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A few weeks ago I mentioned that lights based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) use less energy than tungsten filament lights or fluorescent lights. LEDs also longer lasting. And, the cost of LEDs has fallen dramatically over the last 15 years, and is continuing to fall. However, those are not the only differences between LEDs and the older technologies. LEDs offer a variety of new and improved capabilities, some of which were never practical, or indeed possible, with older lighting systems. For...
The status of salmon in Washington state is not good and will not improve markedly without a substantial, sustained increase in funding, Gov. Jay Inslee’s Salmon Recovery Office State of Salmon in Watersheds report summarizes. The status: “Fourteen population groups of steelhead trout and Chinook, coho, chum, and sockeye salmon in Washington State are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.” The assessment is blunt: “No salmon species have been removed from the federal Endangered Species Act list in Washing...
Town officials have cited public engagement as a top priority going forward. Attendees at the Feb. 22 La Conner Planning Commission hybrid meeting at Maple Hall took them at their word. Much of the 45-minute session was devoted to public comments, with residents voicing concerns with Hearing Examiner David Lowell’s Feb. 8 decision to deny the appeal of a conditional use permit granted for a condominium complex at 306 Center Street behind The Slider Café. Georgia Johnson, a Center Street property owner, joined others in raising environmental is...
Burlington — U. S. Sen. Patty Murray discussed investing in value-added agriculture in Skagit County while touring the WSU Breadlab at the Port of Skagit Feb. 22. Murray, who serves as the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held a roundtable discussion with Breadlab researchers and Port officials on some key federal investments to move the region forward. “I want you all to know just how serious I am about delivering federal investments to support the Port of Skagit and agricultural initiatives like Breadlab, which keep our eco...
La Conner’s tourist economy slowed a bit last fall, but not much, as the January tax revenue reports to the town council show. The Town of La Conner’s sales tax revenue of $43,391 is $1,830 higher than 2022’s total and the second highest ever for the month. The $4,333 in the Town’s renamed Special Use Fire Tax Revenue was also the second highest January ever, 5.5% above 2022. The $9,175 hotel/motel taxes collected is 12.6% below 2022 but less than $200 below 2020’s total. It is the third highest for the month. Revenues from utility programs sta...
Due to a software glitch, the comparison for residents’ tax distribution from 2022 to 2023 does not include a second line item for local school districts in county tax statements. The line items for school districts were combined in 2023 giving the appearance of a larger increase than the actual increase. The 2023 current year tax amount due is correct. First half tax payments are due on April 30. Make payments online or by check and dropped in the county courthouse drop box or mailed using the tax coupon that came with the tax statement. T...
Shelter Bay Community board of directors Judy Kontos and Dan McCaughan were sanctioned by their board Feb. 15 based on findings of an ethics committee appointed by the board. Kontos and McCaughan were provided “Board Sanction” memorandums by Board President Wendy Poulton Feb. 16. Shelter Bay residents were informed of the temporarily restricted roles for the two in a community Board Member Update email Feb. 17. The two were elected by Shelter Bay residents to the board in May on reform platforms critical of the board leadership. McC...
The La Conner Town Council met on Valentine’s Day, then its leaders looked for some love from state lawmakers in Olympia later in the week. A Town delegation met with state Reps. Dave Paul and Clyde Shavers and the staff of Sen. Ron Muzzall to discuss flood management measures and other key local issues, including increased funding for law enforcement. By all accounts, it was a positive dialogue with the District 10 legislators. It left Town officials hopeful yet more productive talks will take place. “I think it went well,” Town Admin...
Just about everyone in the U.S. has heard the words: “Close the refrigerator door.” Stereotypically, this is associated with an indecisive teenager. How important is that closed door, really? Is it still important, given how much fridges have improved? If you are using a really old fridge as your primary fridge, replacing it will save money in the long run. The easiest way to save money on refrigeration is to replace any fridge built more than 20 years ago with a new EnergyStar-rated refrigerato...
Faced with future major fire protection costs – including purchase of a fire boat and replacement of a 30-year-old fire truck – plus pending necessary upgrades to La Conner’s wastewater treatment plant and aging water lines at Skagit Beach, Town officials are weighing the merits of hiring a municipal grant writer. Town Councilmember Ivan Carlson, noting the fire department’s pressing equipment needs, raised the prospect of a professional grant writer during the panel’s Feb. 14 hybrid session at Maple Hall. “The fire department will have more ex...
Boaters mooring their vessels at the La Conner Marina will pay more this year. At its Feb. 14 meeting Port of Skagit commissioners approved an 8% rate increase for all moorage slips. Harbormaster Chris Omdal had briefed commissioners the week before, pointing to supply and demand and the rates at marinas in the region, inflation and the expense of infrastructure replacement. With the new rates, a 50-foot covered slip is $973. The monthly cost for that size slip at the Everett Marina was $1,036 last year. Omdal reported that La Conner is at the...
CORRECTION: The Feb. 15 version of this story incorrectly reported that the 1986 La Conner Town Council took legislative action in passing an ordinance and later made a legislative amendment to the Town's Comprehensive Plan in paragraph 4. The story below has been revised with the correction that the legislative action the council took was “passing a motion.” Posted Feb. 17. The Center Street condominium project proposed by Brandon and Katie Atkinson is closer to construction. Last Wednesday Town of La Conner Hearing Examiner David Lowell den...
What laws govern billboards in Skagit County? Exactly what kind of billboard is being proposed by the 76 gas station owners east of the Conway exit? The answers to those questions are one reason the county revised its “Notice of Development Application” for a proposed billboard east of Conway and extended the comment period to Feb. 24. Residents of La Conner will not be surprised that one person probing these questions is Linda Talman. “There was so much misinformation about the proposed sign,” she told the Weekly News. “A lot of it was contr...
