Grateful for Artist-in-the-School support

Every year, Homer Flex invites an artist from the area to visit the school and join us for a short residency. During this time, they share their passion and teach students and staff the skills and techniques of their trade. From Jan. 31 through Feb. 11, David Brame worked with the group to create a mural that celebrates the Flex community.

We would like to thank the Bunnell Street Arts Center for the Artist-in-the School program, and their sponsors: Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Rasmuson Foundation, Alaska USA, Ulmer’s, the Kenai Fine Arts Center and other private donors. We would also like to thank the Alaska Legislature for its support of the Alaska State Council on the Arts which ensures Flex can continue to expose students to unique and challenging learning opportunities in the arts.

We invite the community to see the mural, as well as other pieces of student art created throughout the school year, at our eleventh annual Flex First Friday on May 6. Please plan to join us and celebrate our amazing artists.

Christopher Brown, Principal, Homer Flex School

Thanks to Ulmer’s

The Paul Banks Elementary PTA would like to thank Ulmer’s Drug and Hardware for the generous donation of winter gloves for Paul Banks students. Their donation helps make sure that all students can safely play outside in any weather. We appreciate their continuous support of our school community!

Ahnie Litecky, Paul Banks PTA

Repair Ohlson Mountain Road

Dear Government Officials,

This letter is about the deconstruction of Ohlson Mountain Road in Homer, which provides access to a very active gravel pit and accommodates daily traffic to significant Nordic ski, downhill ski, snowmachine and hiking areas. Ohlson Mountain Road was a paved road and then deconstructed to a dirt road last year without removing the pavement below, causing no direct drainage of rain and snow melt. As told to us by one of the road workers, “This choice was made because it is cheaper to maintain.”

As pictures of different areas of the road show, there is significant damage, making the road almost impassible, causing dangerous driving conditions and damaging cars — all before the upcoming spring breakup. Many of these holes have merged to be 4-feet wide and 6-inches or more deep.

No one is of the opinion that last year’s deconstruction meets any minimum road function, and all respectfully request that Ohlson Mountain Road be restored to prior quality, as to provide access to the multiple community uses it reaches.

Everyone is aware of budget pressures faced by the town, borough and state, but this mistake needs to the corrected for the benefit of Homer and Kenai Peninsula residents, active school programs, recreational and competitive sports, as well as the many visitors that help sustain our economy.

Respectfully requested,

Laurie Gentle, on behalf of the community

Democrats hold caucus

House District 31 Democrats and Progressives:

You are invited to participate in our local Democratic Party’s 2022 House District virtual caucus on April 9th at 10am, via zoom. At the caucus we will elect new House District officers, as well as delegates to the 2022 Alaska Democratic Party State Convention in Seward.

Our caucus will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, April , and will last up to two hours.

To attend the caucus, please register online at https://akdems.org/register.

You do not need to be a registered Democrat to attend the online caucus, but you do need to be a registered Democrat to participate in the caucus. And you can register at the time of the caucus — we will have registration forms you can fill out online.

Note: The district maps have been redrawn for the state. Our district will become House District 6, unless altered by court decisions in the next few weeks. Our district will once again include the south side of Kachemak Bay, from Halibut Cove to Seldovia. (Does not include Port Graham or Nanwalek). Our caucus includes any democrat from this new District 6.

Here is a link to the new maps: https://www.akredistrict.org/map-gallery/web/final-redistricting-map.html .

You may also register if you would like to be a delegate to the State Convention, which will be held on May 6 to 8 in beautiful Seward. There will be a parade and a glacier dinner cruise.

If you cannot attend the caucus, you can still run to be a delegate to the convention, or be a House District Officer. Please contact us prior to the caucus to submit your name.

Thank you for your time.

Eileen R. Bechtol

Time to form unified front with Hawaii, Arizona?

Time, we know, is a man-made construct. During the French Revolution, they not only abolished the monarchy, and God, but they changed time to a decimal system (God, the king and time as we know it were all ultimately restored). In the U.S., time wasn’t standardized nationwide until the railroad companies needed reliable timetables, in 1883.

One hundred years later, (most of) Alaska consolidated (most of) its several time zones into one, what became known as Alaska Standard (and Daylight Saving) Time. Now, the Alaska Legislature (and U.S. Congress) are discussing, finally, doing away with the semi-annual exercise of changing our clocks forwards and backwards. There may have been valid reasons for the time-dance back in 1966, but today, and especially in Alaska, it makes little if any sense.

What surprises me, though, is an apparent coalescing around Daylight Saving, an abstraction of an abstraction, rather than around Standard Time, seemingly a less capricious form of measurement. It bears noting as well that the states that currently keep constant Standard Time (no switching to DST) are the 50th and 48th, Hawaii and Arizona. Perhaps the 49th state could consider forming a unified front with them.

Ken Landfield