A Nordic favorite — lutefisk — and all the trimmings for the perfect holiday meal will be served at the Faith Lutheran Church of Homer on Friday, beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets are now available at the church at the corner of Soundview and the Sterling Highway: adults, $18; high school, $10; children through the eighth grade, $6. Purchasing them in advance is encouraged.
The “Perceptions of Community Health” survey is currently underway and help is needed. Megan Murphy, coordinator of MAPP (Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships) of the Southern Kenai Peninsula, said “on the ground” volunteers are needed to broadly distribute the survey and then pick up the surveys Dec. 17 and 18.
“We want to make sure that this survey reflects many layers of our Southern Kenai Peninsula communities, so more hands, feet and support (are) needed for wide distribution,” said Murphy.
A fire Saturday evening that involved five Kenai Peninsula fire departments completely destroyed a landmark building at Whiskey Gulch. Firefighters could not save a five-story log home built by Robin and Margareta Lipinski and recently sold at an auction. Unoccupied at the time, no one was injured in the fire or in the response.
“It was a towering inferno,” said Anchor Point Fire and Emergency Medical Services acting chief Kayt Andrews.
Putting their stamp on the Christmas holiday, South Peninsula Hospital staff and Long Term Care residents perform the one-of-a-kind “A Long Term Christmas Carol” this Saturday and Sunday. Performances are at 3 p.m. in the Long Term Care Day Room at the hospital.
BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
STAFF WRITER
Homer Police last week charged an Anchor Point woman with first-degree theft for taking $95,794 from her ex-boss, Matt Shadle. Police alleged that over 18 months Terry D. McCloud, 44, embezzled $29,340 in forged checks and $66,454 in unauthorized credit card transactions.
Is teens' use of alcohol in Homer a new problem?
Not according to 20-year-old headlines in the Homer News. In October 1992, three students were suspended for 30 days for using alcohol before attending a school dance. It was the maximum amount allowed for a first-time offense of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District's drug abuse policy.
Resulting letters to the editor expressed support for, as well as criticism of, the school district's policies, and called for help for, rather than expulsion of, students using alcohol.
It's one thing to hear what adults have to say about the use of alcohol by Homer teens. It's another thing to hear what the teens have to say. Following are comments from five Homer High School students involved with PHAT, Promoting Health Among Teens.
For Dylan Wylde, 17, it starts with shifting away from a negative focus.
"Find something else to talk about, something positive that teens have been doing," said Wylde.
At the regular meeting of the Homer City Council on Monday, two council members — Bryan Zak and David Lewis — will present two separate ordinances dealing with sales tax on food.
Ordinance 12-53, sponsored by Zak, seeks to reinstate the tax year-round. Ordinance 12-54, sponsored by Lewis, seeks to make certain categories of nonprepared foods subject to the tax year-round.
Each ordinance has a Jan. 1 effective date.
The annual holiday season starts Thursday with turkey and ends with bubbly drinks on New Year’s Day. During the next five weeks, we will sit down to sumptuous feasts, brave Homer crowds as we shop locally, ponder the mystery of the season, go to church, hold bonfires, sing and celebrate with a variety of traditions. How do people honor the spirit of the holiday season? How do families, individuals and groups show gratitude? In these short stories, we look at how some area residents embrace Thanksgiving and keep the spirit of the holiday alive all year long.
Buccaneer Energy on Tuesday announced that work on its jack-up rig in the Homer Harbor is nearing completion and that the Endeavour-Spirit of Independence will soon be ready for operations at the company’s Cosmopolitan site off Anchor Point.
In a press release, Buccaneer updated what’s been done and what remains to be done, including:
Re-elected to serve in the 28th Alaska Legislature, representing House District 30, Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, will serve as chair of the House Fisheries Committee. He also will be a sitting member of the House Resources, Education and Health and Social Services committees.
Linda Tannehill of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, points out the energy costs for different methods of cooking a pot of beans. The Extension Service was one of 33 exhibitors at HEA’s Energy and Conservation Fair at West Homer Elementary School on Saturday.
Photo by
McKibben Jackinsky,
Homer News
A 20-year-old Homer man was found dead on Friday morning in his car parked at a Skyline Drive overlook near Clearwater Drive. Homer Police said Nickolas Phillips died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
According to a press release, a person called police at 9:18 a.m. Nov. 9 saying he saw a man in a car at the overlook near a cluster of radio towers, but the man did not appear to be moving.
The caller said the left rear window of the car had been broken out.
The Thanksgiving countdown has begun. Seven days from now families and friends will sit down to meals of turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and all the fixings.
For may of us, however, reality is a bit harsher. Finances are stretched. Unemployment isn’t just a statistic. Family is thousands of miles away.
In summer, thousands of visitors hike, raft, fish and camp in Kachemak Bay State Park and Kachemak Bay Wilderness State Park. Many of them make their own way there by private boat, but others arrive through water taxis, air taxis and guides, all permitted under Alaska State Parks regulations.
In the winter, though, the bay quiets down, with only a few water taxi operators running. Local backcountry skiers have long known that the slopes of the Kenai Mountains offer awesome runs — runs earned the hard way, through muscling up mountains.
Editor's Note: How rigorously do Homer High School officials enforce rules against drinking by students and student athletes? Are those rules enforced fairly? How does Homer High compare in overall disciplinary incidents to other Kenai Peninsula Borough School District high schools? In this two-part series, the Homer News examines those issues. This week's story looks at how Homer High enforces its rules and how it compares to other schools. Next week, we'll look at recent investigations, punishments, reactions and suggestions for change.
A find here and a find there is one thing. Put all those finds together and a picture starts to take shape. Such has been the case with evidence of creatures that once made their home on the southern Kenai Peninsula.
The 2011 radiocarbon dating of two remains — an ankle bone and a tusk — indicated woolly mammoths roamed the area between 60,000-25,000 years ago. More pieces have surfaced and been dated since then, thanks to the effort to gather these pieces together by local author and historian Janet Klein and Soldotna geologist Dick Reger.
Led by a U.S. Coast Guard Color Guard, the Veterans’ Day Parade heads down the Sterling Highway on Sunday to the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center.
Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska
Information about healthy aging vs. Alzheimer’s and free memory screenings
Baha’i Faith of Homer
Messages of well being and the benefits of prayer and meditation for adults and children
Bay Club LLC
Updated information about the benefits of exercise in every component of health
Best Beginnings Homer
Information on early childhood education and helping families live healthy lives
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Homer
Ask Mike Gracz about the Rotary Health Fair and he’ll tell you it and the comprehensive blood analysis offered through the fair saved his life.
“I hardly even knew I was getting a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test, but it was at the health fair and I just checked the box,” said Gracz, who was 39 at the time he had the screening done in 2000. “I’d always heard about the health fair and thought it was a good idea to get the blood work done.”
