Being a Conservative Republican, I typically do not make political endorsements but recently I had the opportunity to read an article in one of the two weekly newspapers that is published in the Little Hamlet By the Sea. Fortunately, I live in an unincorporated community, consequently we are fortunate not to have any local government elections. However, I do enjoy watching the local politics in Homer, on any typical day it is more humorous than watching cartoons on television. The City of Homer is preparing to have local elections, having the need to fill two seats on the City Council. Vying for these two seats are two incumbents, Dennis Novak and Val McLay, while Bryan Zak has also entered the election for one of these seats. The Homer Tribune presented a set of questions to each of the candidates with those results being published in the September 6, 2006 issue of the paper. After careful review of the results from this questionnaire, although he has served a term on the City Council I cannot endorse incumbent Dennis Novak as he failed to respond to the questionnaire. That leaves two individuals for the remaining two seats on the council, however, after reviewing one particular question, I would suggest to the good people in Homer that you have a "write in" candidate to fill these two seats. I strongly support Val McLay, I have known him most of my life and his responses to the questions presented to him were to the point with valid answers. As for the candidate Zak, I will let his response to one particular question speak for him.
The question presented was, "What will you do at the city level to see that pedestrian access and trails in Homer are improved? Or should they be?The responses are as follows: MCLAY: "As development takes place, we need to do what we can to provide access through these developments, to open space areas by requesting pedestrian access easements. As money becomes available, these accesses could be up-graded, as funds allow"
ZAK: "At the city level, I will require large developments to plan for inclusion of trails. I will also support a Kenai Peninsula Borough Trail that will extend from Anchor Point around to Seldovia and further support and encourage more eco-tourism"

One has to assume that candidate Zak is making attempt to get the 8th Wonder of the World established in the Little Hamlet By the Sea. A trail system from Anchor Point to Seldovia sounds wonderful, it will only be approximately 85 miles long! A large section of the trail will need to be carved out of the face of the bluffs or the "trail users" will need to wear hip boots during periods of high tide. Crossing the Fox River and the flats at the head of Smokey Bay is going to be an additional challenge through vast acres of critical wet lands and a multitude of small streams. Once the bridge has been extended to the south side of Kachemak Bay, a great deal of engineering is going to be required to get bridges across a large number of streams and small rivers. Once this is accomplished, one has to contemplate how the trail is going to cut across a minimum of fifteen bays and coves that dot the shoreline on the southerly coast. If the trail goes around each bay and cove, it should extend the trail system to about 300 miles. For some reason, I cannot picture Bill and Louise from Midtown, Nebraska having a great deal of interest in hiking the Kachemak Bay trail that is 300 miles long just to visit Seldovia. They had better pack a lunch but that may not be a problem since they will most likely become lunch themselves to any one of the number of Brown Bear and Black Bear that roam the countryside.
Based on this conception, I think the good folks that reside in the "City" should write in another choice for Councilman or vote twice for McLay, I am sure he can fill both seats.