Satellite maps provided by the National Weather Service show the snow blizzard and hurricane force winds that pushed from the Aleutian Chain to the Alaska Peninsula and into the Kenai Peninsula area in three separate fronts lasting from Friday to Tuesday.

State ski meets were completed barely a week and winter carnivals  come and gone by the time Homer received its first significant snowfall this winter.
The March blizzards of ‘10 likely will go down as some kind of record, but that won’t be determined until after the tallies are in later today or Thursday, said National Weather Service Forecaster Dan Peterson.
What is known is that 12-24 inches fell on Friday and Saturday in the Homer area, with drifting snow to three feet in places on the bluff. The storm front took a break on Sunday, allowing a burst of warmer weather before blizzard conditions returned prior to dawn on Monday. Forecasters were predicting a paltry three to eight inches of snowfall for Homer Tuesday, with greater snowfall in higher elevations. Instead, the weather service received reports of four to five feet of snow in the drifts though no official numbers were yet available, Peterson said.
“It was a blizzard that just kept going. It seems like it should be some kind of record,” forecaster Bob Hopkins said Tuesday. “What we are seeing is hurricane force winds of  more than 64 knots that sent out a wide-spread storm from the Aleutians to the Alaska Peninsula, to Kodiak and you on the Kenai Peninsula.”
The storm was expected to head into Prince William Sound and the Copper River Valley after dying down Tuesday night on the lower Kenai Peninsula.
Power outages from downed lines caused larger problems for residents from Halibut Cove to Jakilof Bay and the Mckeon flats. A 4 a.m. Friday outage left them without power all weekend, said Homer Electric Spokesperson Melissa Carlin. Crews couldn’t fly until Sunday to fix the utility lines. From Nanwalek to Port Graham, a line was down from 1:25 to 4:48 p.m. on Sunday, and Monday outages each two hours in length were recorded in Anchor Point and North Fork Road areas. By Tuesday, continued outages were reported in Seldovia.
School was cancelled for the first time in at least 14 years Friday due to snowfall. The district doesn’t keep records, but secretary Lassie Nelson recalled a Laidlaw dispatcher mentioned there had been no school closures during her tenure since 1996. Another person recalled there had been no school closures since Feb. 29, 1990.
Again Monday, impassible roads on the bluff delayed or prevented many students from getting to school, with Moose Pass being the only school in the Kenai Peninsula Borough to be closed Monday. On Tuesday, schools were closed down again as drifts shifted around five foot snows.

HOMER TRIBUNE / Sean Pearson - School was cancelled for the first time in 20 years, according to memory, and snow piled up to five foot drifts in places. The storms slowed down or shut down many businesses but created work for others, including necessitating the City of Homer to enlist half a dozen local dump truck drivers to help haul away snow.

Road graders were out in force, with private contractors enlisted to haul snow, said Public Works Director Carey Meyer Monday.
“When it snows like it has, and looks like it will continue to, we put people on every piece of equipment we have,” Meyer said. “That includes four road graders, three or four sander trucks and the Bobcat.”
The City of Homer owns two dump trucks, which is enough to handle  normal loads of snow from the blowers.
“But when we get snow like this, we hire local contractors to help haul snow; anywhere from a couple to half a dozen,” Meyer said. Crews work 12-hour-days at the end of the big snow dump to clear the roads after waking at 4 a.m. to tackle the storm.
Other blizzard warnings were announced for the Portage Valley, Girdwood, Prince William Sound, Valdez and Kodiak Island. Richardson Highway was closed Monday due to avalanche danger. On Tuesday, the Girdwood stretch was closed.

