What you can find in this week's copy:
Tensions flare between Fire District and Town - Sandy Stokes
The town of La Conner and Fire District 13 each own half of the La Conner Fire Station, located on Chilberg Road, and have shared equipment and response areas for years. Now, the Fire District proposes to move its own firefighters into the La Conner Fire Station and terminate the portions of the operating agreement that allows La Conner fire fighters to use its truck and respond to calls in the District 13 territory east of the Swinomish Channel. Town officials fear that the proposed changes could have a bad impact on town residents' fire insurance rates and could increase the town's costs.
Skate Park Commission meeting tonight! 6 p.m. at the Civic Garden Club--on 2nd Street, across from the Quilt Museum. Tonight they will be discussing fundraising ideas.
Long Jump - La Conner Braves' Kristin Dorr leaped to win third place in the long jump at last week's league championship track meet.
[Photo by Amylynn Richards]
La Conner taps sun for power - Alexander Kramer
La Conner is growing greener with two solar energy projects going online. Residents Gary and Leigh Giovane's Third Street home has a roof sporting new solar electric panels and a solar water heater, and the town's sewage treatment plant is the site of the first town-owned solar electric generating station. The Giovane's system powered up just this week. For weeks they were anxious: "I see the sun and think we could be 'catching' all that energy, and we can't yet," Gary Giovane said. But on Tuesday, he said, "We are now officially active energy generators!"
1950s Flash Back - Some La Conner alumni probably remember a high school classroom very similar to this one--which was created with original lights and furnishings and some replica desks made by the drama tech class. Here, Lexie Butler plays the title role of "Our Miss Brooks," with Cecily Hahn as Jane during the weekend production.
[Photo by Amylynn Richards]
Mother Flight Farm - Fred Owens
Glenn Johnson's compost pile is a source of pride: It's hot--reaching over 150 degrees Fahrenheit--and it's made from a recipe he customized for his Fir Island organic farm. His composted mixture of dairy manure, cattle bedding, seed hulls and old pea hay works wonders on the clay and silt at Mother Flight Farm, where Johnson and his wife, Charlotte, have been growing organic produce for 20 years.
High Jump - La Conner Braves' Steven Bell as he clears the 5-foot-high jump during the league championship track meet last Thursday.
[Photo by Amylynn Richards]
Verse, song and creativity coming to town - Sandy Stokes
Poets from all over the U.S. and from around the world will convene in La Conner next week for the Skagit River Poetry Festival--a celebration of literature held every two years. The festival headliners include Sherman Alexie, National Book Award winner for the "Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian" and Pulitzer Prize winner, and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. Two days of poetry readings and writer workshops with dozens of professional wordsmiths will follow a sold out fund-raising kickoff dinner on Thursday night, May 20. After the dinner, the festival events begin with a raucous adults-only evening featuring writer, social critic and stand-up comedian Sherman Alexie "unplugged."
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