The Kenai Peninsula Borough will soon be moving into the age of “remote sensing.” The assembly approved a nearly-half-million-dollar no-bid contract with a company to provide the borough with “Pictometry Oblique Imagery” for the purposes of property assessment. Currently, the borough assesses real property from the ground. The contract with Bellevue-based EagleView will be for photographing private property from the air.
Nikiski Assemblyman Jessie Bjorkman, however, felt that was an invasion of privacy.

    The application period to file for city office just opened, and already there are two hats in the ring for the job of Homer Mayor. Incumbent first-term Mayor Ken Castner filed for re-election on Monday, and welcomed the challenge by a council member.

        “I like competition, and that will bring out some good debate,” he said.
On the first day filing was open Councilmember Donna Aderhold filed for mayor.

    A Homer City Council member is seeking to move up to the mayor’s chair this year. The filing period for the mayor’s job and two city council seats opened on August first, and will close on the 17th.

    Council member Donna Aderhold is in the second year of her second three-year term on the city council.

    At Monday night’s school board meeting, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Superintendent John O’Brien expounded on his Friday decision to require face coverings at all schools when classes resume later this month for all staff and students grade three and above.

    He said the district was told by the state that it’s “Smart Start” plan had a flaw, and that it was not requiring masks at all schools.

    During the Southern Kenai Peninsula Opioid Task Force July meeting, attendees heard a talk from Dr. Reverend Ted Wiard, a New Mexico clinician, on the parallels between loss and grief, and addiction and recovery during the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The meeting was held over Zoom video conferencing.

Absentee in-person voting for the State of Alaska primary commenced on Monday, August 3, and will continue through Monday, August 17.

The clerk’s office at Homer City Hall on Pioneer Avenue is now open Monday through Friday - 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for in-person voting. Primary election day is Tuesday, August 18.

Rachel Tussey from the City of Homer spoke with KBBI's Kathleen Gustafson on Monday evening. Tussey said the City is requesting people wear masks but not requiring them.

    House District 30 Representative Gary Knopp of Kenai was killed in a mid-air collision today (Friday) near Sterling. He was reportedly flying his own Piper PA-23 Aztec, a twin-engine prop plane when it collided with a DeHavilland Beaver about a couple miles northeast of Soldotna near the Sterling Highway.

Knopp was alone in his twin-engine aircraft. Six others were killed in the other plane. They've been identified as pilot Gregory Bell, 67 of Soldotna; guide David Rogers, 40 of Kansas; Caleb Hulsey, 26 of South Carolina; Heather Hulsey, 25 of South Carolina; Mackay Hulsey 24 of South Carolina and Kirstin Wright, 23 of South Carolina.

At last night’s Homer City Council meeting, the council extended the City of Homer Disaster Emergency Declaration to October 27, 2020. And, they inched closer to a mask mandate.

Mayor Ken Castner said he spoke with Governor Dunleavy on several teleconferences last Wednesday through Monday, about a letter the council sent last month to the governor, requesting a statewide mask mandate or the power to declare masks mandatory in Homer. Dunleavy declined to mandate masks for the whole state but affirmed that the City of Homer can require masks.