‘Practical joke gone wrong’
When Alaska State Trooper Ryan Browning arrived at Chapman Elementary School on Nov. 16, he was relatively surprised by the calmness of the five-year-old boy he had been called out to interview.
“We got a call from OCS that Monday morning advising that a student at the Anchor Point school had arrived with burns to his face and head,” Browning relayed. “When I got there, I saw the boy had some pretty bad burns on the left side of his face.”
Browning said OCS advised him that the child informed his teachers that his “daddy burned him” and that he could not talk about it.
City employee loses firing case
A former assistant fire chief who sued the city of Homer for wrongful termination lost his case, resulting in a $600 fee he must now pay to the city.
Dean Thoemke, dismissed from his city job on Dec. 8, 2008, had appealed his firing by Fire Chief Bob Painter to the city manager. According to the Homer Volunteer Fire Department Policy and Procedures Manual, when an employee feels he is being treated unfairly, the first place to appeal the decision is to the city manager. After City Manager Walt Wrede agreed with Painter – that Thoemke was fired for just cause – Thoemke appealed Wrede’s decision. He asked the city for approximately $1 million in compensation.
Alaska longliners land 42 million pounds of halibut
Alaska’s halibut fishery ended on Nov. 15 amidst little fanfare. Brutal winter weather wreaked havoc on deliveries the final week, and bumped up prices as buyers scrambled for the last fresh fish of the year.
The season opened in late March with lots of expensive halibut holdovers from last year in U.S. freezers. That pushed dock prices down by roughly a dollar per pound all season.
In the business of moving people around, taxis haul
After 20 years as a Homer taxi driver, Nick Bairamis took on a semi-retired lifestyle this summer. He sold his taxi business, but kept a cab and still works Homer’s streets five nights a week.
Josh Cooper purchased Kostas Taxi – along with four cabs – and currently employs 10 full-time drivers for seven-day-a-week, 24-hour service.
“I had the oldest cab company and I am the oldest cab driver in town,” Bairamis said in his trademark heavy Greek accent.
Police – Nov. 25
Fire/EMS
The Homer Volunteer Fire Department responded to three fire calls and 11 emergency medical calls the week of Nov. 16-22.
Kachemak Emergency Services responded to one chimney fire and one EMS call the week of Nov. 16-22.
City Ordinance
On Nov. 20, an officer contacted the owner of a trailer that was parked in the way preventing road [...]
City stares down budget cuts
The Homer City Council, in a Monday work session, sought to understand the options that might be available for solving budget shortfalls as they try to reconcile the $1.3 million shortfall in the 2010 fiscal year general operating budget.
FYI – Nov. 25
Parnell appoints Norton to council
Homer resident Sharon Strutz Norton, a 30-year Alaska registered nurse with special interest in Alaska Native health care and suicide prevention, was appointed by Gov. Sean Parnell to the Suicide Prevention Council.
Her career has included work as a University of Alaska research assistant, nursing instructor, state nursing licensing examiner, [...]
‘Stupid is as stupid does’
Is it just me, or does the gap between higher intelligence and primate-level stupidity seem to be widening?
Hear me out.
The world has always comprised a wide spectrum of personality, intelligence, common sense and compassion. Why some of us seem to wind up on the more generous side when it came to passing out positive human attributes is beyond my scope of understanding.
Progressing on Eagle Lady memorial
I am proud to announce that, with the help of many amazing and generous people, we have reached our goal of $15,000 to start work on the memorial to my mother, Jean Keene. It has been a long road and I won’t lie, there were many times when I was ready to pack it all [...]
Letters to the Editor
Vaccination victory
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District would like to recognize the outstanding work of the Community H1N1 Task Force and the many staff and volunteers who assisted in bringing the H1N1 vaccine directly to the public schools on the peninsula. While vaccine delivery will continue in our schools until all students have been [...]
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