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Shelter Bay resident Jan Henrie filed a motion in Skagit Superior Court May 5 asking for a default judgment in her lawsuit against the community’s board members Wendy Poulton, Elaine Dixon Monte Hicks, Joseph Hurley and Louise Kari because defense lawyers had not responded to Henrie’s motion for reconsideration. Her lawyer, Paul Taylor, argued that the court erred in ruling the defendants had no fiduciary duty to Henrie, and as a matter of law and ttat it applied the wrong standard of law. Defense lawyer Meredith Thielbahr responded that the...
Andrew Miller of Tulip Valley Farms has a June 1 Skagit Superior Court date to have claims against him made in March by Tulip Town’s owners dismissed. Miller’s lawyer filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss Tulip Town claims and request equitable relief May 8. Spinach Bus Venture Group, owners of Tulip Town, sued to halt Tulip Valley Farms from opening, but on April 7 the parties agreed to strike the pending motion. Since then Mark Lee, Miller’s lawyer, has filed documents supporting his May 8 filing....
Politics is by nature a social science. But, in Shelter Bay, questions have arisen over whether there should be a separation of politics and social gatherings, akin to that of church and state. The community’s social and recreation committee canceled a Cinco de Mayo celebration scheduled last Thursday afternoon following publication in the Weekly News the day before of an ad that invited those attending to meet candidates seeking election to the Shelter Bay Board of Directors while enjoying their favorite adult beverages. Shelter Bay Board P...
CORRECTION: The Weekly News has updated and corrected this story, below, by deleting the final two paragraphs that incorrectly stated that attorney Paul Taylor’s statements were “mistaken” and he “erred” in his stating “that the Defendants herein voted to approve the Resolution to bind the Community to the proposed terms set forth by the Swinomish Tribal Authority without an appraisal as required by the Master Lease on Wednesday, April 19, 2023” and that “the Defendants passed a resolution accepting the ten-year increase in rent without an...
You are right to remember April as dreary, damp and cold. What it wasn’t was wet. The 1.7 inches of rain was the fourth year in a row of under 1.7 inches of moisture and the seventh driest April since 2000. Rainfall was 37% below the 2.7 inches average for the century. While rain came down 19 days, 11 times it was less than 0.1 inch and 15 times less than 0.2 inches. The most rainfall was 0.34 inch April 16, one of three days of over 0.2 inches of precipitation. When it rained six of seven days April 20-26, that was only 0.64 inch and the 10 of...
Town officials aren't turning a blind eye to the prospect of peep shows coming to La Conner. That's why, with a six-month moratorium now in place, they're hustling to enact restrictions limiting where adult businesses can operate – at a safe distance from residential areas and the school campus. But finding such a location in a town hemmed in geographically is easier said than done. Industrial zones on the north and south ends of La Conner could be designated for adult businesses. Two sites a...
Tulip Valley Farms operator Andrew Miller filed for dismissal of all claims made by Spinach Bus Venture Group, owners of Tulip Town, in Skagit Superior Court April 25. His 15 page memorandum of law filed in support of his motion again cites the 2019 operating agreement the then partners signed: “Any Member or Manager may engage in or possess an interest in other business ventures of every nature and description, independently or with others, including but not limited to, the ownership, financing, or management, employment by, lending to, or o...
Ongoing work towards both energy independence and the transition to energy sources that don’t use fossil fuels are going to create choices for energy consumers that we haven’t had in decades, or ever. If technologies in the energy field continue on their current course, buying energy is going to involve decisions we haven’t had to make before. We’re already seeing some of these changes and can expect to see more. For instance, electric utilities won’t offer just one product (now with electricity...
Shelter Bay resident Jan Henrie wants another day in court, continuing her lawsuit to stop the five Shelter Bay Community board of director officers from making financial decisions and to remove them. Meanwhile, the board approved a lease agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community April 19. Henrie’s March motion for injunctive relief in Skagit Superior Court was denied April 14. She filed a motion for reconsideration April 24, alleging Judge Laura Riquelme’s denial of her motion was “contrary to law, that substantial justice has not b...
A perennial issue topped the agenda of a rare short La Conner Town Council meeting last Tuesday. As had the town’s planning commission a week earlier, most of council’s 40-minute April 25 session emphasized downtown parking and traffic congestion. The parking topic likely would have consumed even more Council time – as it has for springs and summers over decades – were it not that many at the meeting wanted to attend the much-anticipated Matika Wilbur book launch at Swinomish at 7 p.m. Even longtime La Conner resident Linda Talman, an attende...
The permit for a 300 square foot billboard on Cedardale Road on the east side of I-5 at the Conway exit was approved by the Skagit County Planning and Development Services Department April 18. Staff found the application met all requirements in Skagit County’s code and comprehensive plan and the applicant provided “adequate analysis of and mitigation for the specific adverse environmental impacts of the project,” planner Kevin Cricchio wrote. The applicant received a SEPA Mitigated Determination of Nonsignificance. Cricchio approved an admin...
It is time to decide to run for mayor or a town council seat in La Conner or for school district director, Fire District 13 commissioner and cemetery district 1 positions. Filing by mail for elected offices has started. File online or in person May 15-19. Get a Skagit County candidates guide with information on office qualifications and candidate filing instructions at the Skagit County Elections website. Offices without a fixed annual salary have no filing fee. Voting for the primary election closes at 8 p.m. Aug. 1. Only races with three or...
