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The trail between the beach at the Anacortes Ferry Terminal and the Ship Harbor Interpretive Preserve is closed indefinitely. Recent king tides and winter storms destroyed the boardwalk and dramatically changed the fragile wetland, which the public is being asked to stay out of. Visit the Washington State Ferries Facebook page for updates and information about the Anacortes Ferry Terminal. Source: Washington State Ferries...
Public safety in emergency situations was the talk of the town at the La Conner Retirement Inn Saturday morning. The latest in a series of quarterly public forums coordinated by La Conner Town Council communications committee members MaryLee Chamberlain and Rick Dole focused on December's flood and proposed measures to mitigate future episodes. The Dec. 27 flooding, a combination of factors – seasonal king tides, low barometric pressure, strong westerly winds and steady rainfall – struck rap...
In the first three weeks of January, 32 trillion gallons of rain and snow fell on California. I was there for an awful lot of them. Usually, when I make my holiday sojourn to Sacramento, I enjoy slightly warmer temperatures and a whole lot more sun than I get in Skagit County in the winter. Not this year. Rain began just a few days after I pulled up to my mom's house on Dec. 19. At first, it was refreshing and from what I saw on my drive south, badly needed. But one storm turned into one atmosph...
Even a U.S. representative can have trouble finding a parking place in La Conner. And not just during peak summer tourist season, but on a January weekday morning. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Arlington), top Democrat on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, knows that all too well. He had to park in a police zone Thursday before a full round of activities here, including speaking at the 24th annual Storming the Sound Conference at Maple Hall. The 11-term lawmaker avoided a ticket...
OLYMPIA — A federal appeals court reversed a last-minute Trump Administration decision to deny Medicaid funding for dental health aide therapists in Washington tribal communities, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Washington Health Care Authority announced Jan. 19. These dental aides help fill a void in tribal communities, which have a significant shortage of dentists and dental services. The state and Swinomish jointly filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after P...
The year is less than a month old, and Oregon has already lost three newspapers. The latest to shut down is the Lebanon Express, a weekly that’s served its namesake Linn County community for nearly 136 years. The final edition was published Jan. 18. It comes less than a week after two southern Oregon papers, the Medford Mail-Tribune and the Rogue Valley Messenger, announced their closures. The owner of the Lebanon Express is Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, which did not respond to a request for comment about why it shut down the paper. In a s...
What can Washington state do to avoid problems similar to those Texas experienced with its energy supply during February 2021? How should our grid and utility regulations be designed to maintain economic and reliable service, especially as the use of intermittent solar and wind generation, and electric vehicles, all increase? Let’s start with what our state can do to avoid the high electric prices Texas experienced. Two key lessons the public can learn from the Texas situation are: Electric p...
Homelessness is still a big issue throughout Washington, and while the state has spent millions, the governor wants to invest more. In a press conference Jan. 19, Governor Jay Inslee said while some homeless encampments have been cleared as a result of past funding efforts, there are still not enough places to house the homeless. “Many of these people have chemical addiction problems that have to be treated if they’re going to succeed. Many of these people have mental health problems that have to be treated,” Inslee said. “Where we have fo...
Ride free all day Jan. 26 on Skagit Transit buses. This supports the annual Point in Time Count and other efforts to end homelessness in Skagit County. Everyone can take the bus Thursday. Give it a try. The Skagit Transit Board of directors approved the fare-free day which applies to Skagit Transit’s local fixed routes. Children under eight-years old need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. The free fares offer easy access to any of the host Continuums of Care locations in Anacortes, Mt Vernon, Burlington and Sedro Woolley. I...
Rising tides have in turn given rise to a renewed focus on flood control and long-term effects of climate change here. The Town of La Conner is looking to form a five-member commission with regular monthly meetings where data will be studied and experts consulted to stay ahead of future significant flood events such as the town experienced last month. Mayor Ramon Hayes last week announced an intent to convert the present two-member Town Council flood committee to a full-fledged commission....
The Swinomish Channel flooding of La Conner homes and businesses Dec. 27 created at least $1.8 million in damage. A total of $2.6 million in self-assessments was filed countywide with the Skagit County Department of Emergency Management by the Jan. 11 deadline. Twenty-four La Conner home owners reported damage, as did six businesses. Emergency Management staff defined four of the homes as “affected,” based on the forms, classifying them as damaged but still inhabitable. Department staff will forward the data to state agencies, which will dec...
A letter responding to one of my columns recently suggested that this column is trying to force green energy down people’s throats. Typically, I wouldn’t reply, but I think it’s important to reassure readers that I’m very specifically trying to not do that. I’m trying to present rapidly changing facts about advanced energy technologies in as non-technical a manner as possible, and to explain energy economics in accessible terms. The column’s regular readers will have current information...
The past year was a busy one at Fire District 13. That trend will likely continue this year as the La Conner area district prepares to launch a community paramedicine program while adding a modular residential unit at its Snee-Oosh Road station. Fire Chief Wood Weiss noted 2022 statistics set new marks for annual demands for service at the commissioners Jan. 12 meeting. “It was a very big year,” Weiss reported. “Our biggest year pre-COVID was 2019 when we had 1,340 incident calls. We surpassed that in 2022 with 1,413 calls,” with Decembe...
