Years Ago

Published 9:30 pm Wednesday, December 17, 2025

20 years ago

Examined for efficiency and found wanting, the Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency office in Homer has been recommended for closure, according to Chad Pagett, FSA’s executive director in Alaska since 2001. The recommendation includes closure of the FSA office in Palmer and opening an Anchorage office to provide service to the state’s entire southern service area, which stretches from the tip of Southeast Alaska to the tip of the Aleutian Islands and north to the mouth of the Yukon River. The FSA office in Delta Junction will be managed by an office in Fairbanks.

— From the issue of Dec. 22, 2005

30 years ago

The definition of art, according to Homer poet Tracy Philpot, is the experience of being surprised. If that’s true, art came to Homer this week in the form of four certified letters, bestowing unexpected holiday gifts on the artists chosen to receive $2,000 grants from the Stranded Art Fund. The five winners — Philpot, Lynn Marie Naden, Nancy Radtke, and Nancy Tetreault and Matt Yaki, who shared an award, have little in common, save their expressions of disbelief.

— From the issue of Dec. 21, 1995