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The poorly written page 1 headline last week needed to have read: "Record December Town sales tax revenues." The tax revenue summary town council receives inFebruary contains December’s data. Buy your in-person tickets only on Saturday for The Case of the Slain Slough Swindler at the La Conner Chamber of Commerce’s 210 Morris Street office. This important fact was left out of the March 15 story. The Limedock building is owned by Guoying Li and Hoa Hau, not Peter Anderson, as stated in the March 15 issue. The editor regrets these err...
There were two sure signs at last week's La Conner Town Council meeting that spring is in the offing. The first was the presentation by Skagit Valley Tulip Festival Executive Director Cindy Verge of the official poster, a depiction by artist Kerry Clavadetscher of a Savannah sparrow perched on a favorite tulip. The second was an announce-ment by Town Public Works Director Brian Lease that king tide winter flood protection sandbags will be picked up at the end of the month. The bags have been in...
In 2018, Bay View resident Roger Pederson was charged with one count of first-degree animal cruelty and one count of second-degree animal cruelty after more than 70 dead cattle were found on his property. On March 13 he entered an Alford plea to two charges of first-degree animal cruelty. His sentencing is scheduled for April 19. There will be a demonstration outside the Skagit County Superior Courthouse March 30, 4-6 p.m. T-shirts will be sold for $20 each. Email advocacy@skagithumane.org with questions. Source: Humane Society of Skagit...
WASHINGTON – Amtrak, in collaboration with ODOT, WSDOT and other agencies resumes Cascades service between Portland, Ore. and Vancouver, BC This is the first direct service between Portland and stations north of Seattle since 2020. Serving 12 stations along the I-5 corridor in western Washington, customers traveling north can depart Seattle at 7 p.m. for an 11 p.m. arrival in Vancouver, BC. The southbound train leaves Vancouver, BC at 6:35 a.m. for an 11 a.m. stop in Seattle and a 2:55 p.m. Portland arrival. Amtrak Cascades restarted daily s...
It's March 15, and nary a daffodil can be seen, but Brent Roozen isn't worried. Field picking ramped up last weekend, said the Washington Bulb Company CEO, and daffodils are shipping to customers at tulips.com as well as grocery stores across the country. "Yellow is right around the corner, and when daffodils bloom late, the color can come on really quickly." As for tulips, it is too early to tell. Late daffodils can mean no tulips until mid-April "but tulips can catch up quickly if they get a...
Between gift giving generosity and tourists wanting to get out of their hometowns, La Conner registers jingled merrily in December. Town of La Conner sales tax revenue reported in February was a record $63,103, $ 6,556 and 11.6% above 2022’s previous record. Not till May did a month’s sales tax revenues top $63,000 last year. The $106,494 two-month total is one-sixth of this year’s projected budget. Shoppers flocked to La Conner for holiday shopping; data are reported on a two month time lag. These are November and December's revenues. The $...
Maybe the 50 or so people attending the Climate Resilience conversation Sunday at the Anacortes Senior Center did not provide $7,500 worth of advice for changing the trajectory Skagit County residents – and everyone – are facing as the climate changes. But facilitator Dave Peterson made that unscientific estimate at the meeting’s end. The University of Washington forestry professor is with the Skagit Climate Science Consortium, scientists working with local people to assess, plan and adapt to climate related impacts. “Where do we go from here?...
Power outages are rare and usually short here, but grid-provided electricity isn’t completely consistent and reliable under all circumstances. Here’s a quick guide to the world of power quality problems and actions individuals and businesses can take to minimize negative effects. Transient power quality issues that don’t result in outages include voltage variations (sags, swells and spikes), poor current frequency and problems with power factor. (Power factor is technically complex and is usual...
Peter Anderson, owner of the Limedock building, 109 North First Street in La Conner, has filed a permit application with the town planning department to create two residential apartments by remodeling the second floor office space. Two gabled dormers will be added to the roof. The town planning commission will hold a hearing March 21, 6 p.m. in Maple Hall. Comments will be accepted at the public hearing. The meeting will be on Zoom, also. Those submitting comments automatically become a party of record and will be notified of decisions. The...
Anacortes sold home prices are the highest by far of Skagit County markets this year, at $832,000 for the median price for the 24 homes that closed in January and February. February’s Anacortes market was even hotter, with a median sold home price of $935,000, 12.4% higher for the17 homes, 10 more than sold in January. Anacortes prices raised Skagit County’s February median sold home price to $487,000. Mount Vernon was the only other market with prices above the median, at $503,000 for the 23 homes that closed. Burlington was close, at a $48...
1th District state Sen. Ron Muzzall and State Rep. Dave Paul are hosting town halls this weekend to provide updates on the legislative session. March 18, 11 a.m. they are at the Oak Harbor Library meeting room, 1000 SE Regatta Drive, Oak Harbor. March 19, 4 p.m. they are at the Arlington Boys & Girls 18513 59th Ave. NE....
Update, March 17 at bottom SWINOMISH RESERVATION — Early the morning of March 16, before 1 a.m., the two locomotives of a BNSF train heading east from an Anacortes oil refinery derailed along the Padilla Bay waterfront within site of the Swinomish Channel, behind the Swinomish Casino. One spilled its fuel to a berm on the land-side of the tracks, the unified command for the incident reported. This report is primarily from the news release from the unified command. Responders arrived on the s...