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
The high expense of armor rock lies at the bottom of a problem holding up public works projects throughout Alaska, and places Homer’s hopes for an East Harbor beyond reach for now.
According to U.S. Army Corp of Engineer’s Patrick Fitzgerald, that was one reason why Homer’s East Harbor estimates stretch to $107 million.
Fitzgerald gave a presentation to the Homer City Council at a Monday afternoon work session. The city and Corps partner with the Alaska Department of Transportation on the project. DOT officials Ruth Carter and Harvey Smith were also present.
“There is a lack of quarries to supply armor rock,” Fitzgerald said. “In the past, we paid $65 a cubic yard when the rock was local; now that is doubled.”
In some places of the state, where armor rock has to be hauled in through an expensive transportation process, the projects have run up incrementally to as much as $600 per cubic yard.
“The state DOT and the Corps are discussing a joint study to find out what is going on with rock throughout the state,” Fitzgerald explained. “We have a backlog in projects, including coastal erosion; if we want jobs, we have to find a cheaper way to get rock.”
The harbor’s expense at this point proves unfeasible due to a high cost/benefit ratio, according to how the Corps is asked to evaluate projects.
While costs could run as high as $107 million to build the East Harbor, its cost benefit calculation is $1.5 million per year. This gives it a low rank of .30 percent cost/benefit ratio. Projects being funded now that pass muster are ranked at 2 percent costs-to-benefits.
“This means we cannot now recommend funding it to Congress,” Fitzgerald said. “That does not mean this project is dead in the water, however. There are a number of alternatives.”
Congress funds projects based on national security priorities. Alaska towns generally rank low under that scrutiny, though that has not stopped harbor projects from moving forward. Valdez and St. Paul harbors were approved by Congress even before the feasibility studies were completed, Fitzgerald said. How Congress evaluates national economic benefit can also give projects a high priority. Commercial fishing, for example, is considered “a national economic development benefit.”
Since Homer is the halibut capital of Alaska, why wouldn’t it then rank well in that category, asked Councilmember Francie Roberts.
“This sounds like politics to me,” Mayor Jim Hornaday added.
The council members were told that one of the alternatives is to make their funding appeal directly to Congress; to use the political process that is available. Even though the Corps does not have feasibility work or a technical report complete on the ports at Valdez and St. Paul, Congress has already approved funding for those projects.
“We’re not even sure yet of the end result of the cost/benefit ratio there,” Fitzgerald said.
But the plan for an East Harbor still has a chance in the running. The technical report is now 70 percent complete, and will be a credible document to present in a congressional pitch to gain harbor funding, they told the council.
“This is a critical checkpoint. We now have a prepared technical report,” Fitzgerald said. “This is valuable; it says this will fix our problems. It is true that the project isn’t economically justified at this point, but that doesn’t stop the projects from being built in Alaska.”
Another factor is that harbors in Alaska, once expanded, are immediately filling up. That means the additional benefit of new moorage to harbors that improves the cost/benefit ratio. Removing derelict vessels would also help the harbor by creating space for new vessels which would pay moorage fees. The derelict vessels are often deserted by owners and their moorage fees go unpaid year after year, noted Harbor Master Bryan Hawkins.
The council was presented a list of alternatives. No decisions were made at the work session. More work would be needed to finish the technical report. U.S. Army Corps of Engineering staff at headquarters can provide help for obtaining congressional funding, Fitzgerald told them.
Monday’s severe blizzard made it necessary to cut the council meeting short; it ran for a record 18 minutes. A DOT transportation advisory asked the public to stay off the roads and to avoid going outdoors.
No action was therefore taken on ordinances available for public testimony. For the next public meeting, ordinances or resolutions introduced at Monday’s meeting will be taken up:
• Ordinance 10-14: Setting up a resolving energy fund by appropriating $315,691 from 13 facility depreciation accounts. Proposed by Councilmember Francie Roberts, the money would be used to provide startup funds for a loan fund. This reimburses the city for money already spent and it would then be re-appropriated.
Robert’s plan is to establish the fund to provide “a stable and long-term source of financing for projects which improve the energy efficiency of city buildings and facilities. Loans from the fund shall be repaid over time using the savings achieved through energy efficiency.”
The city spends more than $1 million — or a tenth of its annual budget — on energy costs per year, including fuel, electricity and propane, at various buildings and facilities. A savings of 10 percent a year in energy costs could amount to about $100,000; money that could be applied to other expenses.
In addition to saving taxpayers money, it would help “jump-start a fledging industry with great potential for growth.”
• Councilman Kevin Hogan requested a parity study be done to compare Homer City salaries with others towns. No action was taken on the matter. Roberts suggested teaming up with other towns for the same study in order to decrease the cost.
• Mayor Hornaday sent out a reminder that the city’s share of revenue sharing and other funding evaluations are based on population. He encouraged everyone to fill out the U.S. Census paperwork.

