Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 774
The La Conner Parks Commission wants to do more than plant seeds for La Conner’s future landscape. The five-member advisory board wants to plant trees, more than a dozen of them along Morris Street, at no cost to the town. Commission members Ollie Iversen, Martin Howard and Mike Bucy shared plans for the beautification project during the March 26 Town Council meeting at the Civic Garden Club. Bucy served as project spokesperson. The council endorsed the initiative. “Our proposal is to raise donations to plant trees on Morris Street with no cit...
Just beyond the deer fencing, lying between this old rotting house with fruit trees just as old, between these and a dense development, lies what used to be called a “vacant lot.” It might have been called a “swamp,” also, rather than a vestige of an estuary. It did take on some water in the 2022 flood. One engineer called it a “natural catch basin.” But all that belies an amazing feature: it’s ability to grow food. Eons of decomposing salmon bodies makes this soil, like much of the Skagit Valley where I live, among the top 1% of agricultural...
On Dec. 27, 2022, a predicted 11-foot tide in La Conner Channel was met with low atmospheric pressure, high river flow and a western wind. As a result the channel rose to over 14 feet and spilled over along lower places on the eastern bank, flooding parts of town and causing more than $1 million damage before receding. The mayor and town council created an Emergency Management Commission to deal with any future floods or other natural disasters. The sandbags that have recently been removed were placed by our incredible town public works...
Swinomish Tribal Senate chair Steve Edwards, a La Conner High School graduate, enjoyed a warm homecoming when he met with school board members March 25. Edwards, known for his conciliatory leadership style, focused his remarks on building bridges between the La Conner School District and Swinomish. “It’s great that we can come to the table and have an open discussion,” said Edwards. “We all grew up together. We all know one another. We’re a community here.” Edwards was the second local elected leader to address the board in recent weeks, foll...
The Town of La Conner’s sales tax revenue was significantly down in December, to $47,549, the lowest since 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The total, reported to the town council by the state Department of Revenue, is $15,554, 24.6% below 2023’s record December collection. The special-use fire tax revenues were similarly down, at $4,739, 24.5% below 2023. Tourists were spending less at restaurants and stores, but probably staying in town overnight more, or longer. The December hotel/motel tax collection was $13,915, alm...
The high tide of saltwater flood season has passed. Town Administrator Scott Thomas said the final king tide on Swinomish Channel until next fall will allow removal of flood barriers that have lined the La Conner waterfront for months. “If you want to go out and get a picture of those orange sandbags so that you can remember them you’d better get out there,” Thomas told town council at its March 12 meeting. “They’ll be going away in a couple weeks and won’t be back until October.” The Public Works Department will remove sandbags and ecology b...
Earth, wind and fire. It's not just a famous 1970s soul band. The three elements also represent threats to the vacant and dilapidated Moore-Clark warehouse and areas around the former industrial hub, a landmark on the La Conner waterfront since 1898. Residents wary of the building's vulnerabilities shared their concerns with the Town Emergency Management Commission during its March 5 meeting at Maple Hall. "I think of Lahaina," Lori Wise, who has a background in real estate development, said of...
Town officials say they heard plenty of valued input during the recent community mingle addressing First Street parking and traffic issues, but there’s still plenty of time to get the last word in. “We haven’t taken anything off the table,” Town Assistant Planner Ajah Eills told planning commissioners during their March 5 meeting at Maple Hall. “We’re still in the information gathering mode.” Among those whose insights are being sought is Public Works Director Brian Lease. Commissioners want to hear from Lease before a target date is set f...
Town officials over the next few months will begin examining potential options for the Jenson property located south of Channel Cove near the Maple Avenue approach to Pioneer Park. The Jenson family sold the land to the town at a reduced price – about one-third its assessed value – on condition it be utilized in the best interest of the community. Suggested uses for the property have ranged from affordable housing to a public garden. “We have saved the letters and emails that we have received about options for the use of the property when...
New La Conner Emergency Management Commission chair Jerry George had sad news to share when the panel met March 5 at Maple Hall. George had the unenviable task of announcing the death of commission charter member Duane Carpenter, 64, whose expertise in meteorology was frequently tapped during the board’s inaugural year as it considered flood mitigation strategies. George said that Carpenter, with an extensive background in cartography and weather analysis, died unexpectedly March 1 from complications following a surgical procedure. “Duane was...
No one in town knows a better yarn than Chris Jennings. The owner of Jennings Yarn & Needlecrafts, a fixture on First Street for more than a half-century, is spinning a yarn in the literary sense these days, coordinating the plot for La Conner’s Second Annual Murder Mystery event set for March 23. Chamber of Commerce Director Mark Hulst credits Jennings with weaving the thread that ties together “The Case of the Bumped-Off Bootlegger,” a throwback to the 1920s Prohibition era of rumrunners and speakeasies, among the more colorful chapt...
It was a four-letter word that defined a briskly paced, 45-minute hybrid Town Council meeting at Maple Hall on Feb. 27. That word was code. As in the council’s approval of both a formal town code of ethics and update to La Conner’s uniform development code. The ethics code was one of Mayor Marna Hanneman’s first initiatives upon taking office in January. “In this climate of people not being civil to each other – not that this is happening here – I asked for a code of ethics,” Hanneman said. Upon adoption of the code, following a motion by cou...
