Troy Jones is a political newcomer and south peninsula businessman who hopes to defeat incumbent Willy Dunne in the race for the District 9 seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. Jones said the budget and several attempts to implement new taxes spurred him to run for the first time.

Jones is a lifelong resident of the Kenai Peninsula. His parents homesteaded near Homer in 1956, and he’s spent most of his life as a businessman.

House District 31 Rep. Paul Seaton held a town hall forum Tuesday evening. Seaton is running for re-election and answered a number of questions from audience members, but he chose to focus mostly on the budget, finding new revenue streams and the Permanent Fund.

The Homer City Council is contemplating a ban on thin single-use plastic bags. The move would follow other communities that have passed similar ordinances. But this isn’t the first time the council has dabbled with the issue, setting up yet another contentious debate over the role of city government in Homer.

The bag ban that was introduced Monday is largely the same ordinance city council members passed back in 2012.

The Kachemak Bay Medical Clinic will move ahead with the controversial construction of a new clinic near South Peninsula Hospital.  The Homer Advisory Planning Commission granted a conditional use permit to Dr. Paul Raymond, who works for Kachemak Bay Medical, for a roughly 20,000-square-foot building located between the hospital and the Homer Medical Center Wednesday.  

The fishing season is wrapping up in lower Cook Inlet, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game Biologist Glenn Hollowell says it was a mixed bag for pink salmon. Still this year’s pinks, which are the progeny of the disastrous 2016 season, came in mostly as expected and most escapement goals in the area were met.

Hollowell said more fish made it up streams on the outer coast because commercial fishermen mostly focused their efforts in the southern district near Homer.