It is mid-September. The decision train – trains, actually – are boarding. It is time to get on if you do not want to be left behind as Town of La Conner governmental entities prepare trips into 2023 – and beyond.

First on the schedule is a Sept. 19 town conversation for residents to come together and talk. It is organized by La Conner Town Council’s communication committee. They want to hear from citizens and listen for celebrations, concerns, trends, hopes and ideas. It starts at 6:30 p.m. in Maple Hall.

Come early the next night for the public hearing in front of the town’s planning commission. On the agenda are potential municipal code changes. The Port of Skagit has asked that a Port Industrial Zone chapter be added. It will specify marine manufacturing and maritime services for the goal of supporting a strong maritime economy. This is not a follow up to the mixed use proposal presentation last May. The new chapter does sanction 60 foot building heights.

The 2023 Town of La Conner budget train is already rolling. Last evening town council started discussion, hearing from the directors of public works and the wastewater treatment plant. On Sept. 27 presentations for the fire department and other general fund departments budgets are planned. By Nov. 2 council will get Mayor Ramon Hayes’ draft budget. There will be public hearings at the November council meetings and perhaps December's. In recent years almost no one has spoken at budget hearings.

And, last night the Town bought a piece of property on which they may site – or champion having – a tiny house village. Residents might want to weigh in on that.

Talk about drinking out of a fire hose. The last three weeks the Weekly News has reported on the Sept. 20 planning commission public hearing and the Port’s request for a new zoning chapter. Only resident Linda Talman expressed concern for public participation. She was quoted in August questioning if a large citizen turn out will crowd the second story meeting room next week.

Good for her. Council, mayor and staff are not organizing, preparing or advocating for community involvement ahead of critical decisions on municipal code changes that may open the door for increased development at the north end of town.

South end economic development is also being planned, assisted by a $30,000 planning grant by the state. La Conner’s potential to grow is vast. Folks who champion new business and jobs in the community are doing exactly that, advocating for the future they want.

The annual budget is a planning document as well as a list of expenditures and revenue sources. Here is a small example: a line item for the new La Conner Swinomish Library, the first funding commitment from our local government.

La Conner – the town government, the school district, the business community, residents, have, from the 30,000 foot level – and perhaps at ground level – come through the two worst years of the coronavirus pandemic in amazingly good shape. By a strict accounting of tax dollars, town coffers are overflowing as tourists continue to love La Conner and month after month sales tax revenue records are set. Through all that, the community – as a governed entity – has not drawn closer together, has not been rallied to common purpose.

There have been common discontents – property development projects on Maple Avenue and Center Street that have stirred loud criticisms. Those have not turned into opportunities to invite discussion and participation for visioning and planning a future that minimizes ad hoc private development and offers a road map for a sustainable future.

The communications committee has heard and captured resident sentiment that our ongoing prosperous and developing La Conner maintain the small town values that everyone holds dear. That sentiment is loved. A vision for prosperity that protects the present day La Conner? Where is the train that will bring us to that destination? Who is holding hearings on getting us there?