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

Thank yous were in abundance last Wednesday afternoon at the Sept. 29 groundbreaking ceremony for the new La Conner Swinomish Library that will be built on the southwest corner of Morris and Sixth streets. And while there was not an orange and black striped Tiger Construction shovel for everyone, Library Director Jared Fair offered everyone the opportunity to pick one up, so all could be a part of the historic moment.

As emcee, and library director since spring 2020, Fair told the almost 100 people gathered under overcast skies and increasingly windy conditions, “I am incredibly fortunate and thankful to serve in this position in the company of so many people who have worked tirelessly to bring about this day: the groundbreaking for the La Conner Swinomish Library.”

Numbers big and small were highlighted by the several speakers: the 33 years since 1988 that Friends of the Library have been raising money; the more than 20 years that B.J. Carol championed a new building; the 15 years former library director Joy Neal quietly supported a property purchase; the nine years the La Conner Library Foundation has been operating; the seven years the Friends ran the Library Thrift Shop in the building they bought; the first meeting County Commissioner Ron Wesen had with library and town officials four years ago.

No funding, no library. State Reps. Dave Paul and Norma Smith and state Senator Barbara Bailey were recognized for gaining $1.22 million in state funds. Skagit County provided $500,000. And the Swinomish Tribe cemented the project, first with $750,000 in 2019 and then ensuring its viability with an additional $100,000 since. Finally, local donations, fueled by Friends of the Library and the La Conner Kiwanis, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes was key to state and county funding. “The best projects I have been involved with are those you can’t achieve on your own,” he told the group. “When I hear the word community, I get excited.”

Steve Edwards, chair of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, echoed that, saying “We all live here. We need to improve the whole community. … If we are going to be neighbors we have to gather and share together. We have to share those stories – the history of La Conner, Skagit County, Swinomish.”

Edwards thanked the tribal Senate, which was well represented Wednesday.

Jim Airy, treasurer of the library’s board of trustees, noted the central role of the Tribe: “The Tribe saw at once the benefits the new library could offer the Swinomish people. And beyond that, the Tribe envisioned the project as building a new bridge across the Channel, a new way of bringing our two communities together. Without their steadfast commitment and their generous financial support, this groundbreaking ceremony today would not be taking place,” he said.

It was an emotional moment for Joan Scarboro, president of the Friends of the Library, who confessed to tearing up. She turned and pointed behind her, to the slight depression where the Library Thrift Shop had stood until a week earlier. “When will we have a new library? When will it happen?

Today is the day. (I am looking forward to) the day our library is open and particularly the community meeting room. Won’t that be super?”

Others spoke: Jean Markert, chair of the library board; Judy Menish, president of the library foundation’s board. Susan Macek, director of the library foundation. Then Kevin Paul, a library board member, introduced the Swinomish Canoe Family, which offered a blessing song. He had the mostly Anglo crowd raise their hands, palms up, telling them “In our language that means thank you. In your language it means touchdown.”

Also on-site were project manager Jeremy McNett of Underwood & Associates, design firm BuildingWork’s founder and principal architect, Matt Aalfs and senior project architect Jake LaBarre and Sean Burkhardt, project manager from Tiger Construction.

As Airy had said, “So here we are. After ten years, we finally get to the fun part, the part where dream becomes reality.” He was in the first round of shovelers.