Council seeks tax balance
•City ponders hiring lobbyistBy Carey James
Homer Tribune
On the heels of recent news from city officials that Homer made it through 2006 with nearly $1 million leftover in its budget, the discussion of what to do with taxes in the coming months reared its head Monday night. The Kenai Peninsula Borough administration has suggested a 1 [...]
Assembly talks sales tax
• Senior property tax exemption cap fails on introductionBy Carey James
Homer Tribune
Sales tax on the Kenai Peninsula could increase a percentage point if a proposal by the Kenai Peninsula Borough staff goes forward. Staff are also proposing the borough reduce property tax by 1 mill, but only if the sales tax increase went into place [...]
IPHC addresses fishermen
By Layton Ehmke
Homer Tribune
Since the International Pacific Halibut Commission chose to restrict charter-caught halibut along the coast of Alaska, charter operators have been feeling jilted as their business becomes more regulated. At the same time, commercial fishermen see the recent action to limit charter catch as part of the process to [...]
PRIDE looks for ‘Key to the Future’
By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune
Every year, a few Homer individuals and family members who are impacted by the challenges of developmental disabilities travel to Juneau to deliver a message of funding needs for Homer’s PRIDE program. For Key Campaign Organizer Marlaina Thiel, it’s an opportunity for legislators to see first-hand how the funding is being used [...]
Don’t forget the little fish
By Laine Welch
Alaska’s seafood industry provides more jobs than oil and gas, mining, agriculture and forestry combined. However, a lack of harvesting labor data means there is no way to realistically estimate the number of crew members who work in any given community or census area.That hampers efforts by fisheries-dependent communities to influence public policy-making, [...]
Housing grants awarded
By Layton Ehmke
Homer Tribune
As housing efforts attempt to keep ahead of the curve, grants awarded this month aim to provide more housing for the state’s fastest-growing population. Anchor Point Senior Housing was awarded $498,000 from the Senior Citizen’s Housing Development and another $498,000 has been requested from the Denali Commission. The Bartlett Terrace Senior Housing [...]
Saturday fire leaves man homeless
By Layton Ehmke
Homer Tribune
When Dan “Dangerous” North woke up to the smell of burning plastic, he thought something was amiss. He was right. Asleep in his trailer next door to his carpentry shop, North climbed the stairs of his wood shed to get to his office. He peeked through the window and saw an orange [...]
FYI
Cook Inlet cod emergency orderEffective Date: Noon Feb. 27, expires Dec. 31.This emergency order closes the parallel Pacific cod fishery in the Cook Inlet Management Area, opens the state-managed Pacific cod fishery in the Cook Inlet Management Area effective noon today, and establishes a maximum allowable bycatch level of 20 percent for Pacific cod in [...]
City council right to stay out of halibut debate
For several weeks now, resolutions have been flying fast and furious in an effort to get the council to weigh in on the ever-so-contentious halibut charter catch limit debate. Last year, when the halibut Individual Fish Quota proposal was gasping its final breaths, the council came out in opposition to the plan, as did the [...]
Letters to Editor
Publishing court charges harmful
I call upon the Homer Tribune and the Homer News to stop immediately
the perverse and harmful policy of publishing the names of people
arrested and charged with various offenses. This policy serves no
purpose other than to feed the local gossip mill, which only serves to
harm the community and its citizens. Worse, this policy [...]
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