• Most testimony from the Peninsula favors habitat restrictions

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
The testimony on whether or not to designate most of Cook Inlet as beluga habitat is now in, with some 91,668 responses to the public comment period that ended March 3.
The comments will be available to the public shortly at the National Marine Fisheries Service Web site, said spokesperson Sheela McLean. It is important to note that the number of responses didn’t calculate how many made repeat testimony. However, the numbers from organizations were noted, with Sierra Club accounting for 43,339 responses. The Natural Resource Development Council — countering the idea of designating Cook Inlet as critical habitat — weighed in with 39,939 responses.
NMFS counted 10 responses from North Star Terminal and Stevedore Co., LLC, which operates the Port of Anchorage, and 219 from post card mailings. They also received 13 “unknown” letters and received 7,500 from a signature petition.
The NMFS  is expecting to issue its decision sometime in October, McLean said.
Here is a sampling of commentary that came from residents in Homer and/or the Kenai Peninsula:

Roland Maw of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association:
“It became apparent to us as an industry that belugas were declining 15 or more years ago. NMFS came to us as a group, and to the set net group, and asked us if we would have some observers on board our vessels and you have the results of that. We had observers to the tune of about 9,000 hours on our vessels and beaches. There were no sightings, no entanglements and certainly no deaths. We have been trying to be proactive, even though our government hasn’t been … This is a difficult problem to work through but we’ll get through it and we’ll be OK.”

Ken Tarbox: I worked from 1980 to 2000 for Fish and Game. In that capacity, I flew over Cook Inlet and observed whales. I support the critical habitat designation identified, with a couple of exceptions. One, it is not far enough up the Susitna River. The whales would go much further up the Susitna River than what is designated. Two is the Kenai River. Even recently, since 2000, I’ve seen whales moving two to three miles up from the bridge. I assure you the lower Kenai is still used by belugas. I’ve seen as many as 30 in there in the spring and in the fall. Where we are not seeing them is during the July period when we historically used to see them.”

Harold Shepherd, director Center for Water Advocacy
I am here to testify in support of proposed designation of critical habitat for beluga on behalf of our members, which includes native villages and tribal governments in Alaska including the Marine Mammal Council and the Eklutna, Kenaitze, Chickaloon, Ninilchik, Seldovia and Tyonek tribes… Many tribal organizations can be of significant assistance in implementation and support in helping keep the belugas from jeopardy.
Beaver Nelson:  “I have lived here since 1965. As a commercial fisherman I’ve spent a lot of time in Kachemak Bay and have observed belugas. Up until mid 1980’s there was a group of belugas that would come in every fall.  All through October they appeared to feed on smelt (little wiggling clouds you could see in the grass). There would be 40-50 belugas in that area steadily. In mid to late 1980’s the belugas began to disappear.  They were gone in a two to three year period to where there just weren’t belugas there anymore. You very rarely saw orcas back then, but in the late 1980’s the orcas became way more common.  Even now if you go up in October you will see orcas up there hunting seal.  My feeling is belugas are a candy bar for orca.  They found a good food source and drove the belugas out of there.  It is a risky venture for a beluga to move through there to run a gauntlet of orcas which seem to be increasing in abundance.

George Matz: I live in the Fish Creek area and am speaking for myself. I support the critical habitat designation, especially in Kachemak Bay. I would love to see the belugas back in the area and it won’t happen until they recover. I went on the website and looked at information you had. I was impressed that it was so thorough and complete. It sets a high standard for those opposing the critical habitat. I would like to mention the emphasis on critical habitat has been more on the geographic location and I think more emphasis needs to be there on the biological attributes.  The primary prey species is brought up but maybe there needs to be more emphasis on just how many salmon and other prey species there are for the whale.  Circumstantial evidence shows that when there wasn’t a rebound of belugas, there was also a lack of fish.”

Whitney Lowe: “I am a resident of Homer and am in support of the critical habitat designation. I grew up in Georgia and the opportunity to see marine mammals was a very special occasion. The beluga carries a particular mystique.  The first one I ever saw was in an aquarium.  I count myself lucky to have seen it, even if it was in an aquarium.  After moving to Alaska, I was driving from Anchorage to Homer and my wife and I saw a pod of belugas.  We pulled over and watched for an hour and a half and that is indelibly etched in my memory. There are so few places left in the world to see this kind of unique wildlife.  It really is up to us to support the beluga listing with the critical habitat designation.”

