When Leroy and Rita Jo Shoultz settled on 14 acres near Fritz Creek, the top priority was making an abandoned log cabin habitable for their family and learning to live without running water or electricity.
In her report to the Homer City Council at its Monday night meeting, City Manager Katie Koester made a big “mea culpa” and admitted providing the council with wrong information on the performance of the Homer Permanent Fund. Based on that information, on a recommendation from council member Shelly Erickson to rescind an earlier decision gutting the fund, the issue will come back to the council at its July 24 meeting.
After bringing a proposed Greatland Street project back to the Homer City Council for a second public hearing, the Homer City Council on Monday night tied on the question of moving the project forward and supporting Option A, extending the street straight to Pioneer Avenue.
Fourth of July Holiday Events
STAFF REPORT
The recent hiring of two new Homer Police Department officers brings the force up to its full component of 12 staff. Homer Mayor Bryan Zak recognized new officers Jessica Poling and Morgan Tracy at Monday’s Homer City Council meeting. The new officers fill positions vacated when former officer Sgt. Larry Baxter was promoted to investigative sergeant after Sgt. Lary Kuhns retired in April and another officer left the department in 2016.
In a birth announcement in the June 22 issue,, the time of birth was incorrect for Mirabel Silver Piek. She was born at 10:30 a.m. June 14, 2017, at South Peninsula Hospital to Tabitha and Jacob Piek. The birth announcement with correct time is in this week’s Town Crier. We apologize for the error.
Staff report
As Homer’s aviation tourism business has grown, along with it have come complaints about noise from airplanes and helicopters flying low over homes and businesses. The problem has become so common that the Homer Police Department includes a link on the city’s web page, “How to Report Low-flying Aircraft” (http://www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/police/low-flying-aircraft).
By vote margins of 223 or more, an attempted recall failed for Homer City Council members Donna Aderhold, David Lewis and Catriona Reynolds. In final results tallied today by the Special Election Canvass Board, the “no” votes increased their margins of victory to triple digits over Tuesday’s voting. All three council members will keep their seats.
With 849 more votes counted today on top of 1,087 votes cast on June 13, and with a 42 percent voter turn out, the final results are:
Shall Donna Aderhold be recalled?
Yes: 825 votes or 43 percent
Editor's note: This story has been updated as of 4:05 p.m.
A meeting at Homer City Hall, Cowles Council Chambers, of the Homer Canvass Board at 1 p.m. Friday to count about 850 outstanding absentee and other ballots got delayed when the city clerk’s office discovered an 18-vote discrepancy between the number of people voting on Tuesday and the number of ballots counted. City Clerk Melissa Jacobsen advised the canvass board to do a recount of ballots cast in Homer Precincts 1 and 2 on June 13.
A special election to recall three Homer City Council members who sponsored an “inclusivity” or “sanctuary city” resolution appears to have failed, but still is too close to call.
At Monday night’s Homer City Council meeting on the eve of a special election to recall three council members, the council drastically transformed its budget by zeroing out the $2.3 million Homer Permanent Fund. The drama of that action highlighted the council’s indecision on a major city capital project, not yet endorsing the recommendation of the Police Station Task Force to build either a $6 million or $9 million police station on Grubstake Avenue.
Homer Special Election
Though capital projects have slowed down in Alaska because of the tight state budget, several state road and airport projects are under construction this summer or planned for the 2018 building season. Last week, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities held a workshop last Tuesday for two 2018 road projects and then another workshop last Friday for two current jobs. Homer area residents can expect to see work done on these improvements over the next two years:
A pale-blue 110-foot Bering Sea crab boat anchored off the inside of the Homer Spit has gathered a bit more attention than the usual fishing boat in Kachemak Bay. The R/V Wild Alaskan might not be a Deadliest Catch star like the F/V Time Bandit, but she’s become almost as famous.
Homer’s ongoing struggle with opioid addiction continued last Wednesday with a community presentation and conversation at Homer High School, “Responding to Opioid Addiction in Our Community.” Moderated by Pastor Lisa Talbott of Homer United Methodist Church, the discussion included talks by a recovering addict and the parents of a recovering addict.
To paraphrase the 1982 punk rock song by the Clash, “Should they stay or should they go?”
HCOA holds Mary Epperson Day
A single-car crash on Tuesday night sent all four people in the car to South Peninsula Hospital. One victim, a 29-year-old man, had major pelvis injuries and was Medevaced to an Anchorage hospital. The crash of a Subaru happened about 8:40 p.m. June 6 just west of Kachemak Drive near the Bagel Shop. Homer Police Chief Mark Robl said the crash ejected one person from the car. Also involved were a 25-year-old man, a 28-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman. Homer Volunteer Fire Department medics and firefighters with mutual aid from Kachemak Emergency Services responded.
