into art, a group of local artist has crafted an emotionally powerful exhibit dedicated to gun violence. Their memorial stones, piled into a cairn, is now on its first public display at the Anacortes Arts Festival. The Memorial Cairn installation is part of the Anacortes Regeneration Project and includes the work of several dozen Skagit Valley artists. La Conner’s Tracy Powell is among those artists, as wel...
The Fisher family name is synonymous with home, commercial and industrial construction in Skagit County. Frieschknecht is a less familiar name, but one that remains vital to bridging the county’s rich history and its present status as a model for balancing economic opportunity with environmental preservation. The Frieschknecht legacy, in fact, is a key chapter in the Fisher family story, which will be shared as part of the 115th annual Skagit County Pioneer Picnic in La Conner Thursday. Their s...
La Conner teachers and support staff are focused on what’s best for our students, which is why we firmly believe that our school district needs a new superintendent. The La Conner School District staff have lost trust in its leader. We cannot achieve our highest result of excellence as an organization if we do not have a foundation of trust in our leadership. Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner is ineffective and cannot successfully lead our district when 80% of our community’s teachers and 79% of support staff have voted no confidence in her....
Danny Hagen stays in shape the old-fashioned way. The 6’-6”, 255-pound La Conner High assistant basketball coach is no stranger to the gym, but his workouts this time of year are done without benefit of the modern sports equipment found in health clubs and fitness centers. That’s by design. Hagen opts instead to break a sweat each spring and summer with heavy stones, large poles and hefty hay bales. In a way, he was born to exercise that way. Hagen reconnects with his Celtic heritage by compe...
Lillian Cushner Steinberg passed away peacefully on June 15, 2019, one week shy of her 92nd birthday. She was a well-known watercolor artist in La Conner, Washington, who exhibited her paintings at several local galleries, including Art in a Picklebarn at several annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festivals. She and her husband, Maynard Steinberg, lived in Shelter Bay, La Conner in their retirement. Some years after his death, Lillian moved to Portland Oregon to be near her youngest daughter, Emily Orth, her son-in-law Alan Orth, and grandson Benjamin...
Eagle Scouts rock, though none more so than La Conner’s Ian McCormick. Few can forget his stirring guitar solo of the Star-Spangled Banner before a La Conner High basketball game last winter. Now, six months later, there’s something else for which the 14-year-old incoming freshman will be long remembered. He has earned his Eagle badge before entering high school. Eagle is the highest rank attainable in the Boys Scouts of America program, and only about four per cent of its members reach that lev...