A fire severely damaged the old Bay View Inn Thursday afternoon. Dan Miotke is the acting assistant fire chief for the Homer Volunteer Fire Department. He says no one was hurt.

The department responded to the scene at 1:45 p.m. after a Kachemak Bay Emergency Services member saw smoke and reported the fire.

“When we got there, we had flames visible through two of the units… of the motel units,” he said. “We had flames and smoke coming out of the roof.”

Residents of Anchor Point will soon have expanded healthcare options in the area. The Seldovia Village Tribe is opening up a new SVT Health and Wellness center on the corner of Milo Fritz Avenue and Sterling Highway on Tuesday.

SVT began offering primary care services to Anchor Point out of a leased, smaller space in 2007. It will continue offering primary care in its new building as well as counseling, acupuncture and cooking classes.

Laurel Hilts is the public relations director for the tribe.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries will host a committee meeting Friday on Alaska’s salmon hatchery program. The gathering is meant to be a forum to discuss the latest research and developments in the hatchery industry.

That information is supposed to inform stakeholders, board members and department staffs’ understanding of the issues surrounding salmon hatcheries. But the conversation is about more than just science and statistics. 

Mayor Charlie Pierce said the consequences of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget cuts would be grim for the borough. During a Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Meeting Tuesday, Pierce said the borough stands to lose roughly $20 million, roughly the entire value of the borough’s general fund. 

That fund can be used to cover fiscal gaps, but borough code stipulates just how much the assembly can use. 

“Prior assemblies have gone and passed a floor, if you will, in our fund balance,” he said. “It said don't go below $14 million.”

A transgender woman is suing the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services commissioner for denying transition-related health care coverage under Medicaid. The lawsuit, which seeks to be class action, was filed in federal court on Monday.  The suit argues that prohibiting coverage for gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy is discriminatory and illegal.

Alaska State Troopers have charged a Nikolaevsk man with arson for allegedly starting a home on fire Friday. Anchor Point Fire and Emergency  Services and troopers responded to the fire late Friday evening.

Jon Marsh is deputy chief of Anchor Point Fire and Emergency Services.

“We were dispatched about 10:45 to what was described as a porch fire at a residence on Nikolaevsk Road,” he said. “When we got there, the porch was on fire and had extended into two of the rooms of the house.”