Elise Wolf, board member of the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society.
“The science is sound.  It shows belugas confine to essential habitat areas, without which they will go extinct.  The designation proposed habitat areas are irreplaceable.  The cultural and social importance of whales has not been valued in terms of dollars but, was it to be, the overall value would be extremely high.  The proposal would benefit by having such an analysis completed…”
Maurice Kilcher: I am in support of the critical habitat designation. I heard someone talking in the store today about shutting down the inlet for the belugas. By creating critical habitat we are not just creating one for the belugas but for ourselves as well and for the fish we have depended on all our lives. I have seen a lot of changes; a lot of species have disappeared.  Whatever we can do to keep it cleaner and beautiful for our children so they don’t have to go to SeaWorld to see a beluga.

Doug Blossom: “We moved to Kenai in 1948, and have had a long history of commercial fishing in the inlet. As I look at the critical habitat designation, it looks like the charts should show where the belugas are, not where they aren’t any more. We used to see hundreds of belugas in the 1950’s… Along came statehood and we began to ‘manage’ the salmon runs. But, in the 1980’s the belugas disappeared. I haven’t seen beluga in the Clam Gulch area since then. I don’t see that the critical habitat designation correlates to the belugas we see. I believe that something else has been the demise of the beluga.  I believe, as does Beaver Nelson, that when the sea lion disappeared so did the beluga. I think you should look at some of this and not so much at the critical habitat.”

Mike O’Meara: I live 14 miles northwest of Homer. I haven’t been here as long as some folks, only 42 years. That was long enough for me to watch much of the decline of this species. In my early days I lived in Anchorage and it was a common sight to see people parked on highway watching whales. It was something people looked forward to. It is hard to see that any more. I am here tonight primarily to thank you for being here and for moving ahead after such a long period of time.”

Elizabeth Neumann of Anchor Point: “I’m just going to speak from the heart. The first time I saw a beluga was in an aquarium in New York City before I knew I was coming to Alaska. It was like a foreshadowing of my life here. I’ve been here for 20 years now and I used to see the belugas on Turnagain Arm quite often. I think we are all linked together and if there is a failure of one animal in the ecosystem it affects all of us. I support the critical habitat area.”

Friendship Terrace resident Sue Lewis turns 98 on March 17, a day sure to be celebrated among friends and family in Homer. She was born on that date in 1912 on her family’s farm near Clear Lake, Wash.
It’s hard to account for how she came to live such a good, long life, Lewis said last Thursday while enjoying a piece of cheese cake with her friend, Nadine Martin, who is 94 years old.
“I can’t believe I am that old, and there is nothing particularly wrong with me,” she said, speaking in her characteristic complete sentences. Growing old “takes a good attitude,” she said.
Lewis graduated from Washington State University at Pullman in 1934, and worked as a home economics teacher, then joined the Red Cross where she worked until 1977. She moved to Homer in 2006 to be near her son who lives in Kenai.

Homer grad makes Dean’s list
Emmy Lou Pearl Olsen recently was named to the Deans list at Western Oregon University, where she is enrolled in the Honors Program, pursuing a degree in foreign language. Olsen graduated from Homer High School in 2008. She was enrolled in a Spanish immersions program last year in South America and is currently a freshman at WOU.

Homer students win scholarships
The South Peninsula Hospital Foundation has awarded $1,870 to students at the Kachemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College in the form of two Certified Nursing Aid scholarships and one allied health scholarship for the spring 2010 semester.
Lance Cahoon Dinwoodie was the recipient of a $500 scholarship for studies in allied health. His goal is to obtain his Bachelor of Science in Nursing and to serve as a flight nurse in rural Alaska. Tina Barton and Cary Long each received a $685 scholarship for C.N.A. training.  Barton plans to earn her CNA and eventually become a registered nurse and possibly work at South Peninsula Hospital. Barton has lived in Homer for 7 years.  Long is currently a Homer Volunteer Firefighter and works in construction.
The SPH Foundation is a non-profit, charitable institution dedicated to the benefit and welfare of the people of the southern Kenai Peninsula and committed to supporting the community health care mission of South Peninsula Hospital.

