Magical Homer
Oh my god, Homer. You know how to make five great musician fall in love with this place. You are the most amazing audience imaginable. The Jazz in July Fundraiser at Alice’s was a glorious success. You were a total match for the most amazing Jazz Quintet imaginable. You fired up the North Atlantic Jazz Alliance and launched our first event of more than 100 to come during the Alaska World Arts Festival in September. I can’t wait to see you do your audience magic again then.
Thank you Linda Gorman, Dixie Hart, Deb Anderson, Shelley Rainwater, Barbara Sax Seaman, Pam Van Hoozer, Scott Van Hoozer, Scott Bauer, Sharon Elisa,Markus Burger. Jan von Klewitz, Paul Kreibich, James Linahon, Marshall Hawkins, Rick Rosenbloom, Patrice Krant, Sherry Stead, Don Stead, Ken Castner, Richard Koskovich, Angie Otteson, Mike Warburton, Jim Buncak, Richard Gustafson, Janie Boily Stewart Buncak, McKinney, Kiirsten Styvar,Sarah Hindle-Robertson, Glenn Caldwell, Kevin Duff, Josh Tobin, Jody Rose, Herb Hemphill, Wynn Paulette Levitt Pauli Hall, Angie Finn Newby, Harmon Hall, Garrett Hall, Lynda Reed, Barbara Kennedy, Karin J. Marks, Charles Francis, Sanri and Cecilia Blignaut, Michael & Grace Halstead, Craig Matkin, Pamela McKemie, Kate, Owen and Scotty Meyer, Beverley Nikora,Terri Spigelmyer, Andy Haas, Antonio Ricciardi, Tim & Tara Schmidt,Suzanne Singer Alvarez, Rene’ Alvarez, Leslie Slater, Steve and Kim Smith, Karen Strid, Steve & Ginger VanWagoner, Peter & Deborah Townsend, Jeanne Walker, Evelyn and Gary Waltenbaugh, Dave Ellington, Candy Rohrer, Sharlene & Rick Cline, Sonia Topenio, Marynel Valenzuela, Elisa Russ, Chris Russ, Willy Dunne, and the friends and family and good energy you brought with you.
If I missed you here, let me know and I’ll add you to our Facebook thank you’s.
Sally Oberstein
Alaska World Arts Festival
Appreciative of medical help
Thank you to the Anchor Point Volunteer Fire Department and the staff at South Peninsula Hospital Emergency Room staff and to the doctor that gave me a ride home. Thank you to my friends that helped me during my recovery.
Jackie Adams
Rep. Vance, please show your statespersonship
Respected economists and financial experts predict disastrous results to Alaska’s economy, credit ratings, public institutions, and more. Dunleavy’s cuts are too drastic, too sudden, implemented without a thorough vetting of impacts to the economy, social programs, federal and private matching funds and rural communities. Rep. Sarah Vance must know in her heart these cuts will seriously hurt the very young, very old, sick, homeless and students. The Governor did not vet these cuts and apparently does not care who he hurts by his slash and burn budget. Why would Rep. Vance rubber stamp this disastrous plan if she cares about education, health care, programs for the elderly, state ferries, public safety and special needs of rural communities? The common good is the responsibility of us all. A full PFD is not worth losing the state’s economy.
If these cuts stand and Alaska goes into recession and economic chaos, drastically hurting many Alaskans, Rep. Vance will prove she did not truly understand the responsibility of a Legislator to make decisions in the state’s best interest. She needs to meet with residents and listen also to the pulse of the state’s people.
I think most Alaskans and Kenai Peninsula residents do not want the Legislature to follow Dunleavy into this disaster. Alaskans want good health care, great schools, arts and culture, ferries, thriving communities and public safety. We are in this together, so we have to provide the services that help everyone. We don’t need another recession.
Hopefully, Rep. Vance will vote for a modest PFD, restore our state services by overturning the vetoes, consider new revenues, and reduce oil and gas subsidies. This would end the crisis and allow the Legislature to work in a step-wise way to reduce the budget and find new sustainable revenues.
Nina Faust
Quilts of Valor to be offered
Kachemak Bay Quilters take pride in being able to present Quilts of Valor to veterans who have been touched by war. Last year, 10 quilts were presented by their makers at a Veterans Day buffet provided at the Elks Club by the Homer Emblem Club.
