20 years ago

The four candidates vying to fill the two three-year term Homer city council seats up for contest on Oct. 7 all agree on at least one thing. Homer — as key planning and zoning issues such as the debate over bringing a Fred Meyer store have brought to light — is at a fork in its economic road. Growth, all four men concede, is inevitable. Where they diverge is which route toward development makes the most business sense for the city.

— From the issue of Sept. 18, 2003

30 years ago

Homer’s Pratt Museum joins the National Zoological Museum in Washington, D.C., the Exploratorium in San Francisco and 21 other prestigious organizations as a recipient this year of a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The $250,000 grant will pay for a five-year program to assemble the skeleton of a 41-foot sperm whale museum in the three-story commons at Homer High School. For high school students, the project will mean the offering of a multidisciplinary program that takes down traditional walls between academic subjects and encompass marine biology and ocean conservation, history, culture and literature, said project director Betsy Pitzman, who is on leave until February from her job as director of the Pratt.

— From the issue of Sept. 16, 1993