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

It is hard to predict the future and often just as difficult to remember the distant past.

But Vince Sellen, a retired La Conner schools teacher and former town council member, has shown a command of both. That is fitting for the one-time finalist for appointment to the state legislature and someone whom a local public service scholarship is named.

Sellen, now an Anacortes resident, was among La Conner officials in the 1980s cautioning against over-development of vacant lots here, especially commercial encroachment into neighborhoods.

He can also recall many of the key land use issues of...