This year, we plan to hold another presentation to honor our local Veterans on Nov. 11. If you, or someone you know, have served and would like to be a recipient of a hand-crafted Quilt of Valor, please go to www.QPVF.org, click on “How to Request a QOV,” fill out and submit. You will be contacted by the local organizer.
The Quilters would be honored to celebrate your service with you at this event.
Jan Mosher
Alaskans don’t want Arduin’s Final Solution
Gov. Dunleavy,
You claim you are listening to Alaskans? What a joke. You are on the Koch payroll with your terrorist bookkeeper who already wrecked the Kansas economy (Kansas Senate Bill Substitute HB 2117). You continue parroting the brothers Grimm in their desire for a constitutional convention to forever lock-in the welfare of corporations at the expense of Alaskans. But you think you can adopt Trump’s gaslighting techniques and lie to our faces convincing us black is white and up is down.
Alaskans have made it clear they don’t want Arduin’s Final Solution. Many Alaskans insist you include a discussion of eliminating oil subsidies and thus balance the budget yet you refuse. Instead you will destroy the university and steal from the poor, the young and the elderly to further reward corporations that are only concerned with extorting the most they can from the state. You are a chump and a disgrace to Alaska.
Shelley Gill
Vance is right on full PFD
After watching Rep. Sarah Vance through Gavel Alaska’s coverage of the legislature in Juneau, one thing is crystal clear — she’s unwavering in her support for a full PFD; notably so.
I fully support her. Why? Because, in its simplest terms, the issue is this: Either I use the PFD to maintain and enhance my and my family’s life precisely as needed, or the bureaucracy fumbles it horribly by pretending to read my mind. I might use it to pay my own extensive dental costs, whereas the bureaucracy would — at best — assign it to some other claimant who, using publicly-funded advocates, successfully lobbies for my rightful share on the basis that life, circumstances, genetic heritage, prejudice, or just unselfish people (me) disadvantage him. At worst, the bureaucracy will assign my share plus thousands of others to another Delta Barley project or Bridge to Nowhere.
There are, indeed, a small minority who truly are incapable of managing their own affairs. But for every legitimate claim it seems the system needs several to manage it, and allows several to abuse it.
Opponents of Rep. Vance’s principled stance may feel gratified by releasing their emotion among a crowd of fellow believers, but the rude and confrontational behavior that I’ve observed, ostensibly seeking compromise, only drives the wedge deeper. And I’ve yet to detect the least public indication from any of the opposition that they have any comprehension of the basis of Rep. Vance’s position on the PFD. That lack of imagination doesn’t bode well for compromise, either.
Larry Slone
Mud Wallow help appreciated
Nature Rocks Homer has just finished another great day at the Mud Wallow and would like say a few thanks.
First, to Kachemak Bay Equestrian Association (Cottonwood Horse Park) for allowing us to use a piece of your park to provide the best mud pit in town. You guys are the best, and we appreciate being able to hold this event here year after year. Thank you to Tom Patton for giving up a quiet evening at home and coming to turn up the ground so it was ready for water to be added. Thank you to Carmen Field and Lisa Matlock for having an idea all those years ago about a fun way to get kids outdoors.
We are so glad we can continue the tradition. And, thanks to all the parents who bring their kids out to this crazy, fun-filled afternoon.
See you all next year.
Red Asselin, Sue Post, and Cathy Wilmeth (The Three Mudsketeers)
Miller family grateful for support
Living in a small community since 1956 brings comfort once again.
We want to thank each of the many wonderful, thoughtful friends here in Homer and all around the country who have brought food, flowers, sent cards, and made phone calls, visits and especially prayers for our family as we were going through the loss of our wife, mother, granny and great-granny, Betty Miller, on June 12, 2019.
We are comforted with the peace and promise of our awesome Heavenly Father that we will be united with her again in Heaven.
Sincerely,
Ralph Miller, Sandy Miller, Abe and Abi’s families, Warren and Cris Beachy, Misti and Orlando McLay
Denali wolves worth more to tourism than pelts
You see in the News that the tourists are not seeing Denali wolves like they used to. One of the reasons is that the state allows wolves to be hunted/trapped close to the Denali area and of course this brings down the number of wolves there. The death of these wolves does not benefit the tourists who want to take photos of these wolves and show the photos to all their friends when they go back home. Tourists having these photos of these wolves helps make the sale to their friends to come to Alaska on vacation. Tourist bring in much more benefits to Alaska economy then dead wolves do. Someone in the state needs to put on their thinking caps and figure this out.