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Larry Martin

Growing up in Homer in the 1950-60s, young skier Larry Martin helped maintain his own cross-country trails. He was often in the dark, in a broad swath of wide open emptiness, trailing behind his coach’s snowmachine.
When other duties called coach Dave Schroer away, Martin would take off on his own, skiing for miles on treks that many today would consider a good day’s ride on a snowmachine.
Thanks to all that backcountry training, Martin was pegged to participate on two U.S. Winter Olympic teams, in 1972 in Saporo, Japan and 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria.
Fast forward to the 1990s, and Martin shows up on a different ski hill in Homer — but this time as a supportive parent.
“When I had Larry’s daughter, Ida, on my ski team, I didn’t know anything about his being in the Olympics,” Homer Ski Coach Dave Brann recalled. “It was just his way. He never said a word about it.”
Brann’s was one of several stories resulting in Larry Martin’s induction into the Alaska School Activities Association Hall of Fame. Martin will be one of five inducted statewide this year. He was nominated locally by the Homer Booster Club and will be honored in Anchorage on April 11.
After his 1976 Olympic run, and four more years of either coaching or working at a ski resort, life didn’t give Martin a lot of opportunities to ski. In 1982, he returned to Homer with his wife Linda, where he worked construction, started the business Lakeshore Glass, and set to raising a family.

Larry and Linda Martin’s daughter, Ida, also excelled at skiing and is pictured here when she returned to Homer to help coach at the high school. During her years as a Lady Mariner skier, Ida was voted Skimeister for her efforts within the Borough competition.

And much to Martin’s delight, a young Ida told him she wanted to ski.
“My daughter asked me if I would be the coach and I am really glad she did,” Martin explained. “It got me back out there, and the commitment turned into 4-7 days per week during the winter time.”
For the next six years, until she graduated from Homer High in 2003, he helped her team with techniques, traveling to meets while he hauled all their equipment in his pick-up.
Martin continued to be passionate about skiing. He thought the 13-year-olds he was coaching might be as well.
“When I started coaching junior and high school skiing, Ida sat me down and said, ‘Dad. They aren’t all dedicated like you and I,‘” Martin recalled. “It took me several years to get that ingrained in mind, but Ida continued to work on me.”
Martin had been driven to excel at skiing in his young years. The Martin family moved to Homer in 1955 when parents Nadine and Ed Martin transferred here from Glennallen where Ed was a Territorial Police. Older brothers Ray and Lee skied in school. Even then, the Kachemak Ski Club was well organized, with ski practice taking place during school lunch. Martin said Schroer joined them, contending he preferred the lunchtime outings, because “teacher’s lounges were real smoky places in those days.”
“I had an early start, tagging along with them,” Martin recalled, adding that Schroer was a remarkable coach who “trained and inspired his young skiers.” From first grade to high school, Schroer was his coach. Homer’s ski team stood out not only in the young state, but also nationally. In 1968, four of the eight skiers selected for a national competition came from Homer: Martin, Lynn Cason, Robbie Hoedel and Drew Nixon. Schroer was also picked to coach the national team.
“We only had 10 people on our whole ski team,” Martin said.
Coach Schroer continues to call Homer home, though he winters a few months in Green Valley, Ariz. He retired in 1982 after 30 years as a Homer teacher/coach, and stays in touch with former students such as Martin.
“He was one in a million. You don’t often come across a young athlete like him, so it was never a surprise to me that he went on to achieve so much,” Schroer said from Arizona this week. “Not only as an athlete, but as a human being.”
Though Ida and her generation’s Homer was quite a bit bigger than the town he grew up in, Martin said they still shared a few things in common.  “I saw sports as a way to travel out of here, and travel opened up a whole wide world,” he said.
Martin wasn’t the only one who may have felt that way. Fellow students Atz Kilcher, Bob Moss and Bert McLay — also coached by Schroer —  qualified to race in the 1968 USSA Ski Cups. The competition was a precursor to the U.S. Junior Nationals. Martin placed in the top 20, gaining the attention of Fort Lewis College and earning a scholarship there.
A successful college career led to Martin’s qualification on the U.S. Ski Team in 1971. After graduating with his degree in physical education from Fort Lewis in 1973, Martin trained every winter until the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. After skiing against the best skiers in the world, Martin went on to coach at the University of Colorado and worked at the Red Feather Ski Resort.
He said helping coach his daughter’s teams gave him new reasons to get back to the slopes. Ida went on to earn an athletic scholarship to Western State Colorado, and became a teacher — as well as coach — for a time in Homer. The youngest Martin, Tad, came behind Ida by six years. He played football in high school.
In recommending Martin for the ASAA Hall of Fame, Brann describes a humble parent who showed up on the slopes to help.
“Larry has been and continues to be a contributor to the ski programs in Homer. As a coach, a friend, and athlete, he provides a role model for our young skiers and the rest to look up to,” Brann wrote.