J. J. Wilbur will remain a busy man. Wilbur, who serves on the La Conner school board and as a Skagit County Fire District 13 commissioner and chairs the Swinomish Tribal Community Port Commission, was re-elected to the 11-member Swinomish Senate in Sunday balloting. Wilbur survived a strong challenge from Cathi Bassford, a tribal housing and utility board member and elder programs supporter who has served as Swinomish kitchen manager for nearly 20 years, serving special event meals for...
Patience is about to be rewarded at Fire District 13. The long-planned modular residential unit for firefighters and emergency medical technicians was scheduled to be delivered to the Snee-Oosh Road station this week and is expected to be ready for use in March, commissioner John Doyle said during the panel’s Feb. 9 hybrid meeting. The unit’s ramping and decking, required for permit approval – plus utility hookups – should be completed within three weeks, he reported. Doyle and commission chair Bruce Shellhamer voted to approve payment...
In the film “Cool Hand Luke,” actor Strother Martin, famed for his role as the sadistic warden, delivered one of Hollywood’s most iconic lines. “What we’ve got here,” Strother’s character tells Paul Newman’s Luke, “is a failure to communicate.” Town of La Conner officials are taking steps to avoid having those words directed at them. Three weeks after communication strategies were addressed during a forum at the La Conner Retirement Inn, La Conner planning commissioners and Council Member MaryLee Chamberlain followed up with a 75-minute ro...
Most residential energy consumers spend about 10-20% of their home electric budget on lighting. Significant changes in lighting technologies have made it possible to cut your lighting energy use by more than two-thirds while simultaneously improving your overall comfort and light quality. The tungsten filament incandescent lamp, which most people think of as a “standard light bulb,” was introduced on a large scale in the early 1900s. People have become so used to these lights that most Nor...
A full moon didn't rise until Sunday, but a lot of crazy things happened in the La Conner area days prior. It started with a burglary at Pioneer Market and included a pair of power outages, the sinking of a boat on the waterfront and a car slamming into a house and flipping onto its top side off Shelter Bay Drive Friday night. The early Wednesday break-in at the Morris Street grocery store didn't net the burglars much. They got away with five cartons of cigarettes and apparently had their...
UPDATE AND CORRECTION: Skagit County Planning & Development Services updated its “notice of development application with optional SEPA DNS” for Pacific Outdoor Advertising erecting a sign at the I-5 Conway intersection Feb. 7. The notice now states construction of “a 2-sided static (not digital) billboard” has been applied for. That changes the original Jan. 31 application’s a “2-sided/faced Static electronic billboard sign” was applied for. The deadline for written public comments is now 4:30 p.m. Feb. 24, advanced from Feb. 17. Only environm...
January was cloudy and felt damp, but it was not wet. The 1.7 inches of rain was only 43% of the century's average for the month and 2.3 inches below the 4.0 average inches of January rain since 2000. It clusters with the other years of less than two inches of rain: 2017, 1.6 inches and 2019, 1.8 inches. There have been four or more inches of rain 11 Januarys, with five years since 2013. Almost half the month's rain, 0.8 inches, came down Jan. 24-27, with 0.35 inches the 27th and 0.6 inches Jan. 26-27. While there were 16 days of...
The most important thing most people can do to cut their electric and natural gas bills is reduce the amount of energy they use for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). This is because most – up to two-thirds – of money spent on energy in a home is for climate control. The rest is split between lighting, water heating, cooking, refrigeration, electronics like TV and computers and a variety of specialized devices. The HVAC system itself is probably the most important part of the HVA...
WASHINGTON, DC. — The United States Environmental Protection Agency announced their final determination Jan. 30 to approve permanent Clean Water Act protections for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, blocking the Pebble Mine proposal, after a 12 year-long battle. Bristol Bay is one of the most productive salmon runs in the world; 40-60 million salmon return to the watershed every year. The Pebble Mine proposal, which would have extracted gold, copper and molybdenum located in the headwaters of the Kvichak and Nushagak Rivers, two of the eight major riv...
Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Arlington) has a solution for Congress reaching the debt ceiling: pass legislation removing the budgetary ceiling. Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) has again introduced a bill, The End the Threat of Default Act, that strikes from the U.S. Federal Code the term “debt subject to limit” and inserts “the face amount of obligations whose principal and interest are guaranteed by the United States Government.” The U.S. is one of two democratic countries that has a statutory limit that, being set, has to be raised. The bill has 42 cospons...
On a cold, wet January night, the La Conner Town Council embraced a sunny outlook. The panel last Tuesday approved payment for a $100 membership fee and joined the Skagit Valley Clean Energy Co-Operative, organizer of the new Solarize Skagit program, whose goal is to make it easy and cost-effective to install solar panels. The commitment includes providing Co-op and program information on the Town website and perhaps monthly water bills. Solarize Skagit is the main initiative of the co-op, which incorporated last year in La Conner. Its...
A fire in a 50 ft. cabin cruiser on a rack at Latitude Marine Services south of La Conner Thursday afternoon was readily extinguished by crews from Fire District 13, with assistance from multiple area fire departments. Assistant Fire Chief Jami Jurdi arrived first to the 12:42 p.m. call, in Engine 1321 from Station 2, Snee Oosh. Fire Chief Wood Weiss came from La Conner. Weiss reported “flames burst out from a cabin window” as his crew was suiting up. They then “began hitting the fire from the outside.” There was concern of “the high exposure...