Among those being recognized at commencement ceremonies for Kachemak Bay Campus, Kenai Peninsula College-University of Alaska Anchorage, is Campus Director Carol Swartz. Honoring her 27 years of commitment and service to the university and to the community of Homer, Swartz will be presented with the 2013 UA-UAA Meritorious Service Award by Patricia Jacobson, chair of the University Board of Regents, UAA Chancellor Thomas Case and KPC Director Gary Turner.

With a month to the June 3 deadline for turning in petitions, a citizen initiative to repeal Homer’s plastic bag ban as of this week has collected more than half the 230 signatures needed to get the initiative on the October ballot. 

Organizers need 25 percent of the ballots cast last October, said Justin Arnold, 27, the initiative organizer. As of Tuesday, Arnold, who is recovering from a broken collarbone, said sponsors had gathered about 150 signatures from registered Homer voters.

If the print edition of today’s Homer News had scratch ’n’ sniff ink, an eau de Homer this spring would have a recipe like this:

• Start with a generous dose of wet dog;

• Add a sprinkle of sewage sludge;

• Toss in a dead sea otter;

• Throw in that yucky black stuff at the bottom of an unturned compost heap;

• Marinade in fresh horse manure, and

• Let stand in a sealed 5-gallon bucket.