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Music to one's ears can be mere noise to another's. To find harmony between the two, the La Conner Town Council discussed potential noise control at its Aug. 13 Maple Hall meeting, especially those related to the La Conner Live Sunday concerts amplified music in Gilkey Square. Administrator Scott Thomas raised the topic in his written report in the council packet. "As has been the case for several years, Gilkey Square has been frequently used for musical performances," Thomas began. "I am aware...
The La Conner Town Council passed a budget amendment adding $163,500 to the general fund “as a commitment to the fire boat” at a July 31 special meeting called for that purpose, the meeting minutes state. The council also approved an agreement with Beckwith Consulting for the Moore Clark sub area development plan, funded by the state’s Community Development Block Grant awarded in 2022. Both votes were 4-0. Councilmember MaryLee Chamberlain was absent....
NOT TO BE MISSED Annual Summer Concert. Hear the Skagit Community Band at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, for its annual summer concert at Gilkey Square in La Conner. As always, the concert is free. Bring lawn chairs and sun screen. Animal, landscape and rural travel photography by travel photographer Terry Divyak is on display at Caravan Gallery, 619 S. First Street, La Conner. Open daily. LIBRARIES La Conner Swinomish Library. 520 Morris St., La Conner. 360-466-3352. www.lclib.lib.wa.us. Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday....
Skagit Valley arts and cultural nonprofit organizations can request funding from the Town of La Conner Hotel/Motel tax fund for 2025. In 2023 5The La Conner Town Council granted $34,650 to nine community organizations and another $90,000 to the La Conner Chamber of Commerce. Over $217,450 was allocated for internal, Town projects, primarily Maple Hall improvements, the Morris and First street restrooms and landscaping. Last year hotel/motel tax revenues were $195,784. The 2024 budget projects $1...
NOT TO BE MISSED Annual Summer Concert Hear the Skagit Community Band Saturday Aug. 24 at 2 p.m. for its annual Summer Concert at Gilkey Square in La Conner. As always, the concert is free. Bring lawn chairs and sun screen. Animal, landscape and rural travel photography by travel photographer Terry Divyak on display at Caravan Gallery, 619 1st Street, La Conner. Open daily. LIBRARIES La Conner Swinomish Library. 520 Morris St., La Conner. 360-466-3352. www.lclib.lib.wa.us. Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Storytime...
Heroes, by definition, are those admired for outstanding achievements and noble qualities. Seven Upper Skagit Valley community leaders, termed "Concrete Heroes" by the Skagit County Pioneer Association, will be honored in La Conner Aug. 1 during the 120th Pioneer Picnic. They are recipients of the Pioneer Spirit Award, recognized for putting life in Concrete on a solid foundation. The awardees are: Jason Miller, publisher and editor of the monthly Concrete Herald, is a Tacoma native with an...
La Conner’s town government – elected officials and staff – created a long task list for the second year of implementing the five-year strategic plan they adopted last September. Credit them for being ambitious: 31 tasks came out of their June retreat, with over half of them placed on Mayor Marna Hanneman and Administrator Scott Thomas’ shoulders. The fire department, with five tasks, has made progress, getting a $150,000 commitment from the town council to buy a fire boat. Public works and finance staff are assigned these tasks: improving inte...
7 Maple Street is the site of what many call the old COA restaurant. This letter is an attempt to make La Conner’s conditional use procedure process clearer. The property’s current zoning is residential. This means that residences can be located on the property. The residences can be single family or multifamily. Residences are not a conditional use. No conditional use permit would be needed to locate new residences there. Most of Maple Street is residential. Is there anything else that can go on 214 Maple Street? Yes, The code specifies a nu...
La Conner Fire Chief Aaron Reinstra has for years sounded the alarm about his department’s inability to fight downtown blazes from Swinomish Channel or make timely water rescues. The simple answer, he and Assistant Fire Chief Adam Avery have said, is to purchase a fire boat. What has not been so simple is finding a way to pay for it, even though the original estimated price of $600,000 has fallen to about $425,000. With necessity being the mother of invention, La Conner Hook and Ladder and town officials agreed in principle last week on a p...
NOT TO BE MISSED Anacortes Arts Festival, Aug. 2-4. More than 220 artisans will have booths filling Commercial Avenue in downtown Anacortes. It’s one of the largest arts festivals in the Northwest. Music on the Jazz Stage all three days. Free admission. Join Firefighter/EMT Natalie Baker for coffee at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 10 in the La Conner Swinomish Library conference room. She’ll discuss fire safety topics and will have some firefighting equipment for the community to try out. This event will end with a Q&A. Bring your coffee mug and que...
NOT TO BE MISSED Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau at Museum of Northwest Art: We All Transition with Mac Scotty McGregor. 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday, July 27. What is it like to see and walk in the world from both the male and female perspectives? Mac will share his gender journey and what it taught him about life, our culture and how it affects our interactions with others. Free. RSVP to monamuseum.org/events/wealltransition. Anacortes Arts Festival, Aug. 2-4. More than 220 artisans will have booths filling Commercial Avenue in downtown...
La Conner fire chief Aaron Reinstra and a Sedro-Woolley builder have presented Town officials with a new option for purchase of a fire boat to safeguard the historic La Conner waterfront. “This is food for thought, another option for the fire boat,” Reinstra said as he provided copies of a proposal from TJ Lowry of Full-Time Custom Fabrication & Machine Shop to Town Council members during their 70-minute July 10 meeting at Maple Hall. Lowry is proposing to build a hull, house, and trailer for $150,000, about one-fourth the cost of a com...
