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La Conner’s once again annual July 4th parade started up First Street shortly after noon – 12:20 p.m., actually – Sunday, greeted by spectator cheers and applause. On this picture perfect weather day – it was 70 degrees at noon and 76 degrees at 4 p.m. – everyone, paraders and attendees, was smiling, with many on both sides decked out in red, white and blue in all kinds of permutations, from head to toe. Locals arrived early with their chairs, staking out prime space a...
La Conner’s longtime field of dreams will soon become a field of memories, visible merely in the mind’s eye as the property becomes new housing and a yet to be defined public park covering a half-acre or so. Hedlin’s Ballfield, a youth sports hub here for decades, has heard its final cheers. But there is still more than a smattering of boos from those who lament loss of much of the revered rare green space along busy Maple Avenue. The Town purchased the property earlier this year and immediately...
La Conner residents shared with Town officials a broad range of traffic and public safety concerns last Tuesday night. At the Town Council’s June 22 Zoom meeting, speeding motorists and discarded drug syringes were discussed at length. There is a growing anxiety, as the Council session bore out, over apparent increases in minor infractions and more serious crimes coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s time to get more serious about law enforcement,” said Town Planning Commission member Rick Dole, who spoke in favor of budgeting for a c...
Parking has always been a thorny issue in La Conner, most notably on First Street parallel to the town’s popular historic waterfront. Now it figures in yet another flap, this time over joint use easements the Town signed with Landed Gentry the day the developer bought the Hedlin Farms Maple Avenue property, April 16. Town Councilmembers last week heard objections raised by residents that the easement at the rear of the property would cut into the 24,000 square feet set aside for the park. Seventy per cent of the former ballfield will be d...
La Conner is one step closer to having some of its historic buildings don a more modern look. The Town Planning Commission voiced support last week for placement of small reader bar codes that when accessed would provide anecdotal and historical information about those structures, with owner approval. Deemed historical commemorative plaques, the QR codes do not require the Town’s official blessing if they do not exceed three square feet in size, according to Town Planner Michael Davolio and Mayor Ramon Hayes. Even so, they wanted c...
The size and use of the new park after the purchase and sale of the Maple Avenue ballfield is on tonight’s town council agenda, June 22, as discussion under the mayor’s roundtable. A letter sent to Town Hall June 9 asked for a council work session “concerning the Restrictive Covenant and Joint Land Use Easement” in the purchase and sales agreement between the Hedlin family and the Town of La Conner, the Weekly News has learned. The property, owned by the Hedlin family for decades, was purchas...
La Conner officials are accelerating plans to curb speeding traffic here. The Town Council has bypassed a potentially lengthy cost analysis process and authorized Public Works Director Brian Lease and Town Administrator Scott Thomas to immediately begin crunching numbers on expenses related to use of digital speed signs in high traffic volume areas. The Council is leaning toward installation of at least two permanent signs, though Sgt. Jeff Willard, head of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office La Conner Detachment and Undersheriff Chad Clark h...
Last week the Town of La Conner applied for a $30,000 grant to the state of Washington for creating a “Subarea Plan” for redevelopment of the South Downtown Industrial Area, the area bordered roughly by Town Hall on Commercial Street to Pioneer Park and from the Swinomish Channel to South Third Street. In its application, the Town’s “vision” recognizes the significance of this area for “reasons of heritage, environment, economics, employment, and the preservation, protection and enhancement of natural and cultural resources.” In its May 20 pu...
Two short Town meetings last week dealt with long-term plans for the La Conner landscape. An application for a $30,000 planning grant to revitalize the south-end industrial area and major upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant highlighted the Town Council meeting May 25. The Wastewater Advisory Board discussed the treatment plant earlier that day. During the Council public hearing, Town Administrator Scott Thomas and Town Planner Michael Davolio outlined steps for applying for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to develop a plan...
Good news: La Conner residents will have choices and decisions to make in the November town council elections. All three positions on the ballot are contested. The updated story about candidates filing on page 1 correctly reports that incumbents John Leaver, Bill Stokes and MaryLee Chamberlain are challenged by Ivan Carlson, Rick Dole and Glen Johnson respectively. Likewise, the Fire District 13 commissioner 2 position is between Eric Day and John Doyle, appointed in April. This is what democracy looks like. Each candidate is unique and brings...
Roughly 42% of the wastewater that is processed by the La Conner sewer plant is groundwater. This is called I&I (inflow and infiltration). There is a 95% correlation between rainfall and I&I, meaning that we have a pretty leaky sewer system. Whether it is the sewer mains or the side sewers that service each residence, the system is leaking. The sewer system is 46 years old. It has a right to be leaky. The question is what are we doing about it. For 2020 the Town Council appropriated $50,000 for rehabilitation of the collection system. Not a...
Citizens of La Conner La Conner Town Council I am appalled and disgusted to have witnessed the inept and downright shameful way the mayor and town council have bungled the Maple Avenue ballfield transaction. Through the Hedlin family’s generosity, for over a half-century La Conner families have enjoyed the T-ball, soccer and junior baseball fields. When the Hedlins needed to sell the property, they handed the town an easy lay-up: a rare chance to carry on Dave’s lifelong mantra: a warning that “Pavement is Forever.” Instead of honoring that leg...
