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The Fourth of July was just fantastic! We had so many people contribute their time and efforts I can’t possibly name them all, but I will say our marina maintenance staff and dockhands were everywhere all the time and I could not have been more pleased with how they represented the Port of Skagit. We see all types of travelers passing through the La Conner Marina and RV Park. One example is an RV couple who is trying to be out for an entire month. They want to see if they enjoy actually l...
Mayor Ramon Hayes called a special meeting of the La Conner Town Council Thursday, July 13 at 10:45 a.m. The purpose of this meeting is to approve the Talmon infrastructure improvement (DE) agreement. This is the Brandon and Katie Atkinson three-story condominium project at 306 Center Street. Council will meet in the Maple Hall Fireside Room. The meeting will not be streamed....
Nothing in life is perfect, but the annual July Fourth Parade in La Conner Tuesday came close. The weather, which more than once has been wet and chilly here on Independence Day – hence, the local adage that summer starts on July 5 – was sunny and warm for an eclectic blend of patriotic-clad entrants and spectators lining the length of First Street for the 20-minute celebration. So good was the parade honoring America’s 247th birthday and formal separation from Great Britain that those resid...
The Fourth of July parade in La Conner always has something for everyone and often makes memories to last a lifetime. Yet few have had as much of a blast at the downtown summer serpentine as the popular "Kazookie" duo of Felicia Value and Gem Tartaglia, who recently bid farewell – reluctantly, of course – to La Conner and are now creating positive notes in the Portland area where they have family and friends of longstanding. Regular parade-goers fondly recall Value and Tartaglia playing pat...
Give peace a chance was a popular refrain coined in 1969 by John Lennon. Now, La Conner’s Ollie Iversen has put a new spin on Lennon’s famous anthem of the anti-war movement. Iverson’s version is “Give Pisces a Chance.” Pisces is the zodiac sign symbolized by fish. La Conner Waterfront Park is noted for its fish slide sculpture created by the late artist and salmon advocate Tom Jay. In an impassioned plea to the La Conner Town Council at its June 27 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall, Iversen convinced the panel to reverse its earlier decision...
The La Conner Emergency Management Commission is wading through short-term options to mitigate flood threats on the La Conner waterfront and in low-lying residential neighborhoods, embracing a multi-tiered plan of attack ahead of next winter’s king tides. The Town is in contact with the Upper Skagit Tribe to secure permission for placement of flood barriers on its south-end property between Caledonia and Sherman streets. A walking tour led by Public Works Director Brian Lease to strategize barrier placements on La Conner’s north end, has bee...
June was another dry month in an increasingly dry year, with a total of 0.7 inches of rain. The half inch of rain June 9-10 was two-thirds of the month’s total. The other 0.24 inches of rain came June 18-20. Rainfall has been below average every month in 2023. Precipitation measured at Washington State University’s Memorial Highway Mount Vernon station is 9.3 inches for the year. That is 7.1 inches, 43.4%, below the January-June century average of 16.4 inches. This was the fourth driest June this century and one of seven times less than an inc...
Greg Ellis sees big things ahead for La Conner by going small. The Shelter Bay resident and Braves Club after-school program volunteer, who submitted plans for seven full-sized homes behind Pioneer Market in 2021, now proposes constructing tiny condos there. “I want to do the best thing I can for the community,” Ellis told the La Conner Planning Commission during their 90-minute June 20 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. “There’s such a shortage of affordable housing here, especially for a workforce.” Ellis is revamping his plans for lots he has ow...
America’s national bird may stump part of a tree-thinning project at Pioneer Park. The Town of La Conner has been advised by an urban forestry services consultant that more than 40 trees in the park, a popular trail hiking and public events venue – including the annual Pioneer Picnic – have structural defects or are in decline, posing potential isolated hazards. A large winter windstorm during the COVID-19 pandemic uprooted a handful of trees in the park, some of which crashed onto the roof of its historic sheltered community kitchen build...
The La Conner Town Council will hold a special meeting 5 p.m. July 11 to prepare for a six hour retreat July 24. That starts the creation of a preliminary SWOT analysis BERK Consulting will use to shape the retreat, Town Administrator Scott Thomas said Monday. The goal of council and staff will be to develop a five-year strategic plan by the end of the year. BERK staff will take the discussion summary and combine it with the surveys residents have submitted all spring and with summaries from the meetings council’s ad hoc communications c...
Looking through Gilkey Square at 3:20 p.m. Saturday, it seemed a boat was on fire. Tourists and locals gathering at the boardwalk railing saw a brush – more properly, a grass – fire just west of the west side Swinomish Channel shoreline. Fire District 13 duty officers submitted this summary: “Battalion 13 and Brush 1314 (were) dispatched to a 30 foot by 30 foot brush fire on Front Street. Batt 13 arrived on scene to find Swinomish PD and civilians trying to contain the fire. B13 gave short...
