Years Ago

Published 1:30 am Thursday, March 5, 2026

20 years ago

Opening their mail this week, property owners can expect to find a friendly reminder from the Kenai Peninsula Borough that they live in a rapidly rising housing market. The effects of the long-running national housing boom have resonated in many communities on the peninsula where real estate prices have been rising steadily for several years. The borough on Wednesday mailed out the latest tax assessment notices to homeowners, and many will discover their properties have increased in value by healthy percentages, said Dennis Mueller, appraisal manager for the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s assessor’s office.

— From the issue of March 2, 2006

30 years ago

“Free Wilma,” a diving orca whale sculpture, earned the Homer snowcarving team Brothers of Snow Sculpture a third-place finish in the national snowcarving competition last week in Lake Geneva, Wis. Gary Lyon, Charlie LaForge and Craig Phillips competed against 16 teams and warm temperatures to create their 13-foot-tall sculpture, which featured an orca cow and calf diving after a sea lion. The Brothers had 72 hours to make something out of their 6-foot-square, 10-foot-high snow block. But according to Lyon they spent a good part of the first two days just cutting out a rough shape.

— From the issue of Feb. 29, 1996