News

Staff report

At a special meeting Monday afternoon, the Homer City Council certified the results of the June 13 special election that asked if voters wanted to recall council members Donna Aderhold, David Lewis and Catriona Reynolds.

By MICHAEL ARMSTRONG

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’s local environmental education organization, the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, last month received a $204,000 grant to engage Alaska teachers, students and communities in preparing and responding to coastal hazards and climate change. CACS director Beth Trowbridge will manage the grant and work with other nonprofit science and education groups on the project.

Pedestrian crossing signs went up late last month warning drivers to yield to walkers on the Spit. Installed in the median on flexible posts, the signs alert drivers to stop for people crossing crossing the road from about Ramp 3 to Ramp 1. The entire stretch of road there is a pedestrian crossing zone.

Celebrating the miles they’ve traversed — both in distance and in life experiences — the class of 2017, Kachemak Bay Campus, Kenai Peninsula College-University of Alaska Anchorage, celebrated with family, friends and lots of smiles at the May 10 commencement ceremony.

In a March 9 memorandum regarding certification of a petition for recall of Homer City Council members Donna Aderhold, David Lewis and Catriona Reynolds, City Attorney Holly Wells warned the council and Mayor Bryan Zak that “issuance of the Recall Petition on the grounds provided by the sponsors exposes the city to constitutional challenges based upon protections afforded speech under the Alaska and United States Constitutions.”

SOUTH DEERFIELD, Mass. — Police arrested a truck driver who they say had driven without rest from Washington state to the Greenfield Road Circle K parking lot while using crystal methamphetamine, LSD and cocaine.

 NOAA’s National Weather Service, the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Alaska Broadcasters Association plan to conduct a test of the tsunami warning communications system on Wednesday, March 29, at approximately 10:15 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time in coastal areas of southern Alaska. This test will be conducted for portions of coastal communities in Southeast Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak, the Aleutians and Pribilofs. People in Anchorage may see or hear that a tsunami warning has been issued for the Kenai Peninsula.

The Homer City Council at its 6 p.m. meeting on Tuesday considers three options for extending Greatland Street, the short road from the Sterling Highway west of Main Street that dead-ends for now at Save-U-More.

By MICHAEL ARMSTRONG

Organizers of a recall effort targeting Homer City Council members Donna Aderhold, David Lewis and Catriona Reynolds say emails showing the evolution of the failed so-called “inclusivity” resolution indicate why a recall is necessary.

Editor’s note: Following the March 16 court hearing, Assembly member Willy Dunne submitted his opinion piece to the Homer News. That opinion piece can be read at http://homernews.com/homer-opinion/2017-03-17/eliminating-invocation-right-thing-do

Once again

As Homer City Clerk Jo Johnson this week prepared petitions for a citizen group seeking to recall Homer City Council members Donna Aderhold, David Lewis and Catriona Reynolds, the city attorney at Monday’s council meeting provided guidance on the recall process.

Continued cold weather with excessive ice in the Homer Harbor has caused the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center to postpone for one weekend the 24th annual Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament, the chamber announced in a press release on Tuesday. The tournament has been postponed to Saturday, March 25.

A Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly member from Homer has challenged a clause prohibiting him from speaking or writing about the assembly’s controversial invocation policy. In a civil suit, assembly member Willy Dunne, District 9, said a legal nonprofit’s contract to defend the borough in an ongoing lawsuit over the invocation policy violates his constitutional right to free speech.

Homer City Clerk Jo Johnson on Friday, March 10, issued a certificate allowing an application seeking to recall Homer City Council members Donna Aderhold, David Lewis and Catriona Reynolds to go forward.

The Club Bar incident. Removing the Veterans Memorial from WKFL Park. Nuclear Free Homer. Annexation. Banning commercial cannabis. In the 53-year history of the Homer City Council, civic disputes have often flared up into hours-long public testimony that can test the patience of even the most seasoned citizen.