20 years ago

The Homer ice rink and other Kenai Peninsula-area sporting facilities received a large gift from Washington D.C. last week when Sen. Ted Stevens’ office announced that $3.35 million of the 2004 Omnibus Appropriations Bill passed earlier this year will be set aside for the 2006 Arctic Winter Games. The money will be used for operation, transportation and infrastructure improvements to facilities for Arctic Winter Games events, with $750,000 going to the Kenai Peninsula Borough for ice rink construction in Homer and upgrades to the Salteshi Trails and the Sports Center in Soldotna. Another $1 million in transportation funds will go to the Homer Hockey Association to improve rink parking and access.

— From the issue of April 8, 2004

30 years ago

Sometimes there are just too many blue Subarus. When Homer’s Daniel Zatz walked out of Alice’s Champagne Palace Friday night, he expected to jump in his car and go home. But it wasn’t there.So he went back inside Alice’s and called the Homer police. Thinking that someone had just nabbed it to go to another bar — he had left the keys in the ignition — Zatz and a friend borrowed another car, a blue Subaru, no less, to go searching. Driving around Homer, they were soon tailed by a police car, obviously checking out the license plate on their blue Subaru. Then the two noticed flashing lights and another blue Subaru that the officer had pulled over. Zatz stopped to tell the officer that that blue one wasn’t his either.

— From the issue of April 7, 1994