Gooseberry Fund grant appreciated

Friends of Kachemak Bay State Park would like to thank, recognize and honor the recent generous support from the Gooseberry Fund at the Homer Foundation. Their monetary grant allowed us to acquire several new power tools that are crucial for ongoing volunteer work to clear existing trails so they are accessible for hikers in Kachemak Bay State Park.

We have several projects in the 2021 season including improving Sadie Knob and Grace Ridge trails, as well as other trails as time permits. The tools and parts we bought with this grant are needed to accomplish FKBSP goals. Friends of Kachemak Bay State Park is a nonprofit (501(c)3 organization since 1999) that promotes the enhancement, preservation and protection of the natural recreational, scientific and historical resources of Kachemak Bay State Park.

This grant from the Gooseberry Fund has made it possible to continue to pursue our mission of enhancing the recreational resources of KBSP so there are more cleared trails for all to enjoy.

Thank you.

Kathy Sarns, President,Friends of Kachemak Bay State Park and the Board of Directors

Dear Editor,

In recent letters to the editor, Mr. Greg Sarber continues to peddle a theory about our U.S. Constitution that defies logic. More specifically, Mr. Sarber takes issue with Sen. Lisa Murkowski for voting to impeach Mr. Trump, under the premise the Constitution forbids the impeachment of former Presidents.

Yet if we are to believe Mr. Sarber’s argument, then we must also believe our Founding Fathers who drafted our Constitution decided to issue a free pass to any president to commit any crime – or to do anything they wanted — after an election and before the next president takes power. I for one do not impart such ignorance on our Founding Fathers.

I strongly doubt they opted to provide a “get out of jail free card” to anyone who actively and strenuously foments insurrection against our great nation simply because they lost an election. If we’re truly concerned with the state of our democracy, I’d suggest we focus our collective energies on the 155 members of Congress who voted to deny Americans their right to vote in an election deemed by the Trump administration to be “the most secure in American history.”

Bob Shavelson

Murkowski censured

In their quarterly meeting this past Saturday, the Alaska Republican Party’s State Central Committee voted to censure Sen. Lisa Murkowski. This censure resolution documents Sen. Murkowski’s unconstitutional actions in voting to impeach a private citizen and is a victory for conservatives.

I’d like to thank all of those who wrote the Republican party requesting that they censure Senator Murkowski. Your efforts have succeeded. Thank you.

Respectfully,

Greg Sarber

Recall the Big Sleazy

Dunleavy proposes closing state Division of Motor Vehicles offices in Delta, Tok, Valdez, Eagle River, Haines and Homer. Dunleavy will turn these profitable DMV offices over to a private company that provides the same services at higher fees.

Why close the Homer DMV when it keeps two employees busy and generates $300,000 a year?

The beneficiary of this policy is UMV LLC, owned by Einar and Krista Gonder, relatives of health commissioner Adam Crum. They have been operating an adjunct DMV office in Wasilla since 2007, charging from 20% more to renew a registration to ten times as much for a DMV duplicate registration. UMV LLC has branches in Anchorage and Fairbanks that charge an additional $90 “convenience fee” that makes renewals $300. Real IDs and drivers license fees will more than double. If you don’t want to drive three hours to Soldotna you must pay UMV LLC.

If you find no logic in Dunleavy stripping the ferries, universities and DMVs of their services; if you don’t like a governor who defies rules and pads his cronies pockets (DMV, Pebble, Penny’s grandson); if you can’t take the math-deficient proposals (lotteries, $5,000 PFDs) to solve very real financial problems; if you can’t stomach stealing fish taxes, school and Medicaid funds to pay Big Oil tax credits, then call 399-1010 and I’ll get a recall petition in your hands.

Gordy Vernon

Time Bandits

Once again some unidentified government entity has snatched an hour from my Sunday and promised that I shall have it back again in October, when, to tell the truth, I may not even need it, having expired by that time myself. The thought of an hour of my life lying idle in some mysterious Time Deposit located Cloud-Knows-Where is quite frankly both unnerving and annoying.

First of all, at nearly 80, on most days I need every hour available to me just to accomplish the basic niceties of daily life in a decorous manner. Or for a nap.

Secondly, the thought of 60 of my very own minutes lying around in some etherial storage space gathering dust along with the confiscated hours of people I don’t know is decidedly disturbing. How will I know if they have been properly stored and disinfected? How can I be certain that the hour returned to me in the fall is the very same one subtracted from me yesterday?

Thirdly, since my time is truly the most worthwhile thing which I possess, I highly resent its being manipulated and man-handled by The Powers That Be. Who do they think they are, anyway? Time Bandits?

Respectfully annoyed,

C. R. Dee