Judgement
Dagny L. Anderson, 26, misconduct involving controlled substance in the sixth degree, guilty.
Beau E.H. Turner, 18, repeat minor, consuming, possessing, or controlling alcohol, guilty.
Richard W. Foley, 48, driving while license revoked, guilty
Maryanne Agli, 52, harassment, second offense, guilty.
Sheri Lynn Thomas, 42, refusal of breath test, guilty.
Michael J. Ramirez, 19, repeat minor, consuming, possessing, or controlling alcohol, guilty.
Clarence S. Hock, 18, repeat minor, consuming, possessing, or controlling alcohol, guilty.
Jason R.L. Keller, 30, criminal trespass in the second degree, guilty.
Dagny L. Anderson, 26,

Misdemeanor
Geraldine E. Sparks, 43, driving without liability insurance.
Thomas Edward Jordan, 44, driving under the influence.

Dismissal
Sheri Lynn Thomas, 42, driving under the influence.

Small Claims
Laurenti Kusnetsov vs Veniamin Basargin
Frank Bauer vs Rick Alward
Phillip A. Hughes vs Roberta Gese

Debt
Michael Hough vs Roland Briggs
Citibank (South Dakota) NA vs Theresa G. Beard
Citibank (South Dakota) NA vs Debbie M. Kratsas

Dissolution
Kurt L. Roe and Rachael M. Roe

KESA responded to two medical calls and one fire call from March 1 through March 7.

Assault
On March 3, a caller reported a student at Homer High School drew a knife on another individual.

Motor Vehicle Accident
On March 2, a caller reported that he skidded off the road and hit a tree.

Traffic
On March 2, an anonymous caller reported a vehicle operating at an unsafe speed for road conditions. No plate number or make of vehicle was given. Officer was advised.
On March, 2, a caller reported a vehicle driving on the beach in an unauthorized area. Officer was advised.

Alaska State Troopers
On March 3, Alaska State Troopers responded to a domestic disturbance near Anchor Point. As a result of trooper investigation, a 34-year-old Anchor Point man was arrested on three counts of third-degree assault, and an additional count of Criminal Mischief in the third degree. The man was transported to Homer jail without incident.
On Feb. 28, troopers responded to a report of a single vehicle rollover near mile 137 of the Sterling Highway. The driver of the vehicle, a 41-year-old Anchor Point man, received minor injuries. After investigation, he was cited for failure to exercise due care.