If the 30 residents at the Feb. 20 community mingle on what was billed as a forum to discuss parking on South First Street had their way, the clear sentiment was to improve safety in the downtown by making it a one-way street south of Washington Street, past the post office. At the start of the evening, La Conner Fire Department Chief Aaron Reinstra was asked to speak on safety from his perspective. He did. The data he shared showed that on average, a fire department vehicle was called to First Street twice a month over the last two years. But...
Lots of tourists stayed overnight in La Conner last November. The town council’s January packet summarizing revenues reported $9,464 was collected in hotel/motel taxes, above 2023 and the second highest ever. The visitors did not spend a record amount of money, though. Still, the $42,875 in sales tax was only 1.2% and $516 below last year’s total. It is the third highest January total reported to the town by the state’s Department of Commerce. The $4,281 collected for the Special Use Fire Tax was below 2023’s total, by $225. Residents were mo...
If February's first town council meeting was any indication, new La Conner Mayor Marna Hanneman is in it for the long haul. The marathon Feb. 13 session covered new and old business and multiple discussion and action items before concluding with a closed executive session. "I thought after the first month," said Hanneman, who took office Jan. 1, "that things would be kind of calm. Then February came." The 95-minute meeting began on a pair of somber notes. Resident Debbie Aldrich shared that...
When we bought our home in La Conner in January of 2019, we were told that our block, the only block on Washington Street where there is no storm sewer, was in “Phase 2” of the project to provide storm drainage throughout the town. Shortly after we moved in, members of the town council told us that there was no money at present for such improvements. We were asked to be patient. Our lot periodically floods and such phenomena as atmospheric rivers leave behind a pond of 6-8 inches in depth, which can remain flooded for several weeks and whi...
While it’s been a hot topic in La Conner for decades, the last word on parking likely won’t be spoken here anytime soon. And the always lively local conversation continues 6 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Civic Garden Club on South Second Street. The second in a series of in-person “community mingles” will address all angles of downtown parking, from traffic safety and pedestrian access to signage and revenue opportunities. “We’re wanting to solicit input on what if any changes and improvements the public wants to see regarding parking,” Assistant Pla...
Largest ever, that is the Town of La Conner $971,884 2023 budget surplus. Councilmembers opened their January packets to find that the $43,947 in sales tax revenue pushed the year’s total to $630,453, 3.5% and $21,272 above budgeted projections. It is the third straight year above $630,000, though $47,470 below the almost $678,000 collected in 2022. The Special Use Fire Tax was likewise flush, with the $4,345 pushing the year’s total to $61,350, 22.7% above the $50,000 budgeted. And while the hotel/motel tax on lodging finished 2023 47.2% abo...
Emergency management has been a priority here since channel flooding in 2022 swamped waterfront and low-lying areas. Attention turned last week to fears of catastrophes and disaster at the dilapidated former Moore-Clark warehouse building at South First and Caledonia streets. A fixture in La Conner since before the turn of the century – to the 20th century– and once part of a bustling hatchery fish food processing plant and longtime local industrial hub, it was constructed as a grain war...
More people are seeing the light solar energy offers. Members of the La Conner-based Skagit Valley Clean Energy Cooperative are hoping to see that number grow Saturday after a 10 a.m. forum at the La Conner Swinomish Library. The program explores solar and energy storage and how they help build climate resilience and support community needs. They will discuss their approved feasibility study for a grant to fund solarization and energy storage at the La Conner fire station and school campus. If funded, both venues will serve as emergency...
Hours before snow hit outside, the La Conner Planning Commissioners plowed through a busy agenda during their 80-minute Jan. 16 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. The pile of issues addressed were housing and parking issues, the status of the Talmon Project at 306 Center Street, population projections for the town and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s plans to convert its Maple Avenue apartment complex to a staffed home recovery facility. The tribe has designed a program for persons and families who have completed treatment at the Didgwalic W...
Mayor Marna Hanneman called a special meeting of the La Conner Town Council for Friday, Jan. 26 at 1p.m. held through Microsoft Teams. The meeting purpose is: discussion of the 2021 and 2022 state audit conducted by the Office of the Washington state Auditor. Contact Town Hall by 9 a.m. Friday for the link or for phone access: 360-466-3125...
A new year, a new mayor. It's been a long while – going back to January 2008 – since that sentence has applied to the Town of La Conner. Now it does. Former planning commissioner Marna Hanneman, who has spent the past six months prepping to succeed retiring four-term mayor Ramon Hayes, transitioned into her new role at a Jan. 9 hybrid town council meeting at Maple Hall that ended with a half-hour executive session. Council members Annie Taylor and Mary Wohleb also took ceremonial oaths of office...
Town of La Conner residents have two weeks to offer their two cents – or perhaps exceedingly more valuable recommendations – as possible amendments to the town’s comprehensive plan – and the development code, too. Submittals made through Jan. 31 are free. More important is the schedule, for proposals through January are considered this year, in the 2024 cycle by the staff, planning commission and council. Stay awake. This is important for the future of anyone planning to stay or move into La Conner. The Washington state Legislature mandate...
For the past nine years I have complained in writing about the way the City of Anacortes reconciles the amount of money its wholesale (regional) customers owe for water. Last month, Anacortes billed the Town of La Conner $444 for 2021 and $5,540 for 2022. The truth is that the City of Anacortes owes the Town of La Conner a total of $49,631.52 for both years. Counting O&M alone and considering both years, the city made a profit of $8,173,301 on water. The accountant charged “Taxes and Assessments” to both Regional Expenses (RCC) and Admin Ove...