20 years ago

Homer Hockey Association’s bubble was temporarily deflated last week when the Advisory Planning Commission denied its request, in a two-to-four vote, for an amendment to its conditional use permit. The amendment would have allowed the hockey association to install a 27,000-square-foot, air-supported “bubble building” on its lot at the corner of Lake Street and Waddell Way instead of the pavilion-style structure originally approved by the commission in April. Within a day of the commission’s decision, HHA already had found a way to re-inflate its dream of an ice rink in Homer. Now, instead of the bubble, the association has begun negotiations with the English Bay Corp. to use a corporation-built warehouse for the Arctic Winter Games and during the next five hockey seasons.

— From the issue of July 29, 2004

30 years ago

A lawsuit challenging new subsistence rules that were hastily written to satisfy a recent court decision will have little effect on the fill-your-freezer gillnet fishery for silver salmon in Kachemak Bay, a local biologist said. If the subsistence rules go down as a result of the lawsuit, the Kachemak Bay fishery, which opens in mid-August, will proceed under personal-use rules, said Wes Bucher, area biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game in Homer. The only major change is that under subsistence rules, the fill-your-freezer has a priority over sport and commercial fishing. When the subsistence quota is filled, Fish and Game must close commercial salmon fishing and sport silver-salmon fishing above a line from Fritz Creek to Aurora Lagoon, Bucher said.

— From the issue of July 28, 1994