With the municipal election less than two months away, the deadline is quickly approaching to file as a candidate for city of Homer and Kenai Peninsula Borough seats.

On the Homer ballot will be three elected city official positions: the mayor and two council members. The deadline to file for one of those positions is 5 p.m. Friday.

The KPB ballot will include the borough assembly seat representing Homer, as well as 11 openings on southern peninsula service area boards. The deadline to become a borough candidate is 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Current Homer Mayor Beth Wythe, who was elected to the city council in 2004 and as mayor in 2012, has filed for re-election. Don Stead is the only candidate to have filed as Wythe’s opponent.

City council positions held by Barbara Howard and David Lewis will be on the ballot. Howard was appointed to the council in 2008, elected in 2009 and reelected in 2011 and has announced she will not be seeking re-election. 

Lewis, who was first elected to the council in 2008 and again in 2011, has chosen to run again.

Catriona Lowe, Justin Arnold and Corbin Arno each have filed as candidates for Homer City Council. This is Lowe’s first time to run for council. Arnold and Arno also ran in 2013. 

Bill Smith was first elected to represent Homer on the Kenai Peninsula Borough assembly in 2007, and re-elected in 2008 and 2011. He is ineligible to run for reelection because of term limits imposed on borough assembly members. However, Smith said even without the term limit, he would not run.

Currently, Kelly Cooper is the only candidate to have filed as a candidate to replace Smith. Kelly ran against Bill Smith in 2011, and came in second in a three-way race that included Smith, Cooper and current Homer City Council member Bryan Zak.

There also are several service area seats on the ballot:

• Seats A and E on the Anchor Point Fire and Emergency Medical Service Area Board;

• Seats B and E on the Seldovia Recreational Service Area Board;

• Seats A, B and D on the Kachemak Emergency Service Area Board; and

• Seats D, E, F and G on the South Kenai Peninsula Hospital Service Area Board.

Milli Martin, former KPB assembly member and former school board member, has filed as a candidate for Seat A on the Kachemak Emergency Service Area Board. No other candidates have filed for these service areas.

For more information on the upcoming municipal election:

• Visit cityofhomer-ak.gov/cityclerk/2014-elections or call 235-3130;

• Visit borough.kenai.ak.us/assembly-clerk/elections or call 907-714-2160 or 800-478-4441, est. 2160.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mkibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.