Separated by 233 votes: Borough mayor race too close to call
There’s more waiting ahead for Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor results after candidates Mike Navarre and Fred Sturman summoned vote numbers too close to call, separated by 233 votes.
And there’s not a lot of time until Nov. 7 when the new mayor is sworn in.
At the end of Tuesday’s run-off election, Navarre leads Sturman in votes. But with as many as 2,000 absentee and in-question ballots that still need to be counted, Borough Clerk Johnie Blankenship said it’s too close to call.
Ailing harbor looks at $5-6 million bond
Look for a possible ballot measure as soon as next year, asking voters to bond $5-6 million for funding port and harbor improvements.
The Homer City Council passed a resolution Monday night that advances a plan to fund six projects identified as maintenance failings. A task force organized by the city council found that the town shouldn’t sit back and count on federal or state funding to a backlog of maintenance problems at the port.
Rare whale washes up at Tutka Bay
A rare whale found floating dead in Tutka Bay last week may be from the group of poorly understood Stejneger’s beaked whales.
If so, Prof. Debbie Boege-Tobin and her students enrolled in the Semester By the Bay program at the University of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay Campus are bestowed with an unusual opportunity.
Boege-Tobin, and three students, were able to observe the necropsy of the whale on Saturday. They gained an up close and personal look at the 13-foot adult female whose cause of death is unknown.
Dave Seaman, a local boat wright, was in Tutka Bay on Friday when he spotted the whale near the shore.
Safeway changes discount day for seniors
There may be some confusion in the switch from Thursday’s senior discounts at Safeway to Tuesdays, but the unusual tradition to help serve the retirement community will continue on in Homer.
The program of offering 10 percent off groceries for anyone 60 or older dates back more than 20 years in Homer. Store Manager Bob Malone said when he arrived in 1994, the discount was offered then. Most of the former Eagle stores that held the tradition continued under Safeway ownership, Malone said.
Trash re-do for composting program may come
Is Homer ready for a public composting operation that would create fertilizer and save costly transportation of trash?
Dale Banks, a business owner of recyclable eating products, spoke about establishing a composting facility at the Homer Landfill to the Homer City Council Monday night. This is a plan ahead of its time for when that facility becomes a transfer site and garbage will be trucked to the central Peninsula.
The idea has broad support and is in keeping with findings from the 2007 Climate Action Task Force, he said.
Homer Library goes e-book
Loading an electronic book on a laptop or digital reading device isn’t so easy given the back story of publishing copyright issues.
Since that’s the case, Alaska’s public libraries were recently given access to electronic books on Kindles in a digital age when a lot of process and logistics needed working out before it could be possible.
“Just in the last couple of weeks have they been able to negotiate a contract with Kindle. One of the biggest problems was in licensing and digital rights,” said Homer Public Library Director Ann Dixon.
Now, Homer Public Library has stepped deeper into the digital world by offering cardholders the ability to check out electronic books for their Kindles or other devices. This opens access to a modest number of new books that will increasingly be added to over time, Dixon said. It is paid for by the Alaska Library Network with member libraries each chipping in $3,000 to join.
FYI – Oct. 26
Escopeta fined $15 million Escopeta Oil Co. has been fined $15 million by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. According to the agency, the Houston-based company violated the Jones Act by transporting the Spartan Blake 151 jackup rig from Texas to Cook Inlet using a foreign-flagged vessel. The Jones Act requires cargoes moved between U.S. [...]
Community News – Oct. 26
Haunted Hickory promises big scares The crew aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hickory has plans for a frightening experience on its traditional Halloween event Friday aboard ship. For the price of two items of canned or boxed foods, visitors tour the chaotic hauntings and theatric mayhem at sea. Little ones come for a minimal [...]
War in Iraq ends
It will take years before we can learn what exactly was accomplished in the Iraqi war. The technological advances on weapons will be a large one, the new ability to launch war via drones and virtual battlefields. The goal going in was to prevent weapons of mass destruction but that turned out to be based [...]
‘If you build it, will they come?’
In the movie “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner’s character hears voices telling him to build a baseball field in a cornfield. “Build it and they will come,” the voices said. He did, and a magical story unfolded.
But in Cook Inlet, “build it and they will come” has become a management philosophy for wild-eyed politicians and their bloated government projects that threatens to make our great state just another cable TV laugh line.
Let’s review:
