Town juggles its competing spending needs

Like parents or counselors for a 900-member family, Mayor Marna Hanneman, the La Conner Town Council and staff, primarily Town Administrator Scott Thomas and Finance Director Maria DeGoede, are wrestling with short, medium and long term funding needs as they advance the town’s 2025 $8.4 million draft budget. Hanneman reflected on the challenges of the past five years in her Nov. 12 budget message: the COVID-19 “pandemic, flooding, extreme weather events and the highest inflation in half a century.”

Hanneman, Thomas and DeGoede discussed the proposed budget with the Weekly News Monday. They spo...