20 years ago

A $4,000 fireworks display on Beluga Lake brought in the new year and the new millennium. Certified pyrotechnician Jon Faulkner organized the event with help from crew on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sedge.Homer’s first baby of the year, Alissa Marie, was born at 7:39 a.m. Jan. 1 to parents Kasie and Justin Cole. The first baby in the state arrived just a few minutes before Alissa at Providence Hospital in Anchorage.

— From the issue of Jan. 5, 2000

30 years ago

Cups, an art gallery and coffee shop, was scheduled to open on Jan. 13 in the old Homer News building on Pioneer Avenue. Owners Sue Hoffman and Mark Brinster created an old fashioned coffee house that also served as a gallery. The owners also plan to have literary readings and music.

“Homer is so suitable for an environment where people would be encouraged to loiter and have coffee and sit around and gab,” Brinster said.

— From the issue of Jan. 5, 1990

50 years ago

The Homer City Council set a date of Feb. 10 for a special election to consider bonds to pay for a sewer system. The fire hall, police station and city hall building projects have been stalled because the city does not have a sewer system.

— From the issue of Jan. 1, 1970