20 years ago

Quick action by Homer Animal Shelter and Public Works employees saved a dog that fell into the Homer sewage lagoon. Animal Control Officer Sherry Bess said her son Mike noticed the black dog inside the lagoon fence. He tried to lure it out, but the dog then ran out onto the lagoon ice and broke through. Public Works employee Dan Gardner got a ladder and crawled out onto the ice. He used a steel bar to break through the ice so the dog could swim to shore. Gardner and other helpers grabbed the dog and got him to safety.

Bess said the dog wasn’t an escapee from the shelter but a stray. Later named “Ol’ Dan” after Gardner, and with the nickname “Stinky,” the dog was a Pet of the Week in the Jan. 25, 2001 issue of the Homer News.

— From the issue of Jan. 4, 2001

30 years ago

Clem Tillion, the special advisor for fisheries to Gov. Wally Hickel, advocated year-round commercial fishing for halibut. He said that could be done in two ways: as individual fishing quotas, or IFQs, or as bycatch for other fisheries such as gray cod. Year-round fishing would mean fishermen get paid more and consumers pay less, Tillion said. It also would benefit small, local vessels and the labor supply that handles it.

Some fishermen were critical of Tillion’s proposals.

“If he makes it legal for trawlers to keep halibut, that would be the end of the hook-and-line fishery,” said Bruce Gnad, skipper of the F/V Vonnie Marie. “… (Trawlers) can easily catch all the halibut there are in the universe. It would wipe out anybody that doesn’t have a 200-foot factory trawler.”

— From the issue of Jan. 3, 1991

50 years ago

The issue of Jan. 7, 1971, is missing from the Homer News archives.