May was a good month to sell a home in Skagit County, especially in the Anacortes and La Conner markets. In Anacortes $845,000 was the median price for the 32 homes that closed. In the La Conner area, $759,000 was the median price for the nine homes that closed. County wide, 131 homes closed at a median price of $605,500. A 2,900 square foot home on Sunset Drive, on Skagit Bay, sold for $1.6 million, while a marina frontage Swinomish Drive home sold for just over $1 million. On the low end, one sale was below $400,000, at $304,900 for a 1,024...
Construction of the first two homes on La Conner Heights began at the start of June. The structures are visible on the property residents long called Snapdragon Hill east of Whatcom Street and south of Hill Street, near Sacred Heart Catholic Church. BYK Construction of Sedro Woolley, as Snapdragon Hills Estate, LLC, owns the property, platted as seven lots on the newly constructed High Street. The two houses under construction are each over 2,600 square feet. "I know the size seems large but a...
First, a clarification: Last week’s headline said we can expect 100% solar and wind energy on the grid in the future. Although that’s likely to become feasible within the next 20-30 years, I don’t think it’ll happen in Washington. We are, however, likely to have 100% renewable energy by 2050. Solar and wind will be prominent, but hydroelectric generation will still be used and geothermal energy may even be developed. Iceland and New Zealand have 100% renewable electric systems already because...
Skagit County seeks two residents for two-year terms on the Voluntary Stewardship Program’s advisory watershed group. This group of local producers, partner organizations and county staff advises VSP staff for best operation of the Voluntary Stewardship Program in Skagit County. Serving on the Watershed Group will require serving a two-year term and attending quarterly meetings. Candidates need watershed experience or expertise and be able to work well with others. Applications are due by 4:30 p.m. July 3. For information and to apply: s...
Town officials are charged with regularly updating La Conner’s comprehensive plan, the document that determines community goals and aspirations going forward. But the plan’s new verbiage won’t consist of their words alone. Residents are having a say in the process, Planning Director Michael Davolio and Assistant Planner Ajah Eills assured planning commissioners – including the panel’s newest member, Summer Holt – last week. Davolio and Eills visited the La Conner Senior Center recently to outline details and field questions. “We had some inte...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Swinomish Indian Tribal Community took filling in the gaps to a new level at the aging McGlinn-to-Goat Island rock jetty south of La Conner. The M/V SeaHorse was contracted for just over two weeks in late May and early June to remove fill material several times a day from a loading area north of the jetty to the work site to plug gaps impacting spring outbound salmon runs. The emergency repairs, designed to reduce Skagit River flow velocities through the jetty, were completed June 9. The work involved...
Did you know Washington has a state dinosaur” This year, Governor Jay Inslee made it official with Parks’ very own Suciasaurus. Suciasaurus (meaning "Sucia Island lizard") is the informal name given to the first dinosaur discovered in Washington. A fossil theropod nicknamed "Suciasaurus rex" was discovered in 2012 at Sucia Island State Park. It is likely the rocks that today form Sucia Island originated much further south, possibly near what is now Baja, California in Mexico. The island moved to its present-day spot over 80 million years, wit...
Summer arrived in the Northern Hemisphere, this morning at 7:57 a.m. Today is the solstice, the first day of astronomical summer. Today is the year’s longest day and shortest night. It will get darker earlier until the winter solstice, Dec. 21, 2023 7:27 p.m....
When I talk with groups about solar and wind energy, people ask: “The sun isn’t up all the time and the wind doesn’t blow all the time. How can solar and wind energy power a reliable electric grid?” About 25 years ago, senior management at a major utility turned down an experimental 8 kilowatt solar project I had proposed because the transmission systems engineers told the CEO that unpredictable solar energy might destabilize the entire utility’s grid. In other words, serious industry professio...
June 6 samples of shellfish contained elevated levels of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning toxins, closing Samish, Guemes and Cypress islands to all shellfish species for recreational shellfish harvesting until further notice. Samples of blue mussels from Rosario Point in San Juan county on June 6 contained 118 micrograms PSP/100 grams of shellfish tissue. Samples of blue mussels from Semiahmoo Marina collected on June 6 contained 112 ug/100g. A geoduck sample from Samish Bay also came back in exceedance of state closure values. The Washington...
La Conner’s iconic fish slide may not be fin-ished, after all. Town of La Conner Parks Commissioner Ollie Iversen made an impassioned plea last week to town council members asking them to reverse their recent decision to scrap the slide due to ongoing maintenance and safety issues. The slide, a favorite at Conner Waterfront Park with locals and tourists alike, has been closed since last year. But for several years volunteer spring touchup and repair work by Iversen and former town administrator John Doyle kept it open. Their efforts involved g...
Way down. The Town of La Conner May sales tax revenues of $48,073 reported to town council by the state’s Department of Revenue are the third highest May report ever, but down $21,7923, 31%, from last year and $10,214 below 2021’s total. The Special Use Fire Tax revenues drop was a twin, the $4,797 also 31%, $2,188 below 2022, though again the third highest report for the month. Only the motel/hotel tax revenues set a record, the $12,701 $67 above 2022 total. The revenues are from March transactions, the DOR reporting on a two month lag. The...