As a young child, I always seemed to have a relatively active imagination. Over the years, I’ve come to understand that this was either the product of too many Gilligan’s Island reruns, or a pathetically limited experience of school field trips during my formative years. And while the often harrowing, always hilarious adventures following the demise of the S.S. Minnow were certainly entertaining and oddly educational, I’m thinking it was the fourth-grade field trips to the sewage treatment facility that made for such an active imagination.
Students today board busses, planes and boats to transport them to all the wonderful and engaging places we could only make up in our heads in the old days. Who needs imagination when you’re face to face with a sea otter?
In the first grade, our class took a field trip to the local cemetery. There, given we remained in a straight line and didn’t engage in any “horseplay,” we each had the opportunity to peer into the open corner of a concrete grave that had somehow been mysteriously damaged and breached. Now, this was southern Louisiana, folks. They didn’t actually bury people underground because the water table was too high. And we certainly couldn’t have bodies floating around now, could we?
Whether or not there was actually anything inside this tomb of terror was totally irrelevant. By lunchtime, we had all agreed over our Chicken Cordon Bleu-type lunch-food item that we had not only spotted the rotting arm of a corpse within the damp recesses of the death chamber, some of us had actually heard moans escaping from the darkness.
By the third grade, I was introduced to bomb threats – no figment of my imagination there. While my parents had previously done a pretty incredible job of shielding me from racial tensions of the south in 1973, there was no going back to the comforts of decaying cadavers in cute little crypts now. The sight of worried teachers wringing their hands and trying to comfort the little ones was all my enterprising young mind needed.
Like a gleaming ray of sunshine reflecting off the monkey bars, my calling in life became quite clear; I would be a hero.
I spent the next three days trying to figure out exactly what a hero does. And when I discovered that nothing dangerous, perilous or remotely alarming would ever happen at my school again, I quickly switched over to a rich fantasy life of heroism.
In my self-contained world of all things Sean, I saved every teacher, student and lab animal in the school several times over. In the process, I inevitably had to fight off mobs of knife-wielding escaped convicts, gun-toting hostage-takers and highly trained martial arts experts. It wasn’t easy, mind you. I suffered elaborate injuries as I rescued my class. And as I quietly and stoically bled from my various wounds, fashioning splints for my broken limbs from wooden rulers, my schoolmates and teachers would gather around to profusely thank me for saving them from the certain clutches of death.
Perhaps my illusions were a bit on the grandiose side.
After a few years, I became tired of the same old scenario. By sixth grade, I was ready to branch out into other forms of heroism and chivalry. School was nothing more than a bunch of SRA reading cards and multiplication memorization. So, imagine my surprise when my parents informed me I would be joining Ms. Parker’s class for the gifted and talented. Apparently, I scored some impressive numbers on one of those standardized tests. And I just didn’t have the heart to tell my folks I filled in the circles on the answer sheets in a pattern of clouds and puppies. Some things are better left unsaid.
Ms. Parker’s class consisted of new problem-solving methods, games and activities meant to stimulate young minds. There was very little structure, and we were relatively free to do what we wanted as we explored the many offerings in the classroom. Still, had anyone known the disturbing levels of my imagination, perhaps they would not have suggested a required reading of Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt.”
Do you hear lions?

After months of waiting for the elusive winter snows to grace our presence in 2010, March truly rolled into Homer like a lion.
Students across the south Kenai Peninsula relished in two snow days – but found themselves relatively unable to enjoy the fresh powder thanks to hurricane-force winds that pushed snow into every crevice imaginable and mounded drifts some six feet high.
Parents around town talked about the last time school was canceled, and speculated on whether Kachemak Bay kids are as hardy as they used to be. By more than one account, school hadn’t been closed for 25 years around Homer. If that’s true, then it’s been a while since K-Bay kids have been truly tested.
This was certainly a test.
Pushy snows and winds made walking near impossible, even if it was just to the bus stop in the morning. Snow heaped high made almost any form of transportation hazardous.
Many places around town closed up shop on Tuesday, possibly deciding that the trek into town through endless snow berms just wasn’t worth it. Residents raided grocery store shelves for essentials like milk and bread. And you might as well forget about finding a movie you really want to rent; those were picked over long ago.
Activity, except for the most essential, slowed to a crawl at the end of the road. Traffic warnings and avalanche closures added to the drama, as advisories pushed across the peninsula promising more gale-force winds, horizontal snow and white-out conditions.
However, throughout the chaos of “Blizzard 2010,” some things stayed the same.
Homer’s Police and Fire Departments rolled on. Care providers at the hospital stood ready. Street crews worked into the night.
Suddenly, issues about the beluga whale’s critical habitat and the impending busy summer of Hoka Hey motorcycle races and cruise ship traffic didn’t seem quite as critical as before. Arguments over eagle-feeding and Pebble Mine were quieted by the heavy blanket of snow. Even the Homer City Council meeting could not move forward beneath the strength of a such a wild storm — lasting only 18 minutes on Monday night.
Sometimes it takes a good winter storm to quiet things down a bit and remind us what’s important. Sometimes getting to work and finishing that project isn’t really worth the risk of navigating through dangerous driving conditions or trudging through waist-high snow.
As humans, we have a tendency to assume that we run the whole show.
We don’t.
We take for granted that we call all the shots and drive our own destiny. This week we were all reminded just how powerless we really are. As mere mortals, we must be sheltered from earth’s storms. For some of us, battling winter’s wrath was a lesson in frustration and high blood pressure. For others, simply an adjustment.
So, here we all are at the Homer Tribune office, finding every reason in the world why it was so important to beat the blizzards and get to work today to get the newspaper out. And I have to say, we’re a little bit jealous of your toasty wood stoves and steaming hot chocolate.
For us, there’s a newspaper to get out. And even if it really isn’t the most important thing amid a blustery winter storm, it’s what we do.