This corrects and updates the story in today’s May 26 print edition La Conner voters will have a choice to keep or replace the three Town Councilmembers in November’s elections. The Weekly News was in error in its story “La Conner officeholders run unopposed” in the print edition. Two candidates filed for each council position. They are Position 2, Ivan Carlson running against incumbent John Leaver; Rick Dole challenging incumbent Bill Stokes for Position 3; and incumbent MaryLee Chamberlain facing Glen Johnson for Position 4. With only tw...
La Conner residents can speak 6 p.m. Tuesday at a public hearing as the Town of La Conner considers how much of $1.7 million it might apply for for that benefit low and moderate income households/persons. Town staff “proposes to apply for a $30,000 planning grant, to prepare a subarea plan for the Industrial Area bounded on the north by the public use area that includes Town Hall and Maple Hall; on the east by Third Street; on the south by Sherman Avenue; and on the west by the channel. A subarea plan would lead to appropriate redevelopment o...
Yes, there will be a La Conner parade and fireworks show July 4th. With Gov. Jay Inslee reopening Washington statewide June 30, Town Administrator Scott Thomas notified his staff Monday of those plans. La Conner Hook & Ladder is ready to “support and help anyway we can,” Chief Aaron Reinstra wrote in an email. That may be a commitment that their 1941 white firetruck will lead the parade. There will not be a concert or community picnic until next year, however. Maple Hall and the Civic Garden Club can be scheduled, as others already have. Sen...
Mayor Ramon Hayes acknowledges the Town will have to think outside the box to quell upticks in property crimes and traffic offenses that have coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. “Crime is on the rise,” Hayes told Councilmembers during their May 11 Zoom meeting. “It’s a fact. But thus far he and Town Administrator Scott Thomas have been working with something akin to Pandora’s Box. Options that appeared promising at first have been swatted down. Thomas presented to Council a 2017 Ford Taurus for $11,300 via a federal surplus sale for use b...
The nation’s crumbling infrastructure was suddenly a local story in your community newspaper last week. The page 1 headline blared “Shelter Bay water line break required boil water advisory.” Less conspicuously, without water constantly leaking, was the page 2 headline for the town council meeting: “Town Council reviews local infrastructure priorities.” All of a sudden, the rhetoric from the far-off other Washington has come home: water pipes on both sides of the Swinomish Channel are at the end of their lifespans. In 2018 La Conner replaced...
Town of La Conner officials made fast work last Tuesday of major capital project priorities that are sure to be years in the making. Technology glitches, which made audio reception iffy at best for much of a 35-minute April 27 Town Council Zoom meeting, shortened discussion of plans related to an array of topics from replacing the aging Channel Drive water main to the long-sought ring dike north of the La Conner schools campus to anticipated state mandated upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant. Channel Drive, an immediate need, garnered...
In approximately the summer of 2019 the Town of La Conner was approached by members of the Hedlin family with an offer to buy the 80,000 square feet parcel of land on Maple Avenue known as the Hedlin Ballfield, which the town had leased from the family for decades. This offer allowed the Hedlins to finance the purchase of another farm property, increasing their farm holdings. After looking at the deal, the town council declined the offer as it was not financially feasible for the Town. Grants...
The rezone of historic Hedlin’s Ballfield and conversion of the nearly two-acre site along Maple Avenue into a subdivision and park space has been headline news here for more than a year. The land has been bought and sold, but relocating local youth sports in 2022 after Landed Gentry Homes constructs 10 residences on the baseball diamond is not resolved. The prospect of the Town, La Conner Schools and perhaps Swinomish Tribal Community applying for grant funding to light additional school athletic fields to help meet district and youth r...
Update and corrections in April 7 issue. The Town of La Conner signed papers to sell the Hedlins Ballfield property for $800,000 on March 2 and will gross perhaps $20,000 on its purchase. It looks like the Town did not spend taxpayers dollars to buy the property. Mayor Ramon Hayes signed a purchase and sale agreement without the Town apparently ever owning the acreage. The agreement with the buyer, represented by Mountain Pacific Bank loan officer Frank Jeretzky, was “contingent on Seller’s exercise of its Purchase Option of the Pro...
The La Conner community – actually a subset of parents, staff and residents of the school district – spent most of Saturday listening to and questioning candidates for the district’s superintendent position. Some folks returned Monday and Tuesday to provide input to the La Conner School District Board of Directors before a new superintendent was chosen today. Last Wednesday evening another portion of the community, again parents and residents, met with Town elected officials and staff over Zoom to discuss the purpose and shape of th...
I was saddened and frustrated to hear about the town council and mayor’s decision to sell the Hedlin Ballpark, most of which will be developed into housing. I think this is a tremendous mistake by town leaders that will erase a cherished place for La Conner’s youth citizens. For kids growing up in La Conner the Hedlin Ballpark was the place many of us first learned to play baseball, soccer or failed at attempts to fly a kite. Its pastoral backdrop is seared into our memories along with wads of bubble gum, sunflower seeds and the unforgettable f...
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...
The March 23 La Conner Town Council meeting will be held in person a 6 p.m. in Maple Hall and virtually via Zoom, the Town reports on its website. It is open to the public. The Zoom Video Conference link is Zoom Video Conference Town Council Meeting Link. Meeting ID is 844 7357 0703 and Passcode is Yvu567. Calli in with this dial-in number: 1-253-215-8782, Passcode: 690974. Source: Town of La Conner...