Simon Lopez

From increased fees to changing parking zones, people saw many changes on the Homer Spit this past summer; and last month, scientists from around the state gathered in Anchorage for the Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit. The summit, which highlighted water quality research and restoration efforts, included a presentation about how invasive northern pike can colonize new freshwater bodies via the Inlet.

Today's Coffee Table program is a pre-recorded discussion held at the Homer Public Library on the state of Homer's housing, population, economy, development, and future.

Despite significantly greater numbers of fish, low market prices led to a disappointing commercial salmon season in the Lower Cook Inlet; following the news that Ravn Alaska will no longer fly to Kenai, competitor Grant Aviation announced Tuesday it will add up to 50 flights a week out of the airport; and after eight years, Homer-based authors Steve Kahn [rhymes with lawn] and Anne Coray are premiering “Rebuilding Brown” in Homer. The documentary follows the couple after they purchased a cabin in Lake Clark belonging to Brown Carlson, the first European to settle in the area at around 1906.

The city of Homer is falling behind on completing its audits, and is facing issues with producing financial reports; and the State of Alaska is changing its leasing strategy to incentivize Cook Inlet oil and gas development during an upcoming lease sale.

A petition signed by more than 5,000 Kenai Peninsula residents is calling on the Alaska Department of Transportation to stop its use of salt brine on peninsula roads. In a public meeting last week, dozens of residents reaffirmed that position; and a community health needs assessment in the southern Kenai Peninsula is revealing issues in the community around mental health, housing, substance misuse and more.

The Kenaitze Indian Tribe continued its work looking for archaeological significance along the path of the Sterling Highway Bypass project this summer; and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma joined a group of Alaska Natives, artists and environmental activists last month in Fairbanks for a performance that expresses Indigenous peoples’ grief over the shrinking population of salmon and other impacts of climate change on the far north.

More than twenty schools around the Kenai Peninsula get to raise salmon eggs in the classroom as part of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s “Salmon in the Classroom” program; and fourteen months and more than 60 amendments later, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly has finally passed a revision of its code regulating gravel pits.

With Ravn Alaska discontinuing flights between Anchorage and Aniak soon, Ryan Air, an Alaskan airline that serves rural communities, will begin operating two new flights to Aniak starting October 23rd; and each fall, Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Fat Bear Week celebrates bears gearing up for hibernation and the salmon that nourish them. This year, the event saw its largest voter turnout ever, with over 1.3 million people participating.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough certified elections held on Oct. 10, electing Kelly Cooper to office. Borough Mayor Peter Micciche also gave updates on a proposed emergency service area in the eastern peninsula; and a group of moms from the southern Kenai Peninsula Russian Old Believer community of Nikolaevsk are pushing for a charter school for the second year in a row.