20 years ago

The Homer Racing Association kicked off the 2004 ice racing series to the cheers and encouraging honks of area fans as a handful of rough-and-tumble cars tore around the ice track on Beluga Lake Sunday. The drivers used skill and any random luck they could muster as they bumped off the snow berms — and sometimes each other — on their way to the finish line. Although you probably won’t see any of these cars on the roads — steer clear if you do — their basic design is simple. Take a vintage automobile, worth about $100, weld some Nerf bars to the outside, slap some studded tires on the non-driving wheels, put on a helmet and go.

— From the issue of Jan. 22, 2004

30 years ago

Homer Volunteer Department fire officials have concluded that a fire at the Homer Flex School on Ocean Drive during the earlier morning hours last week was caused by an earlier fire the day before. The results of an investigation of the two fires shows that the contractor who was working on the roof when the first fire erupted failed to explain the full extent of that fire to firefighters, said Robert Purcell, Homer’s fire chief. If firefighters had known the flames caught the roof on fire and got into the attic, the second fire could have been diverted.

— From the issue of Jan. 13, 1994