La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

Dear Editor: I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the recently announced closure of Little Braves preschool due to lack of funding. As a member of our community and a parent who understands the importance of early childhood education, I...

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 As...

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 – a...

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...

The last king tides of this winter season are this week on the Swinomish Channel. The USHarbors.com tide table predicted 11-foot-plus tides Monday-Wednesday mornings and a 10.9-foot tide March 16 at 8:27 a.m. The last 10.9-foot tide is scheduled for...

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 S...

Dear Neighbors: First of all, it is not too late for you or for me to keep the ideas about parking flowing in. That is what they say at their meetings every week but it doesn’t always get out to the public. So opine on. I want the town to start w...

NOT TO BE MISSED 5-6 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, Armchair Travel to Ireland: Come to the La Conner Swinomish Library to learn what it is like to grow up in Ireland from La Conner’s own Gina Torpey. This is the last in our series of Armchair Travels w...

The public got to peek into the Mount Vernon Library Commons Project, under construction across from the Skagit County Courthouse, with a series of tours on Saturday afternoon. Designed for climate resiliency and as an integral community hub for the...

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 dev...

To those wondering whatever happened to that March 2023 Skagit County Superior Court civil complaint against five Shelter Bay Community board members, alleged to have breached their fiduciary duty and for malfeasance by a property owner, an update is... Full story

The Town of La Conner’s Public Works Department will be picking up yard waste the week of March 25-29. The crew will pick up small branches, clippings and other yard waste, but cannot take large limbs, grass clippings or anything in a plastic bag. I...

NOT TO BE MISSED La Conner Chamber of Commerce Daffodil Pet Parade, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, March 9. Photos, games, red-carpet costume contest. Parade route follows First Street from the La Conner Marina to Maple Hall. Register your pet beginning...

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... Full story

Oh how I wish I didn’t think about our little town’s budget, but as a businessman, I can’t help myself. I had to manage a small farm’s budget, and I didn’t get any grants from either the state or the feds, and I had to educate my employees, since the...

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 a...

NOT TO BE MISSED 5-6 p.m. Feb. 28: Free Virtual trip to Italy. La Conner Swinomish Library. 520 Morris St., La Conner. 6-9 p.m. March 1: Jazz Walk in Anacortes. The Manieri Jazz Endowment of the Anacortes Public Library presents six stages of live...

The one project and institution that, indisputably, all people in our community and on both sides of the channel rallied around and supported with time, ongoing work and money, was the building of the La Conner Swinomish Library. That became a dream... Full story