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A Swinomish fisherman has netted national attention for his 47-foot crabber built from an in-house design at Full Time Fabrication in Sedro-Woolley. Matt Johnston's new boat, Wild West, is featured in National Fisherman magazine, which covers the U.S. and Canadian fishing industries and whose target audience includes commercial fishermen, academics, government staffers, sport fishermen and environmental advocates. Wild West was to begin sea trials in late January. National Fisherman...
The Local Journalism Committee of the League of Women Voters of Skagit County is planning four presentations to further public knowledge about elections. Each of the events will be open to the public. There will not be any speeches by any candidates. The first includes Gabrielle Clay, Skagit County supervisor of the elections office. She will explain Washington state’s process of the Presidential Preference Primary– how the ballot is created, how the votes are counted and what the parties do afterward. It is Monday, Feb. 12, 6:30-8 p.m. at the...
The Unified Command, consisting of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington Department of Ecology, the Skagit County Department of Emergency Management, bp, and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, is hosting two community meetings for the public to learn about: cleanup progress, air monitoring, water quality monitoring, wildlife impacts, and the plans and timeline for removing the remaining impacted soil and sediment. In-person: Tuesday, Feb. 6, 5:30-7:30 p.m.,Conway School cafeteria, 19710 State Route 534, Mount Vernon....
Our state has long worked to reduce – and ultimately – eliminate fatal car accidents. That should be getting easier, given improvements of safety features on cars over the last few decades. Instead, we're losing ground. Crime makes the news – bank robberies, car thefts and murders always get a lot of attention. But far more Washingtonians die each year on our roads than because of homicides. In 2022, Washington state had 394 homicides. That same year, 745 people died in traffic wrecks. Over...
More people are seeing the light solar energy offers. Members of the La Conner-based Skagit Valley Clean Energy Cooperative are hoping to see that number grow Saturday after a 10 a.m. forum at the La Conner Swinomish Library. The program explores solar and energy storage and how they help build climate resilience and support community needs. They will discuss their approved feasibility study for a grant to fund solarization and energy storage at the La Conner fire station and school campus. If funded, both venues will serve as emergency...
A litany of opaque dealings by pharmacy benefit managers was emphasized in last week's article ("Small drugstores, high drug prices," Jan. 24 Weekly News). To recap, PBMs are middlemen who negotiate with insurance companies as well as drug manufacturers to manage prescription sales and reimbursements from insurance companies to drug stores. PBMs develop formularies (drug lists) to negotiate contracts with manufacturers on what drugs they recommend – taking a sizeable kick-back for themselves – and tell drug stores what prices they can cha...
Crews from multiple local agencies aided one person in safely rescuing a couple whose kayak capsized on Skagit Bay early Tuesday afternoon near the Thousand Trails boat launch. Responders with Skagit County Fire District 13, Swinomish Police, Swinomish Fish & Game, La Conner Fire Department and Anacortes Fire Department along with Thousand Trails staff were among those who arrived quickly on scene for the rescue....
It will be cold comfort to the family whose relative was found in the Swinomish Channel mid-day Tuesday, Jan. 23 but perhaps allow the start of a grieving and healing process. Employing a remote operated underwater vehicle supplied by the Seattle Harbor Patrol, staff from the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office located and recovered human remains during a low tide search. The remains were found in the Swinomish Channel adjacent to the south end of First Street. This was the same area of a low tide search conducted the evening of Jan. 10, when agency...
So much for El Nino. The climate pattern linked to warmer than normal sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and which led to forecasts of above average temperatures this winter went AWOL for more than a week. A major storm swept into Skagit County last Wednesday on the heels of an arctic blast that had earlier plunged thermometers and wind chill gauges into single digits. The result was an extended stretch of icy and snowy roads and streets that forced local business closures and pushed...
Every vote counts is no mere cliché. Just ask Bruce James, Jr. James advanced to the Swinomish Tribal Senate general election next month by a single vote, edging incumbent Brian Wilbur 84-83 and placing second in primary balloting last Saturday. Myrtle Rivas, who received 97 votes, will face James in the Feb. 10 contest for the Swinomish Senate Seat No. 10 that Wilbur had held for three terms. Meanwhile, Rodney John and incumbent Eric Day will vie for Seat No. 11 in the tribe’s general election. John polled 103 primary votes while 88 voters se...
La Conner Drug Store is not the first small-town, family-owned drug store to go out of business in recent years. Rite Aid, hopefully the new home of former employees from La Conner Drug and Island Drug, is itself in bankruptcy. The conservative advocacy group Association of Mature American Citizens reports that 2,000 U.S. pharmacies closed between 2017 and 2020. Forbes wrote last September, "CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid were closing nearly 1,500 stores. Between 1980 and 2022 the number of...
Hours before snow hit outside, the La Conner Planning Commissioners plowed through a busy agenda during their 80-minute Jan. 16 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. The pile of issues addressed were housing and parking issues, the status of the Talmon Project at 306 Center Street, population projections for the town and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s plans to convert its Maple Avenue apartment complex to a staffed home recovery facility. The tribe has designed a program for persons and families who have completed treatment at the Didgwalic W...
