Marna Hanneman leads first town council meeting as mayor

A new year, a new mayor.

It's been a long while – going back to January 2008 – since that sentence has applied to the Town of La Conner.

Now it does.

Former planning commissioner Marna Hanneman, who has spent the past six months prepping to succeed retiring four-term mayor Ramon Hayes, transitioned into her new role at a Jan. 9 hybrid town council meeting at Maple Hall that ended with a half-hour executive session.

Council members Annie Taylor and Mary Wohleb also took ceremonial oaths of office early in the 90-minute meeting. In addition to regular monthly department head reports, public comm...