Peter Anderson, owner of the Limedock building, 109 North First Street in La Conner, has filed a permit application with the Town of La Conner planning department to create two residential apartments by remodeling the second floor office space. Two gabled dormers will be added to the roof. The town planning commission will hold a hearing March 21, 6 p.m. in Maple Hall. Comments will be accepted at the public hearing. The meeting will be on Zoom, also. Those submitting comments automatically...
During a week in late February which saw snow, wind and rain amid occasional sun breaks, Town officials and residents turned their attention to climate change. At the Town Council Feb. 28 meeting, members and Mayor Ramon Hayes lauded the community’s embrace of solar energy and progress made in establishing a Town Emergency Management Commission in response to recent saltwater flooding, a perfect storm weather. event A joint session with the planning commission was short, consisting almost entirely of planning staff outlining the two-year p...
OLYMPIA — The Washington state Department of Commerce released its final housing needs projections March 2. They show the state needs to add 1.1 million homes over the next 20 years, and more than half of them need to be affordable for residents at the lowest income levels. Based on census data and the Office of Financial Management’s population projections, these final housing projections illustrate that Washington needs more than 50,000 new units annually to keep pace with expected population growth. In 2021, the Growth Management Act fra...
Yes, February was cold, with nine nights of frost, four in a row Feb. 22-25, where the month’s low of 20.4 degrees Feb. 24 fell. That day the average temperature was 27.1 degree. February’s daily average temperature was 39.6 degrees, 1.6 degrees below average for the century. The average morning low of 33.8 degrees was 0.9 degree below the century average; the month’s average daily high of 45.5 degrees was two degrees below average this century. The high went above 50 degrees four times in the first 10 days, but not after that. Rainfall was a...
Could solar energy power the entire electric grid even though the sun is only up, in any given place, an average of 12 hours a day? Yes. It would be expensive to build solar power plants across every time zone, and interconnect them so that the sun would always be up somewhere over the electric grid, but it could, theoretically, be done. Projects that seem like that type of science fiction are being developed. Companies in the United Kingdom and Morocco are working on a system that will export...
Officials took the first steps toward updating La Conner’s comprehensive plan at a joint Town Council-Planning Commission meeting at Maple Hall Feb. 28. Admittedly, they were baby steps. It will be a two-year process focusing on public engagement and addressing growth over a 20-year planning horizon as mandated by state legislation, planner Michael Davolio reported. “Our first priority,” stressed Davolio, “is to engage the public in the process. It’s very critical from our perspective that the plan addresses the community’s values.” A...
Having recently celebrated its golden anniversary, La Conner Marina is looking to remain a bright shining light on the local scene well into the future. The Port of Skagit marked a major milestone by completing upgrades to LED lighting at the marina, Port Communications Director Linda Tyler said Thursday. “While the Port’s maintenance teams have been upgrading all Port facilities to LED lighting as needed when old lights burn out,” said Tyler, “a proactive and complete upgrade at the marina began in earnest several months ago to take advanta...
The Tommy Thompson trail trestle is repaired and the trail opened ahead of schedule Feb. 23, the City of Anacortes announced on its website. Contractors Culbertson Marine, Strandberg Construction and Transpac Marinas, volunteers and people who contributed financially were recognized. Arson in August burnt 77 feet, closing the trestle across Fidalgo Bay. A reopening celebration will be scheduled. Source: City of Anacortes...
Washington State Ferries will not restore ferry service in 2023 between Anacortes and Sidney, British Columbia it announced in an updated restoration plan Feb. 28. The one sentence decision is: “WSF does not anticipate being able to restore service on the Anacortes/Sidney, B.C. route any sooner than spring 2030.” The ferry service ceased operating in 2020 due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has not restarted due to a shortage of qualified crew and more recently because of the retirement of vessels. Government Relations Dir...
Here is one more reminder: Daylight saving time starts 2 a.m. Sunday, March 12. Set your clocks ahead before going to bed. The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation for west coast states to have year round daylight time in 2022 but the Senate did not act so the bill sunset....
Few in La Conner can remember saltwater flooding as severe as Dec. 27’s, causing nearly $2 million in damages and directly impacting two dozen residences and six businesses. Yet it was not dire enough to merit a formal Federal Emergency Management Agency declaration of emergency. And that means federal reimbursement will not be made available to those in La Conner and elsewhere in Skagit County who suffered flood damage caused by a “perfect storm” of events – seasonal king tides, low atmospheric pressure and strong westerly winds. Unfortu...
About 100 Shelter Bay residents attended the latest in a series of monthly one-hour town hall forums at the community’s clubhouse Sunday night, where a wide range of topics – including recent sanctions imposed on two board members – were addressed. Other subjects covered in prior meetings, including perhaps the sorest of subjects – the unauthorized tree-cutting at Rainbow Park in 2020 that resulted in a stiff fine imposed by the Swinomish Tribal Community Planning Department – were discussed as well. So, too, was the status of Shelter B...
You probably no longer bat an eye when an electric car passes by on the road. More novel battery-powered vehicles are soon joining the parade to help operators achieve their sustainability goals. Electric ferries are coming to Puget Sound and hybrid electric airplanes are being tested in Washington. Now, several Pacific Northwest fire departments have ordered their first electric fire trucks. Portland Fire and Rescue is scheduled to take delivery next month of the first electric fire engine in...