Grateful for Homer Foundation generosity

Everyone at the Anchor Point Senior Center would love to thank the Homer Foundation for a quick response grant that allowed us to fast forward the finishing touches on the Senior Center restoration project. The building looks fantastic! The refurbishment of the original dedication sign and the addition of a brand new Community & Senior Center sign created by Anchor River Signs really makes this little log cabin pop! This final stage “put the icing on the cake” and we are so very grateful for the generosity of the Homer Foundation!

With Gratitude,

Bobby Ness, Anchor Point Senior Center President

Funding with accountability

I know some people are not pleased with Rep. Sarah Vance’s vote not to override the governor’s veto of the increase to the base student allocation in the last legislative session. However, I hope that you will look a little deeper than the emotional and false assertions that Rep. Vance is against education. The education funding did go back to the legislators and was reworked to add several items that the governor asked for. It was passed in the final budget with the largest increase in education funding in state history, over $300 million! Rep. Vance has said many times that she wants our children to have the best education possible and she has acted on those words by asking for accountability along with funding. Many of her colleagues in the Legislature agree, but the majority simply want to throw more money at the problem.

We need to wake up. Continuing to fund a failing system will not improve the outcome. Major changes are needed to make sure funding gets to the teachers and classrooms. Bonuses for high-performing teachers would be great, but unions despise merit-based pay.

Wake up Alaska! We need to demand more from the education system and elect leaders who will help us to do so. Rep. Vance is on the right path.

Kathy Toms

Homer

Supporting principles over popularity

A letter to the editor in the last edition of the paper discussed why a couple was not going to vote for Rep. Vance. The couple who signed the letter made several negative claims about Sarah. Their assessment of her performance is very different than mine. Sarah has been a strong advocate for protecting women and children from sexual abuse. She has advocated for school choice and funding for schools with accountability for use of the funding.

Sarah sponsored H.B. 129, which was designed to help clean up the mismanaged and inflated voter roll. The bill was a straightforward attempt to apply some basic, common-sense principles to managing the number of voters on the roll. However, the liberal progressives in the Legislature introduced several amendments to the bill that defied logic and would have increased concerns about the integrity of our election system rather than reducing them. As a result, Sarah killed her own bill.

We need principled, strong legislators who are willing to stand up and do the right thing, rather than the easy or popular. Rep. Vance is just such a person and that is why I’m voting for her Nov. 5.

Charlie Franz

Homer