Swinomish Tribal Community lands are in line for salmon habitat restoration and coastal resilience grant funds, U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Everett) and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA.) announced last week. The federal funding support has been recommended by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of infrastructure and inflation reduction legislation passed to combat climate change and create green jobs. One of 14 NOAA-endorsed conservation projects is an $11.6 million Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife salmon and...
Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, LLC did not meet the state of Washington 's April 14 deadline to remove its Hope Island fish net pens from Skagit Bay. After the state Department of Natural Resources ended the company’s leases in November, it faced a December deadline to pull all its infrastructure. In January Thurston County Superior Court extended until April fish harvesting and removal of equipment from the firm’s Hope Island and Bainbridge Island fish farms, granting a preliminary injunction against the DNR. In a statement then, Cooke called the...
The Washington State Legislature adjourned April 23 after passing two-year budgets. It failed to approve a controversial bill setting drug possession penalties, raising the possibility of a special session in the coming weeks to resolve the issue. The state operating budget allocates $69.3 billion for areas such as behavioral health, K-12 education and more for the 2023-25 biennium. That budget includes $2.9 billion for K-12 education and $400 million for the Climate Commitment Act, which helps prepare for climate crises such as flooding and...
The wheels of justice are said to grind slowly. But when it comes to planning for future local transportation needs, Town of La Conner officials, relatively speaking, are putting the pedal to the metal. Two years after the transportation section of the comprehensive plan was updated, Planning Director Michael Davolio, Assistant Planner Ajah Eills and planning commissioners are looking at parking in revisiting that element of the land use plan. Davolio conducted an inventory of available parking spaces on First Street and found there are 307...
The memories of severe saltwater flooding that deluged La Conner in December remain firmly etched in the minds of residents and business owners here, perhaps no more so than former council member and planning commissioner Bill Stokes. But Stokes, unanimously chosen to chair the Town’s new six-member emergency management commission at its first meeting April 19, is focused more on the future than the past. “We’ll talk about everything that can cause an emergency,” Stokes said. “That includes fires, tsunamis and earthquakes. “Our current goal,” h...
A two vehicle crash on Fir Island Road shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday sent a plume of thick black smoke high into the air. Bright orange flames were visible from Moore Road southeast of Best Road. Skagit County Fire District 3 responded at 3:17 p.m. to the 911 call coded as D MVA Rescue. The Skagit County Sheriff's Office responded to the same call. A white Dodge Journey traveling southbound on Fir Island Road crossed over the center line, striking a northbound red Subaru head on, the deputy...
The weather has not cooperated or coordinated itself with this year's Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, but sunny days are surely here again for Andrew Miller's new Tulip Valley Farms operation. His Bradshaw Road operation, in partnership with Larry Jensen and Shannon Perkes, continues to be open for business after an April 7 agreement between his lawyer and counsel for Spinach Bus Venture Group, owners of Tulip Town. Miller was sued on March 28 to halt his operations by Tulip Town's owners in Skagi...
Skagit County Superior Court judge Laura Riquelme sided with the five executive committee members of the Shelter Bay Community board of directors Friday, denying a request for an injunction that could have led to their removal from the board and would have prevented them from making financial decisions, including approving the community’s 2023 interim lease with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. In a near hour-long hearing attended by 15-20 Shelter Bay residents and watched over Zoom by another 45, attorneys for defendants Wendy P...
Last spring, Judy Kontos won election to the Shelter Bay Community’s board of directors on a platform of increasing transparency and ushering in reform as part of the nine-member governing panel. This time around, Kontos didn’t fare well when Shelter Bay residents marked their ballots. Kontos was recalled on a 343-149 vote last Wednesday when in-person and mail-in ballots were tallied. Kontos, whose career background is in finance with extensive experience as a mortgage broker, was sanctioned and suspended from the board in February pen...
Nobody anticipates a train derailment in their backyard. Nobody, perhaps, except Skagit County Fire District 13 Training Officer Chris Olbu. A model railroader, Olbu led a detailed tabletop exercise at the district’s SneeOosh Road fire station earlier this year, presenting the many scenarios that can arise when a train derails. As fate would have it, about two weeks after practicing moving model emergency vehicles around the train track Olbu had set up on the fire station’s second floor, two BNSF locomotive derailed near the Swinomish Cas...
The Town of La Conner won’t be caught with its pants down while drafting rules regulating adult businesses. Its Town Council last Tuesday unanimously adopted a six-month emergency moratorium on development applications within commercial, commercial transition and residential zones while controls addressing adult-oriented businesses are enacted. The action stems any attempt to locate here before specific regulations are adopted. “The moratorium,” planner Michael Davolio said, “will address anything that might come up in the interim.” Restricti...
The turmoil continues in Shelter Bay. Resident Judy Kontos filed five petitions, one against each executive committee member of the Shelter Bay Community board of directors, Thursday, April 13. The day before Kontos, elected to the board in May, was ousted from the board by a 55% yes vote of 492 of residents. This followed Kontos’ sanction and suspension from the board in February. “Collectively, I delivered over 1,000 signatures,” Kontos told the Weekly News Monday. Each petition had 220 signatures, she said. Community rules require 25% of th...