La Conner Town Council and La Conner Schools officials addressed common goals and interests at their respective meetings last week. Councilmembers Mary Wohleb and MaryLee Chamberlain joined the Jan. 9 school board session via Zoom to share tips for the district best applying for state Department of Commerce grants that fund solar energy projects. Superintendent Will Nelson and Bobby Vaughn, director of operations and planning, returned the favor by attending the Jan. 10 Council meeting to weigh in on a possible joint venture to install a new...
Spring has not come early to La Conner. But spring cleaning has – out of necessity. In the aftermath of severe flooding of the town's low-lying areas Dec. 27, residents have been clearing water-damaged items from their garages and homes and building owners and merchants have been removing soaked carpets and merchandise from their commercial properties. Unlike routine spring-cleanups, this has not been a cathartic exercise. Frustrating is a more apt description. That frustration could well l...
Skagit County entered 2023 with COVID-19 cases on the decline. The seven day case rate per 100,000 residents fell to 50 for the week ending Dec. 31, 2022. The county case rate climbed some, to 60.6 per 100,000 residents through Jan. 4, just above the statewide rate of 58 cases per 100,000 people, according to state Department of Health data. December totaled 407 confirmed cases, with new cases decreasing weekly, from 116 Dec. 1-7 to 70 Dec. 22-28, based on Washington state Department of Health data. New reported coronavirus cases in Skagit...
Can you say $873,094 Town of La Conner 2022 budget surplus? Director of Finance Maria DeGoede can. Her monthly treasurer’s report for the 4th quarter 2022, year to date, in the town council’s Jan. 10 meeting packet, shows revenue of $5,988,197, 117% of projected for the year. Expenditures were $5,115,103 and $942,082, or 15.6% below 2022’s projections. Every fund category was above 100% projections, led by the two Real Estate Excise Tax funds (REET), at 221% of projections, $48,715. But it was the general fund, $211,029 in additional reven...
The Skagit Valley Clean Energy Cooperative is a member-owned, non-profit organization founded by Terry Nelson, Mary Wohleb, John Leaver, Marylee Chamberlain and Bob Raymond to speed up the energy transition in Skagit County. Anyone can join as a member, as I did last year. Like most co-ops, SVCEC helps members find and acquire interesting things. REI focuses on recreational equipment. The Skagit Valley Food Coop focuses on groceries. The SVCEC focuses on advanced energy technologies. SVCEC is pl...
It is hard to predict the future and often just as difficult to remember the distant past. But Vince Sellen, a retired La Conner schools teacher and former town council member, has shown a command of both. That is fitting for the one-time finalist for appointment to the state legislature and someone whom a local public service scholarship is named. Sellen, now an Anacortes resident, was among La Conner officials in the 1980s cautioning against over-development of vacant lots here, especially commercial encroachment into neighborhoods. He can...
Normal lasted less than 24 hours last week after La Conner weathered heavy snowfall and thick ice before Christmas that brought the community to a virtual standstill. Winter king tides along with high westerly winds and low barometric pressure contributing to steady rain and rapid melt-off combined to produce flood conditions causing significant damage to more than a dozen homes and businesses in the town's low-lying areas from Sherman Street (south) to State Street (north) and downtown last...
Just like December 2021, last month was a witch’s brew of bad weather the last 11 days of the year. First we froze, with record cold mornings of 7.6, 5.9 and 22.5 degrees Dec. 21-23 (and Dec. 2: 23.5 degrees). Between six and seven inches of snow were measured by volunteer weather recorders in La Conner Dec. 20. But, the opposite of last year, there were record high temperatures of 58.1, 59.1 and 56.6 degrees Dec. 25-27. The month was thoroughly cold, with the average daily minimum of 34.3 degrees 3.7 degrees below the century average. D...
After winning a razor-thin race made closer by late campaign charges that he had embellished his military service and civilian career resumes, it is full steam ahead for U.S. Naval Academy graduate Clyde Shavers as he embarks for Olympia as the 10th Legislative District's newest lawmaker. Shavers said he has already been swamped with work ahead of the Jan. 9 opening of the 2023 legislative session. "These past few weeks," he told the Weekly News recently, "I have been tirelessly working on...
The February 2021 Texas energy crisis affected millions of people for up to four days. Its worst effects was where the Electric Reliability Council of Texas manages an electric grid which operates independently from the much larger eastern and western U.S. electric grids. The crisis caused hundreds of deaths from the cold. Some individual homeowners’ monthly electric bills increased to thousands of dollars. The total economic cost was nearly $200 billion. It could have been worse. The c...
The choice is yours, to download an 845 page PDF file, the “FINAL REPORT of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol” or buy one of several editions at a bookstore, order it from a library or buy if from the U.S. government. It was published Dec. 22, 2022. Start at the front, reading the forwards from former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Ms) or Vice-Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wy). Pelosi’s is titled “The Last Best Hope of Earth,” taken from Abra...
Thieves tried turning the hiding of the golf cart they stole into an art form. The reviews to date have not been pretty. The cart, which belongs to North First Street resident Mit Harlan, was recovered last week after having been crudely spray-painted green, camouflaged and partially buried in thickets in the McGlinn Island area. Whoever was responsible apparently had use for the cart and was not looking to sell the hot wheels: They altered its appearance and concealed it in a remote area just...