La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

While his biggest plans for La Conner never achieved fruition, Spokane native Vaughn Jolley established roots here that led to valued friendships and helped shape local development concepts for a generation.

Jolley, who with business partner Larry Willman unveiled plans in the early 1990s for a mixed-use revitalization of the vacant Moore-Clark property on La Conner’s waterfront, passed away Oct. 29 in Wenatchee.

He was 68.

Jolley spent nearly two decades trying to develop the once bustling industrial site, whose landmark building is the dilapidated 122-year-old former grain warehouse dubbed “Big Blue,” which Jolley and Willman initially envisioned being converted into the centerpiece of a south-end commercial and residential hub.

That vision was not universally shared.

The project was met with opposition from those concerned about potential traffic, parking, noise and night-time lighting impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. By the time Jolley was able to mitigate those and other concerns, economic conditions necessary for such a major development had soured, recalls Mayor Ramon Hayes.

“It was a matter of timing,” Hayes told the Weekly News. “The town was just not in position or ready for that kind of development. Later, when there was support from the town, it came right about the time of the financial downturn.”

Former Mayor Eron Berg, now executive director of the Port of Port Townsend, remembered Jolley as a key player on the La Conner scene.

“He was a significant figure during my time in La Conner politics,” Berg, who served as mayor from 1999-2003, said of Jolley.

Hayes said Jolley, who also maintained a ranch in Twisp, east of the Cascades, had the best interests of his adopted hometown of La Conner at heart.

“Vaughn was a vital community member,” Hayes said. “He wanted to see La Conner prosper.”

Many have noted Jolley’s generous spirit and gentle sense of humor. They say he was quick to welcome guests to his log cabin for pack trips, barbecues and campfires amid the quiet calm of the Methow Valley.

Former Town Public Works Director Gordy Bell is among those who made regular treks to Jolley’s ranch.

“Vaughn became a good friend whom I shall miss dearly,” said Bell, who had been a longtime Moore-Clark employee prior to hiring on with the Town after the company closed its plant here in 1992.

Bell met Jolley upon learning he was involved in the purchase of that property.

“I told him that I knew everything there was to know about the property,” Bell said, “and he enlisted my help with a lot of the work he had planned.”

Jolley also hired other La Conner area workers, and together they toiled to clean up around the 15,000 square-foot warehouse and other remnants of the old hatchery fish-food processing plant.

“He said he wanted to keep the work in the local community,” said Bell.

Bell said Jolley “had a good plan for the site,” but one that was variously endorsed or rejected based on the makeup of La Conner’s Town Council at a given time.

Eventually, the Moore-Clark property was sold to Triton America, which leased it back to Jolley for another stab at putting it to productive use.

Jolley ended up sub-leasing the property to a company that manufactured walls for buildings, but the Town shut down the venture in 2013 following a series of stop work orders issued because the firm failed to adequately dispose of its scrap material.

Jolley, who grew up in Colville and graduated from Eastern Washington University, retired permanently to Twisp.

Friends and family members say his Twisp ranch was a place for Jolley to relax and enjoy all his animals. He was also an avid pilot, they say, who enjoyed the aerial views his flights afforded.

Despite having officially retired, Jolley continued working in land development up until the end. This summer he was engaged in the proposed subdivision of nearly 34 acres about a mile south of Twisp.

This version eliminates the world “vacant” in the description of the Moore-Clark warehouse. The word vacant had been used earlier in the article. It also specifies later in the story that it was Moore-Clark’s La Conner plant that closed in 1992, not the entire company.