John Suter, Chugiak
Vance has failed voters
Rep. Sarah Vance has failed the voters of our district miserably. She has had little if any contact with her constituents. Phone calls and emails are rarely answered, she has not responded to radio and newspaper requests for interviews and she has failed to schedule any sort of town hall meetings regarding the impasse over the destructive vetoes by the governor.
Contrast this with our previous representative, Paul Seaton, who was always a reliable presence in our community and reported regularly to the voters via radio and newspaper interviews. Even if you did not agree with his positions at least you knew what was happening and what he was thinking.
On the floor of the House, Rep. Vance recently gave an “impassioned” speech about why she will only vote for the $3,000 PFD. She was adamant that the $3,000 PFD ($18,000 for her family) was important to her family and I’m sure it . But she makes no mention of the tremendous cost of this dividend to the future of Alaska. The millions cut from the education of our (and her) children, the loss of Head Start, the gutting of our University of Alaska, the thousands of poor and working poor who will no longer be eligible for Medicaid (and the resultant financial burden and possible ruin of rural hospitals like South Peninsula Hospital), aid to seniors, the Arts Council, Public Broadcasting, the list goes on. And we cannot forget the resultant loss of many thousands of Alaskans’ jobs and the loss of millions of dollars of federal matching grants. The cost to the financial and social fabric of Alaska is ruinously high ,yet she makes no mention of this and obviously does not care.
Ms. Vance should channel her passion to the actual future of Alaskans. If she truly cared about children she would care about their future instead of this year’s dividend.
Hal Smith, M.D.
Proud of Pride support
Thank you to everyone who supported and participated in Homer’s Second Annual Pride celebration last month, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that sparked the modern LGBTQ+ liberation movement. This year’s planning committee would like to recognize our sponsors at the Pride Foundation and Full Spectrum Health, along with the generous local businesses who offered donations and resources and who showed up for inclusion and diversity by displaying rainbow flags in June. Even a month later, the effects of your actions are felt around town and our future looks a lot brighter thanks to all your efforts and vital support.
Analise Hartnett, on behalf of the Homer Pride committee
City helps nonprofits
It is with deepest appreciation that I write to thank the City of Homer for supporting the nonprofit sector.
Sprout Family Services was a recipient of the 2019 City of Homer Grants Program through the Homer Foundation. The operating funds contributed by the City of Homer allows Sprout to maintain the various programs that we offer to families wherever we need it most.
This past year, funds were used to:
• Maintain our high enrollment in Imagination Library (over 400 kids),
• Pay recruitment costs for a much needed pediatric Occupational Therapist to join our team, and
• Hire a local community consultant to complete technology planning so that our staff have the hardware and software they need to serve families.
Thanks to the City of Homer, we can give more families the opportunity to grow up with Sprout.
Jillian Lush, Executive Director
Golden family thankful
Our family wants to extend our deepest thanks to the friends, neighbors, and even strangers, who have come forward to help out since Bryce’s cancer diagnosis. We would love to list every individual who has helped here, but the names could fill the whole newspaper and we would still run out of room.
To those who have brought us meals, watched our pets, donated to our GoFundMe, sent gifts, helped care for our home, provided airline miles for medical travel, and who have offered support, love, friendship, and well-wishes, we send our heartfelt gratitude. Your love has made our sadness infinitely easier to endure.
We also wish to acknowledge the kindness of the individuals at Hospice of Homer, South Peninsula Behavioral Health Services (The Center), Fireweed Academy, Homer Middle School, the Harbor School of Music & Dance, and Pier One Theatre for their support
Last, but not least, we want to thank by name Dylan and Angela Smith, Kristen Wright-Cook and Jared Cook, and Mercedes and Ben Harness for caring for our daughters like their own and for providing them with safe and loving homes when needed.
The months ahead will be a trying time for our family. But we are able to face the tribulations before us with brave and hopeful hearts because we know we aren’t facing them alone. We are so grateful for and humbled by the generosity of this amazing community. Thank you, Homer, with all our hearts.
Jessica and Bryce Golden
