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

How does one thank a person who has unstintingly given 16 years of his life to our community? Ramon Hayes has been La Conner’s mayor twenty four hours a day for every one of those years. Many of us have had the pleasure of chatting with him on his daily walks, often accompanied by his smiling, gregarious wife. A useful way of taking the pulse of the town person to person, he seemed to genuinely enjoy his walks.

But the mayor’s day was often much more than glad-handing. He chaired 16 years of town council meetings, some being quite contentious. Under the mayor’s gavel the council meet...