A perennial issue topped the agenda of a rare short La Conner Town Council meeting last Tuesday.

As had the town’s planning commission a week earlier, most of council’s 40-minute April 25 session emphasized downtown parking and traffic congestion.

The parking topic likely would have consumed even more Council time – as it has for springs and summers over decades – were it not that many at the meeting wanted to attend the much-anticipated Matika Wilbur book launch at Swinomish at 7 p.m.

Even longtime La Conner resident Linda Talman, an attendee of countless marathon Town meetings,...