Kroger and Albertsons claim a proposed merger worth 24.6 billion will result in better prices for grocery shoppers, but many fear food prices will go up and jobs could be lost as the stores eliminate competition. Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit to stop the merger, which was announced at a Seattle press conference Jan. 15. “Our job is to make sure there is a level playing field for Washington consumers and that means pushing back against the consolidation of power that destroys free enterprise and harms Washingtonians,” Ferguson sa...
CONWAY — Last week’s weather paused cleanup operations of the December Olympic Pipeline gasoline spill east of Conway. By Jan. 20 excavation of impacted soil at the spill site north of SR 534 resumed. This update is from United Command press releases. SR 534 will be closed in both directions at the site in the near future for a period of four to six hours while a temporary sheet piling wall is installed to isolate the eastern bank of Hill Ditch and allow response crews to dig out the remaining impacted soil and sediment and replace it with clea...
Mayor Marna Hanneman called a special meeting of the La Conner Town Council for Friday, Jan. 26 at 1p.m. held through Microsoft Teams. The meeting purpose is: discussion of the 2021 and 2022 state audit conducted by the Office of the Washington state Auditor. Contact Town Hall by 9 a.m. Friday for the link or for phone access: 360-466-3125...
La Conner Drug Store, established in 1877, was recognized as the oldest continuous-running drug store in Washington State by the Washington Board of Pharmacy in 2014 – sometimes under different ownership, but serving its communities without interruption. Fred Martin, a long-time La Conner resident and community activist, owned it for decades before he sold it to Aaron Syring, Pharm.D, in 2006. Now it is 2024 and Syring, founder of Island Drug, confirmed last week that both La Conner Drug and I...
Extreme tide changes on Swinomish Channel have made difficult the efforts by multiple agencies to find a 27-year-old Kirkland woman whose last known whereabouts was the La Conner waterfront early on New Year’s Day. “At this time,” Sgt. Brad Holmes, who administers the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office La Conner Detachment, said on Sunday, “the missing female has not been located and most search efforts have been maxed out.” Intense searches involving divers from throughout the Puget Sound region have been conducted during low tide periods on...
A new year, a new mayor. It's been a long while – going back to January 2008 – since that sentence has applied to the Town of La Conner. Now it does. Former planning commissioner Marna Hanneman, who has spent the past six months prepping to succeed retiring four-term mayor Ramon Hayes, transitioned into her new role at a Jan. 9 hybrid town council meeting at Maple Hall that ended with a half-hour executive session. Council members Annie Taylor and Mary Wohleb also took ceremonial oaths of office...
Public safety should be a top priority for this year’s legislative session, Gov. Jay Inslee and bipartisan state legislators said on the eve of the 2024 legislative session. “We need additional officers on the street,” Inslee told reporters before the Jan. 8 opening. “And to help local police forces find their additional officers, I’m proposing a $10 million grant program.” Washington State ranks 50th in the nation for the number of law enforcement officers per capita, Inslee and legislators acknowledged. At the annual legislative preview wit...
Politics can get quite heated in this day and age. But on Saturday Mother Nature cooled more than campaign rhetoric. Extreme cold weather, with temperatures plunging into the low teens and below throughout greater La Conner, greatly reduced turnout at a Skagit County Republican Party caucus at the Civic Garden Club Building that morning. A couple dozen GOP and independent voters arrived the first hour of the caucus, which ran from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and chose delegates to the county and state Re...
Bird lovers will flock to Maple Hall Feb. 3 and 4 for the La Conner Birding Festival. The festival marks the local return of the Skagit community’s celebration of winter birds. Art, education and family activities promise to inspire residents and visitors to appreciate the migratory birds that winter here. Doors open Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m. Photographers, painters and other artists will display their work upstairs. Downstairs families will find bird-related activities for kids. Some of the birding educators will bring birds. “I want it t...
The popular La Conner waterfront, usually a place for leisurely board-walk strolls, outdoor dining and festive selfie photography, became a grim scene last week as a search was undertaken in Swinomish Channel for a missing 27-year-old Kirkland woman. Several search and rescue agencies from throughout the Puget Sound region, coordinated by the Skagit County Sheriff's Office, descended on La Conner after family members confirmed evidence located in the channel was linked to their relative,...
La Conner High School's annual basketball road trip to Concrete on Friday covered more than the usual hour-long drive time. This one spanned seven decades. La Conner fans filled the visitors' bleachers on a night commemorating the 1952 opening of the iconic Concrete High School gymnasium and the century-old hoops rivalry between the two Skagit County schools. The evening was billed as the "70-Plus Years Celebration" of the Concrete gym. And it was only fitting that the host Lions had La Conner...
By Nathan Wilk KLCC 89.7 FM After the Eugene Weekly stopped printing last month, staff say they’ve seen an outpouring of local and national support. On Dec. 28, the Weekly announced that it had been the victim of an alleged embezzlement, leaving the publication in debt and forcing it to lay off its entire newsroom. Editor-in-Chief Camilla Mortensen said an employee siphoned funds meant to pay vendors, retirement and the electric bill. That story drew national attention, including articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post. M...
During his many years of local public service, both as La Conner's mayor and president of the Chamber of Commerce, Bud Moore often showed a knack for getting people to pull together in support of major projects. Construction of the public restrooms on First Street and the major renovation of Maple Hall into a multi-event community center are just two examples. Now an active and energetic nonagenarian, Moore embraced that sense of teamwork while attending the University of Washington, where he...