Letters to the Editor
Published 2:30 am Thursday, March 12, 2026
Foundation supports skating facility
The Kevin Bell Arena would like to thank the Homer Foundation for its generous support through grants from the Kevin Bell & Family Hockey Fund, the Julie Booth Ulmer Memorial Fund, and the Opportunity Fund. This funding is dedicated to replacing the rink’s rental skates, a significant and necessary investment for our facility and the community.
While the arena hosts many organized events for seasoned skaters, we also provide frequent opportunities for the public to enjoy the ice and borrow skates. Every Friday night and Sunday afternoon, the rink is bustling with locals and visitors participating in open skating. Throughout the winter, we also welcome busloads of school-aged students who rely on our rental skates for their school-sponsored events.
As attendance has grown over the past few years, our rental skates have reached a point where replacement is essential. We are thrilled and grateful for the grant funding that makes this possible. As this winter season comes to a close, we look forward to opening our doors next fall with brand-new rental skates for skaters of all ages.
Lacey Velsko
Homer Hockey Association
Hospital continues community conversations
As a third generation local born right here in Homer, it has been an honor to serve on the board of South Peninsula Hospital over the last four years.
After SPH supported the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s bond proposal to expand services and consolidate locations in 2024, we heard you say you wanted to better understand the hospital’s long-range plan. In the past several months, we have been offering community conversations and presentations to share the hospital’s plan and get public feedback. To date we’ve hosted public forums and special meetings in Homer and Anchor Point. We have board members available to present at any gathering. Call Derotha Ferraro, the hospital’s public information officer, at 907-399-6212 to schedule.
Also, you are invited to the next community conversation on Wednesday, March 18 at Kachemak Bay Campus. Doors open at 11:45 a.m., lunch is provided and the program starts at 12:15 p.m. This is a chance for our board and leadership to share SPH plans, to get feedback and hear your input about plans or anything else hospital related.
You can visit sphosp.org and go to strategic plan page; there you will find the materials, zoom recordings of past meetings and a feedback form.
The hospital’s board of directors meets monthly in person and on Zoom. The meetings are open to the public; the next meeting is March 25. All the information is at sphosp.org.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Aaron Weisser, President
South Peninsula Hospital Board of Directors
Beyond the town hall
I went to Sarah Vance’s town hall. She’s got great bills to punish perpetrators. There is one more step she should take to make Alaska the pennant bearer of legislatures. She needs to say, “No thank you Donald.” Say, we don’t need a perp as president. We won’t be a party with a person at the helm who has raped 13-year-olds. We won’t be your party no matter what wars, redactions or coverups you throw up. We won’t be the party that hides the facts and pray to God he hasn’t. It’s only fitting that we’re not going down on your ship.
Gordy Vernon
Homer
Voter data sharing raises serious concerns
Alaskans are fortunate to have a long history of secure elections. The Alaska Division of Elections, under lieutenant governors of both parties, has been a model of safety, security, and integrity. Rare instances of voter fraud in our state have been identified and prosecuted.
The League of Women Voters, nationally and here in Alaska, has long defended secure and trusted elections. That is why we must speak out about the decision in December 2025 to provide Alaska’s confidential voter registration data to the U.S. Department of Justice. The data released — including voters’ full names, dates of birth, residential addresses, and driver’s license or Social Security information — raises serious concerns under the Alaska Constitution’s right to privacy and under federal privacy protections. Courts in California, Michigan, and Oregon have already rejected similar DOJ lawsuits seeking un-redacted voter data based on current federal law.
The agreement signed by the Lt. Governor states that the DOJ will review Alaska’s voter rolls and return a list of voters it believes may be ineligible. In other states where federal databases have been used for this purpose, mistakes have occurred, and eligible voters have been incorrectly flagged. Even if voters are placed on inactive status rather than deleted, it means citizens may need to take time and effort to prove that they should remain on the voter rolls.
Cathleen Rolph
League of Women Voters of the Kenai Peninsula
A joint legislative committee hearing on March 4 revealed illegal and unconstitutional actions on the part of the Dunleavy administration in sending Alaska’s voter rolls to the Trump administration. How dare our incompetent state government turn over my confidential information?
Both Lt. Governor Nancy Dahlstom and Attorney General Stephen Cox had key roles in this atrocious malfeasance, despite Alaska’s constitutional right to privacy. Many other states refused, filing lawsuits rather than sending in their voter rolls. This situation for Alaska must be remedied and resolved.
During the hearing, Former AG Bruce Botelho offered a plan to reverse this horrible action. Our Legislature should follow this formula and try to get the information back.
Judy Miller
Homer
