Mayor Ken Castner

Absentee, special needs, and questioned ballots for the Homer Municipal Election were counted Monday afternoon by the city’s Election Canvass Board. Nearly half of the 1,901 ballots cast, 863 of them, were made in one of those ways. There was an exceptional turnout of 37 percent.
    The influx of votes did not change any of the outcomes from last week. However, in the mayoral race, challenger Donna Aderhold picked up 474 votes to incumbent Mayor Ken Castner’s gain of 363, narrowing the gap between them to 84 votes. Castner’s victory margin was 52 percent to 47 percent.

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.

Alaska Chief Medical Officer Anne Zink was the special guest of the Homer City Council at Monday night’s regular meeting, with Mayor Ken Castner moving a question and answer session with her to the top of the agenda.
    Frustration was clear in Castner and council member’s questions as they pointed out how Homer and the South Peninsula have become the hottest Covid-19 spot in the state, second only to Anchorage.

The Homer City Council received a lot of interest in the position of city manager when the job was advertised for the second time this year. After going through the resumes of more than three-dozen candidates, five were selected for audio interviews with the council. Those were held on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Afterwards, the council settled on moving forward with only one of the candidates, Rob Dumouchel of Eureka, Calif.

   Just a week into Governor Mike Dunleavy’s relaxing of his business-closing mandates in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and three new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Homer.
    As more people from Outside come to Alaska in an attempt to flee the infection, some may be bringing it with them, and Homer Mayor Ken Castner is concerned not all are taking the 14-day self-quarantine seriously.

At Monday night’s Homer City Council meeting, Mayor Ken Castner responded to the governor’s announcement relaxing business closures in response to a slowing of Covid-19 infections in the state.
    Early in the meeting, Castner stepped in to read from a number of Powerpoint slides detailing what is opening and the restrictions still in place while open.

Homer Mayor Ken Castner was an early adopter of a Covid-19 public health emergency last month when the pandemic started to threaten Alaska. By adopting an emergency declaration, the City of Homer activated its Emergency Operations Center, which has been actively coordinating the city’s, the South Peninsula Hospital and the Public Health Clinic’s response.
    The declaration shut down city hall, and put Castner on the phone a lot.

The Homer City Council held its second meeting under the new conventions of social distancing last night, with council members attending remotely. And while the Zoom connection proved much clearer, there was one glitch that came out of nowhere to begin the Committee of the Whole meeting at 5 p.m. when Mayor Ken Castner tried to begin.
     “Any objection…,” the mayor began before being interrupted.
     “No. I can't hear you,” a man with a Posh accent said. “Yeah, no. Yeah. Hello? Hello, Hello, just a second. Hello?”