State of the city, youth programs focus of chamber luncheon

Published 2:30 pm Friday, March 27, 2026

Two topics were highlighted at the Homer Chamber of Commerce’s March members’ luncheon on Tuesday. Homer City Manager Melissa Jacobsen gave her second State of the City address and representatives from the Planet Youth Homer provided updates on the community initiative.

Jacobsen started off her address with an overview of the City of Homer’s organizational structure, service infrastructure, finances, and current and future projects. She said in her presentation that Homer’s economy “enjoys a high degree of diversification,” with the top five industry sectors including education, healthcare and social assistance; retail trade; arts and entertainment; transport and utilities; and professional, scientific and managerial services.

The city operates on a biennial budget schedule, meaning that they set a budget two years at a time. Jacobsen said that the fiscal year 2025 General Fund operating budget and expenses are currently going through an audit. According to the unaudited numbers, the city had $16.3 million in revenue and almost $15.3 million in expenses. For FY26, the current fiscal year, the city had budgeted $16.8 million in both revenue and expenses. As of February, the city has received approximately $14.2 million in revenue and spent about $10.4 million. The budget for FY27, which will begin July 1, currently anticipates about $17.3 million in revenue and expenses.

Jacobsen also reviewed the Homer Accelerated Roads and Trails Fund, which is set to appear as a ballot measure for renewal in the upcoming November election. The HART Fund is funded by a voter-approved 0.75% city sales tax that is used to create, upgrade and reconstruct roads and trails in Homer. Projects recently completed using HART funds include the reconstruction of and upgrades to Ohlson Lane and Bunnell Avenue and the reconstruction of the Highland Drive culvert after heavy winter rains caused excessive erosion near the road.

According to Jacobsen, the HART Trails Fund will also be used to fund design of the Woodard Canyon Trail on city-owned property above Karen Hornaday Park.

The Homer Harbor Expansion Project remains ongoing. Jacobsen said that the project is still in the phase one General Investigation Study and that the city hopes to have those results in March 2027. Phase two, project engineering and design, is currently slated for FY29.

Jacobsen said Tuesday that she, city staff and Homer Mayor Rachel Lord would be meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Anchorage on Wednesday to discuss the tentatively selected plan for the harbor expansion project.

Jacobsen also highlighted multiple city departments and their recent projects and accomplishments, including the Public Works Department, who maintains over 146 miles of city roads in the wintertime, and the Homer Public Library, who is celebrating their 20th anniversary in their current building this year. HPL is also accepting community input on what the next 20 years should look like for the library. A public comment and 2046 visioning form is available on the library website at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/library/homer-public-library-2046. The Homer Police Department swore in their new chief, Michael Scanlon, earlier this month after longtime Chief Mark Robl’s retirement went into effect. The Homer Volunteer Fire Department also recently completed EMT basic training and continues to actively recruit and onboard new volunteers.

On the community development side of things, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly unanimously approved and adopted the 2045 Homer Comprehensive Plan on March 17, marking an end to a two-year-long planning effort. The Homer Planning Commission also recently reviewed revisions to Homer’s Title 21 zoning and planning code, and Jacobsen said that the project consultants are working to have a public draft review available by the end of this month.

Jacobsen also touched on the upcoming municipal election, which will be held on Nov. 3 after the city council recently approved shifting the city election date from October to November to align with the borough and state elections. In addition to the HART Fund ballot proposition, the mayor’s seat and two city council seats will be up for election. This year also marks a state election, where voters will cast ballots for the state governor and one state senator.

The second presentation of the afternoon, on Planet Youth Homer, was given by Anna Meredith, project manager the Southern Kenai Peninsula Resilience Coalition, and Rudy Multz, the Child and Family Program Manager for South Peninsula Behavioral Health Services in Homer. The two gave an overview to the audience of the Planet Youth Homer movement and provided an update on the first round of youth data from a recent community survey.

“There’s a lot that’s so positive happening with young people in our community,” Meredith said. “This is the newest attempt and approach at bringing everything together that involves young people in our community.”

Planet Youth Homer is an evidence-based and data-driven prevention approach that brings the Icelandic Prevention Model to the broader Southern Kenai Peninsula community. While other communities across the state, including the Mat-Su area, Ketchikan and Fairbanks are interested in implementing the Icelandic prevention model, Meredith called Homer and Seward the leaders on the peninsula.

“We’re in our second year,” Meredith said. “The resilience coalition has been going on for over 10 years, and the focus has just narrowed down more and more to supporting young people and meeting them where they’re at.

“This is a community approach. This really only works when we as a community are all on board.”

Multz said that the prevention model incorporates “thinking upstream.”

“This is a primary prevention approach, so we are trying to get ahead of any issues. This means preventing factors like dropping out of school, substance misuse and mental health challenges,” he said. “Prevention builds on protective factors like family connection, school relationships and a sense of belonging in the community.”

The recent survey was proctored to Homer High School students in ninth through 11th grade and was optional, entirely anonymous and required both student and guardian approval for each student to participate. The purpose, Multz said, was for Planet Youth Homer facilitators to learn about what life is like for youth in the community while getting rid of preconceived notions and creating opportunity for data-informed decision making.

Project leaders surveyed 312 students, hoping for an 80% response rate. They received responses from 168 students, or 54%, which Meredith called a success.

“This survey process is repeated every 18 months, and this is a decade-plus-long approach,” she said, adding that the data from this initial survey has provided a baseline for future surveys and action plans.

Findings showed that a majority of youth who completed the survey experience their community as connected, supportive and safe. Survey results also showed that reported substance use is relatively low and most students reported limited peer pressure to use substances — a departure, Meredith said, from older generations.

Four areas where Multz said project leaders felt the data showed there was room for growth included youth mental health and well-being; substance use and factors influencing substance use; sleep, fatigue and other related routines; and screen time.

“These are not areas of failure, these are just areas where we have the possibility to find some strengths and use our environment to improve that situation,” he said.

Now that the organization has baseline data, Meredith said they’re currently at the stage of sharing it with the community and are inviting public feedback before developing further next steps. A feedback form is available at skpresilience.org.

“We’re in the process of sharing the data. The next step is, what are we as a community going to do about it?” Meredith said. “That’s when we really need input and feedback and people to volunteer and get involved in that process.”

A similar Planet Youth Homer presentation was given to the Homer City Council during their March 9 meeting and is available to view at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-347.

The next chamber luncheon is tentatively scheduled for April 15 and is slated to feature updates from South Peninsula Hospital. Further details will be announced in a member newsletter to come.