The Homer City Council voted down an ordinance Monday that would have required the city manager to take inflationary pressures on the budget and the cost of living for employees into account during the budgeting process. 

The ordinance would have required the city manager to present the council with an overview of the Anchorage Consumer Price Index from the previous year, the only city in the state where inflation is tracked. The city manager would also be required to track cost-of-living raises given to city employees in three nearby communities.

The director of the Kenai Peninsula College Kachemak Bay Campus will retire at end of the year. Carol Swartz has directed the campus for the past 32 years. She drove its growth by increasing the student enrollment and the school's offerings.

Swartz also founded the Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference. The event draws over 100 attendees and acclaimed writers to the Homer area every June.

Members of the public will not be able to visit the Pratt Museum for roughly eight months while it undergoes building renovations. According to a press release, the museum will close in early September and reopen in early May of 2019. The museum is installing ramps and hydraulic lifts in order to become more accessible.  It also plans to construct a new collections department and upgrade the building system, among other improvements.

Two candidates filed to run for Homer Mayor (today) Monday. Former Homer City Council member David Lewis and founding member of the Homer Foundation Ken Castner are both running for current Mayor Bryan Zak’s seat.

Lewis is a former teacher who served on the Homer City Council for nine years. Lewis also ran against Zak in the 2016 mayoral race. Lewis left the council last year, and he says community members asked him to run.

The U.S Coast Guard rescued two men from a pleasure cruiser Saturday in Prince William Sound. The F/V Gaillea ran aground roughly six miles off Busby Island, roughly 20 miles Southwest of Valdez. 

A 75-year-old man fell overboard, according to a Coast Guard news release. The man swam ashore, and several other vessels responded to help. Members of the F/V Fierce Leader recovered a 69-year-old man who was still aboard the Gaillea and crewmembers from the F/V Mary J used a skiff to rescue the other man from shore.

The commercial pink salmon season in Kachemak Bay is on track to be a good year. As of Aug. 8, the seine fleet picked up roughly 180,000 pinks, well above the 88,000 fish harvested at this point in the season last year and about four times more pinks compared to 2016.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Biologist Glenn Hollowell said about 20 permit holders have participated in the southern district.

“Most of those fish we believe are going back to the Tutka Bay Hatchery, and the Tutka Hatchery special harvest area just opened today to common property harvest,” he added.

Homer Police say a loaded firearm was found in a public restroom on the Homer Spit Wednesday. An officer responded to the scene and took custody of the weapon before the registered owner returned to the area.

Homer Police Chief Mark Robl says the gun was returned to the owner.  Homer Police told KBBI Friday that it was not reported which restroom the firearm was found in.

Another candidate has filed for one of two seats that will be open on the Homer City Council in October. Deb Lowney filed her paperwork Friday.

This is Lowney’s first run for city council. She currently sits on the Homer Education and Recreation Complex Task Force, the Bunnell Street Arts Center’s board of directors and chairs the Homer Parks, Art, Recreation and Culture Advisory Commission. Lowney has also been a member of other city work groups in the past.

As the Alaska Marine Highway System works towards replacing the state ferry Tustumena, two Alaskans are working to preserve its history.

The Tustumena Oral History Project is the brainchild of Juneau resident Michael Sakarias and Lucy Peckham of Anchorage. They’ve been working with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Marine Highway System to launch the project since 2013.