Vol, 5, 2,9
Your Community Newspaper
November ti, ig?4
10 Cents Per Copy
CHAMBER Mm
. The Homer Chamber of Commerce voted
Monday 20 to 2 to support the PUD in
their stand to go ahead with the con
structian of the hospital at the pre
sent site, The vote was taken by secret
ballot4
Other Chamber business included are
pert by the committee in charge of the
visit of Or. and-Mrs. Bank Leo Rhode,
who was in charge of the committee,
stated that the Doctor seemed impressed
with the community and that he wished
to express his. thanks for the reception
received, Rhode explained the desire
of Dr, Bank to see a natural History
Society formed m Romer to assist re
search work in this area.
A committee composed of Rhode as
chairman, Dan Larson, Yule .Kilcher^
Elsie King, Ethel Scott and Bill Raver,
was appointed to represent the Chamber
in. establishing such a society,
A letter to Don Smith from a member
the district engineers conceer.ing
the establishment of a milt tary site on
<Q&lson Mountain was read« It was the
personal opinion of the writer that
Ohlson Mountain was only one of several
sites being considered, He stated that
if the installation were to be built
here, it would require a work crew of
fybout too men for a two-year construc
tion period, Housing would be needed
for the crew, he said
It was noted that anyone wishing to
write to Capt< A■ P, Brandt, Superinten
dent of Territorial Police, Juneau, re
questing that a Territorial patrolman
be stationed in Homer, could still do
$o,
Commissioner King stated that he had
made up a petition requesting a patrol
man, and that anyone desiring to circu
late it could pick it up at his office
NEW DIRECTOR
Clare Hiner Monday night was accepted
as a director on the PUD board to fill
the vacancy left by the resignation of
Bob Kranich, He will be sworn in this
week and will take his seat at the next
meeting when a new president will be
selected,
Discussion on the small boat harbor,
the dock and the proposed armory-civic
center was also held.t
More information concerning this
meeting will be found in next week's
issue of the MRUS'
n
K
EAK HE A LOAD
A peak Load of 200 Kfi's is now bating
consumed by the users of electricity
from the HEA power plant, it was an
nounced at the board of directors meet
ing of the Association Tuesday night
The load will undoubtedly become great
er with the coming of winter, Jiggs Tice,
HEA manager stated.
j$lsc> considered at the meeting was
the proposed office building for the
HEA« An application for a lean from
the REA will be readied on the basis of
H20 consumers and plans for a building
will be based upon the recommendations
of the REA
^ Dr J:ohan B Wenberg, $ physician in
charge of the mobile x-ray unit that
visited Homer earlier this week,announ
ced yesterday that due to difficulty
with the x-ray machine all of the films
taken will have to be repeated, At the
present time the unit is in Seldovia
txr.d Port Graham but the following sched
ule will be in effect for Homer starting
Monday, November 15, The unit will be
at the fire hall again.
Monday, 2 to 5 p.m., 6 to 8 p. m.
Tuesday, y: 30 to 12 noon, 1:30 to
3:30 p.m. , 6 to 8 p* rr,
Retakes from these films will be
taken Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m.
All adults who can are urged to get
their x-rays taken .on Monday to allow
time for notification where retakes are
required. Reports on all x-rays should
be available at the postoffice by neon
on Wednesday.
It is hepeji that the community will
give tjne unit the same cooper at ion next
week as they exhibited this week
The second round of the battle over
the Homer hospital-health center site
got underway this week with those favor
ing the present site taking the stage,
A counter petition was placed in sev
eral business houses late last week
asking that work on the site be contin
ued, The original petition asked that
all work be stopped and that a new site
be chosen or the PUD be dissolved,
Cn Monday, Henning Johnson, leader
of those who would hike to see the site
of the hospital changed, called James
Houston, director of public works, and
Dr, ,C, Earl Albrecht, commissioner of
Health, and inquired os to whether a
change of site at tnis time might
ccPuse the itory to withdraw their
funds Pledged for the construct ion of
the buildihg, Mr, Houston said that
the funds would still be available pro
viding the Territory approved a new
site. Dr, Albrecht also stated that
the funds would still be available but
stipulated that a request for a change
would have to come from the PUD, and,
of course, that the new site would have
to be approved.
During the week at Least four civic
groups votea tp support the PUD in their
decision to go ahead with the work at
the site, These groups were tne P-TA,
Chamber of Commerce, the Homer Nurse 's
Association and the Fishermen's Assoc
iation, The Health Association nad pre
viously approved the plan* It is un
derstood that a , record of all votes
taken will be forwarded to the district
court
In a public statement issued Wednes
day, Homer Thompson, manager of the PUD,
but speaking as a private citizen, not
ed, anong other things, that if the PUD
were to be dissolved there are contrac
tual obligations for the operation of
the dock and the construction of the
hospital and that these obligations
would continue to be met and taxes
would' still be collected until all the
obligations had been completed,
Homer can be the site qj a scientific
research station for the Aleutian Re
search Institute if the people of the
community want it to be-, according to
Dr* Theodore Bank, director of vhe In
stitute* Dr* Bank and his wife spent
the weekend in Homer discussing the pos
sibilities of such a station with lead
ers of the Chamber of Commerce*
The purpose of such a station, he
explained, would be two-fold First it
would act as a base of operations for
scientific groups wishing to explore 'in
this section of tne Territory and second
it would serve as a nucleus for cultural
advancement in the community by provid
ing a library covering the field of nat
ural history and assisting in the estab
lishment of a museum here*
The first step in setting up a re
search station in Homer would be, he
suggested, to incorporate a Society of
Natural History composed of interested
local citizens* This group, starting
on a small scale, would set up an office
in some small building of their own and
with funds that a^e available from
such foundations as the Ford Foundation,
gradually expand to house storage facil
i ties for summer expeditions, a museum,
and at soma future data, housing for
expedition members who might want to
explore further the rich anthropologic
al field that includes the Kachemak Bay
area. He stressed that there must be
an active interest shown on the part of
local people before such funds could be
sought by the Institute from the various
foundations^
In a talk before some 60 local resi
dents Saturday night at the Skyway
Theater building, Dr, Bank spoke en
thusiastically of the future of Western
Alaska saying that in the next 10 years
the area will see its biggest boom to
date and that the boom will not be based
on military spending but on the .mineral
wealth of the country,
Dr, and Mrs- Bank have just returned
from the Aleutians where they spent the
summer'in scientific study of that area,
During the evening slides of the Aleu
tians were shown covering the life of
people who live there now and those who
inhabited the islands thousands of years
ago.
He told his audience that only 200
years ago the Aleutians had a native
population of over 20,000, but now there
are only about Soo natives living on the
barren istands. He said that the is
lands, thousands of years ago,ttere cov
ered with trees of the redwood family,
but that a physical change of the region
due to the upheaval of the volcanoes,
coupled with the strong winds and the
lack of warm weather that would pro
duce a reasonable growing season, has
caused the disappearance of the for
ests«
The Doctor placed the Kenai Peninsu
la as being on the border of two reg
ions, It was in this arep, he said,
that the cultures of the Aleuts and the
Indians met and joined qpid this area is
the boundary line between forest land
and tundra«
Much exploratory wofk remains to be
done in the Territory, he stated, and
the establishment of research centers
in Homer and other pities will aid mat
erially in carrying out the work in the
years to come.