Town leaders have their eyes on the future. This after having given La Conner's current five-year strategic plan a second look during the town's annual summer retreat at the Waterfront Café last month. Mayor Marna Hanneman, Town Council members, and the town's staff and department heads huddled June 24 to address current issues and long-range planning. The strategic plan, crafted in 2023 and comprised of five focal points, was the centerpiece of the retreat's afternoon session. Each of the...
NOT TO BE MISSED The 20th annual NW Art Beat Studio Tour sees 22 artists showing their works in 16 studios in a free, self-guided Skagit Valley art studio tour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 20 and 21. NW Art Beat is presented by Skagit Artists. Learn more at NWArtBeat.com. LIBRARIES La Conner Swinomish Library. 520 Morris St., La Conner. 360-466-3352. www.lclib.lib.wa.us. Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Storytime for Children. 11 a.m. Fridays. Tech Help. 3-5 p.m. Mondays. Dungeons & Dragons Club. 3-5 p.m. Tuesdays....
This year's July 4 celebration in La Conner was a double feature times two. Several entries in the town's Independence Day parade looped downtown a second time. That evening, tribal vendors led by Rodney John filled the sky with fireworks for hours following the official pyrotechnics show over Swinomish Channel. Both the parade and fireworks received positive reviews as did the two-band holiday evening concert at the Port of Skagit's La Conner Marina. Social media was filled Thursday night and...
As an active community member, I read almost every article in the La Conner Weekly News, usually by early Wednesday afternoon, so I typically find things about which to write. Sometimes I just sit and let the soup simmer, see if it needs some seasoning, maybe some seasoned reasoning should come to bare. I found the town council’s priorities (“La Conner council sets priorities at retreat,” July 3) very interesting. One member of the council brought up the importance of community involvement, another stressed volunteerism, communication and s...
The La Conner tourist economy may be back on track. The June sales tax revenues of $58,778 reported to town council by the state’s Department of Revenue, are the second highest total for the month, only below 2022’s record. It is 10.6% above last June’s. This is April’s tax collection, the month of the Tulip Festival. The Special Use Fire Tax revenues, at $5,870 is 10.8% above last year’s and also the second best June. For the first half of 2023, sales tax revenues are at 44.8% of the year’s projected total while the fire truck tax is at 54.2%...
La Conner's underground – at least on S. Maple Avenue – has been in plain sight the past few days. Welch Brothers Construction has cut deeply into and through the heavily traveled roadway's surface to extend a water main that will serve the future Didgwalic Wellness Center transitional housing and staff office facility on Maple Avenue near the east approach to the Rainbow Bridge. La Conner Public Works Director Brian Lease said on Monday that the work upgrades an existing water main to imp...
Town and school district officials were in full retreat June 24, though both panels spent the day charging forward with reviews of their respective five-year strategic plans. The La Conner Town Council met for seven hours at the Waterfront Café. Councilmembers, staff and Mayor Marna Hanneman addressed five focus areas – public safety, climate and environmental sustainability, capital projects and utilities, economic vibrancy and governmental organization. Council members and department heads al...
The first round of drafting a new housing element for La Conner’s comprehensive plan is in the books, but more chapters await. The town’s planning commission last week granted preliminary approval of the comp plan element, which addresses housing capacity and population projections for the town issued by the Skagit Council of Governments in accordance with the state Growth Management Act. Final approval requires further review and public input, said Town Assistant Planner Ajah Eills, who has compiled a detailed land use capacity analysis for...
A public memorial service for Susan Baum, who worked at La Conner’s iconic 1890s Inn during a colorful chapter in the town’s history, will be held from 5-7 p.m. Sunday, June 30, at Conner Waterfront Park. Baum, fondly known to her friends as “Cruisin’ Susan,” died May 7. Having grown up in Big Sky Country, she blended seamlessly after her arrival here into the local arts community and eclectic counterculture movement that evolved in the 1970s in La Conner and at nearby Fishtown on the Skagit River. Baum embraced a non-traditional lifestyle t...
Conner Waterfront Park, perhaps best known for its signature salmon slide, now has a new landmark to showcase. The ribbon was cut Friday to dedicate a long-planned pavilion at the popular shoreline park. Town Public Works Department staff had worked on the pavilion's construction since December, as time permitted. "This is another piece of the puzzle put together," said local landscape architect Curt Miller, among a crowd of over 40 on hand for the ceremony. Mayor Marna Hanneman, Town Parks...
Town officials are guardedly optimistic that La Conner can weather a spring sales tax revenue slump. Citing wet, chilly weather as a possible factor, Mayor Marna Hanneman shared with town council at its June 11 meeting that La Conner’s total tax receipts are down $17,000 from this time last year. Reported town tax receipts totaled $230,770 through May 2023, compared to $213,974 through May 2024. “The weather’s not helping, but I believe people are coming to town,” said Hanneman. “They’re just not spending money.” May’s receipts of $46,949 are...
The best kept secret in La Conner, eight months in the making, was fueled by an appreciation for vintage cars. Jason Coughlin waved the checkered flag on a deeply personal covert mission with a classic Father's Day weekend surprise gift at Friday's annual La Conner Retirement Inn Invitational Car Show on N. First Street. From his childhood, Coughlin knew that his dad, Jim Coughlin, had always wanted a restored Chevrolet Chevelle. The younger Coughlin made that dream come true in dramatic...
NOT TO BE MISSED Shelter Bay Annual Garage Sale. With more than 100 participating homes, you can find bargains around every corner! Shelter Bay Chorus bake sale, coffee and hot dogs at the Clubhouse. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, June 22. LIBRARIES La Conner Swinomish Library. 520 Morris St., La Conner. 360-466-3352. www.lclib.lib.wa.us. Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Storytime for Children. 11 a.m. Fridays. Tech Help. 3-5 p.m. Mondays. Dungeons & Dragons Club. 3-5 p.m. Tuesdays. No experience necessary. Mount Vernon...