A decision by the Alaska Local Boundary Commission on Soldotna’s annexation petition has been pushed back a week or longer so the commission can decide whether it wants to put the subject to a public vote.

In the meantime, the commission is again accepting written public testimony — not on the city’s annexation petition, but on whether the matter should be determined by a vote.

Monday marked a changing of the guard for Soldotna. Pete Sprague finished his tenure as two-time Soldotna mayor and Paul Whitney had his first day on the job — though it was also the observation of Alaska Day, so he had the day off.

Whitney is looking forward to jumping into the role after years of serving on city council. He said a big goal of his is to get the city back to its pre-COVID self.

“Once we kind of get back to a normal lifestyle here, continue on one of the things we’ve been doing, we’re right now working on a remodel project at the sports center, and some time maybe look at another expansion of the sports center, there is a need,” he said.

 High COVID-19 case rates have shuttered most central and eastern peninsula classrooms, sending kids from over 20 school buildings back home for remote learning. And now that case rates in Homer and the surrounding communities have entered the “high risk” zone, southern peninsula schools don’t appear to be far behind.

But not all local schools are closed to in-person classes. Cook Inlet Academy, a Christain school in Soldotna, has been open since mid-August. The 110 students enrolled this year are divided into classes and pods so if staff or students are directly exposed, the students in that group will be sent home. There is a symptom-free protocol in place and administrators perform daily temperature checks on students. Masks are optional for students and staff.

A 7.5 earthquake near Sand Point this afternoon triggered a tsunami warning in Kachemak Bay communities, as well as across the Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula. The warning has since been cleared.

Following the earthquake, which hit Sand Point around 12:54 p.m., residents of Homer and the greater Kachemak Bay area were told to get to higher ground and were beginning to evacuate. But residents across the peninsula were also warned, which was an error.

 The Reindeer Hut is ending its second season tomorrow. For a food truck, that means winterizing the vehicle and parking it in storage until next spring.

The business’s first two seasons were very different from one another. Co-owners Aaron Conradt and Benjamin Peterson were more mobile last year and fed hungry event goers gyros and baked goodies from their orange-trimmed vehicle at events around town.

This year, the truck has been in mainly one spot since April, next to The Brew Coffee — another second-year business — on Kalifornsky Beach Road. Peterson thinks that might be the reason their business grew so much this year, even during the pandemic.