Southcentral

On one of the nicest Saturdays so far this summer, about 200 people competed for space surrounding a tombstone at the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.

Their host for the afternoon: Cal Williams.

For over two hours, Williams led the lively group on a journey through the cemetery, recounting the lives of prominent Black Alaskans who are now buried there. It was the second annual “Soul in the Cemetery” Juneteenth event — an opportunity for the community to not only celebrate Black history in Alaska and the lives of Black leaders, but also to remember elements of change that residents continue to work toward today.

“As I visit these graves,” Williams said, “it causes me to reflect on how much more they could have given if they were still here and the great joy and wonders of what they did in the time that they were here.”

Williams is a longtime Alaska resident who personally knew many of the people highlighted on the tour. At each grave on Saturday, he introduced the individual laid to rest there to the crowd.

The group’s first stop: the tomb of Elgin Jones, who founded the multi-cultural publication, The Anchorage Gazette. And in his later years, he worked tirelessly with Kids Kitchen, a group estimated to have served over one million free meals to local children in need.

Williams then welcomed members of the crowd who knew Jones to recount the impact he had on Anchorage. Several people vied for the microphone. They remembered Jones as someone who deeply loved helping children and who worked through all sorts of logistical challenges to do his work in aiding them.

“Brother Elgin…went by the rule of: If you’re gonna do it, do it right for the children,” said Rev. Wilbert Mickens of New Hope Baptist Church.

The tour continued to the graves of a variety of other notable Black leaders including Richard and Anna Watts, Helen and Toby Gamble, Johnnie L. Gay, Rebecca Kinney and Rev. William B. Lyons, Sr. Their impact within Alaska spanned many realms of life, from hairdressing to chairing the Anchorage branch of the NAACP to carpentry to serving as the president of the Licensed Practical Colored Nurses of Louisiana.

At the grave of Helen Gamble, Robin Cole Barden introduced some of the interwoven life stories of the late Gamble and her family.

“Helen Gamble got here by my grandfather. He drove Helen Gamble from Oakland, California,” he said. “Before it was a state, when it was a territory, it was a total different land, total different community. And they thrived here because of that. Once it became a state with federal law there were Jim Crow laws and so the African Americans in Alaska and in Anchorage had to rebuild to thrive.”

Williams said so many people don’t know that part of Alaska’s history, and that’s why this tour is so special.

“Oftentimes many people have asked: I didn’t know that there were Black people here because most of the books that we’ve seen and most of the advertisement and PR about Alaska did not include — not only Black people, but not Native people,” Williams said. “And so today we acknowledge that by our presence, we appreciate those who have called upon us to pay tribute to those who have gone before us.”

Those honored throughout the event are just a fraction of the Black Alaskans who did work to build a robust Black presence in Alaska —  work that event organizers say is ongoing.

It’s important work, said Ted Ellis, acting chair of the 400 years of African American History Commission, a federally appointed committee established in 2019 with the goal of rediscovering the 400 years of history since Africans were first brought to English colonies in 1619. Ellis and other members of the group attended Saturday’s tour.

“It’s so critically important that we realize the legacy of those who have come before us,” he said, “that we preserve those memories and those stories, that we take that and we share that and we grow and we do better as we continue to move toward excellence.”

One of the leaders that continues this work is Williams himself. The commission recognized him during the event as one of America’s 400 African American History Keepers. Williams has lived in Alaska for decades, is a past president of the NAACP Alaska chapter and committed activist working toward Black advancement nationwide.

“It is humbling and exciting to do this work,” Williams said. “I’m so happy that Darrel Hess came up with the crazy idea of going and visiting graves in this cemetery that entombed African Americans who made significant strides in development here in Anchorage, Alaska.”

Williams and the organizers of Soul at the Cemetery say they look forward to many more events to come.

Seward swimming phenom Lydia Jacoby fell short of an Olympic sequel Monday after failing to clinch a fast enough time in the 100-meter women’s breaststroke final event.

Jacoby, 20, placed third in the 100-meter breaststroke finals in Indianapolis. She swam a time of 1:06:37, in the same event she took home Olympic gold in 2021 with a time of 1:04:95. Jacoby qualified for Monday’s finals after placing fifth overall in qualifying heats held Sunday.

She could still go to the Olympics this year, as she’s also set to compete in the 200-meter breaststroke event.

According to Team USA, more than 1,000 American swimmers competed for a spot in the U.S. Olympic team trials.

Alaskans rallied around Jacoby when she swam in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, held 2021. At 17 and still a junior at Seward High School, Jacoby took home a silver medal for the women’s four by 100 meter medley relay in addition to her gold for the 100 meter breaststroke.

Jacoby is the first Alaskan to qualify for an Olympic games in swimming. She swims collegiately at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is majoring in textiles.

Two other athletes with Kenai Peninsula roots have Olympic ambitions this year.

Allie Ostrander, a graduate of Kenai Central High School, will compete for a spot on Team USA’s track and field team June 21-30 in Eugene, Oregon. As reported by the Peninsula Clarion, Ostrander qualified for the Olympic trials in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in April.

USA Cycling announced last week that Kristen Faulkner, of Homer, will compete on the 2024 track cycling team. Faulkner, 32, also races with EF Pro Cycling. As reported by NBC, Faulkner went to Harvard University and quit her job as a venture capitalist in 2021 to do cycling full-time.

The 2024 Olympics kick off in Paris in July.

An Anchorage renter of recreational vehicles has again been sued by the state over deceptive business practices — three years after the firm was penalized for similar issues.

Alaska Motor Home, along with registered owners Peter and Cole Harkovitch, are named in a state complaint filed Thursday. The company, which faced state action in 2019, has abruptly closed its doors this week.

“The lawsuit alleges that the defendants engaged in deceptive practices such as charging $2,500 damage deposits before consumers had picked up their RV, charging consumers taxes they did not owe, and forging a consumer’s signature on receipts to win a credit card chargeback dispute,” officials said in a statement from the Alaska Department of Law.

Assistant Attorney General John Haley, who filed the suit, said Friday that Cole Harkovitch reportedly transferred his shares in Alaska Motor Home to Peter about two weeks ago. He said the state believes hundreds of customers have been affected by the company’s actions, which he called “unprecedented.”

“I think this is fairly unique, because it’s happening at the beginning of the tourist season,” he said.

The company, which has allegedly taken thousands of dollars for summer RV rentals and has 40 RVs on hand, told the state this week that it planned to shut down Friday, without providing refunds to customers.

Attorney General Treg Taylor said the company’s customers  have been left in a “terrible situation.”

“Alaskan trips people have dreamed about for years are getting thrown into chaos,” Taylor said in the statement.

Multiple email and phone messages to Alaska Motor Home seeking comment were not returned Friday. The company’s website was offline, and its Facebook page has not had any new posts this year.

On Friday morning, numerous RVs were parked outside Alaska Motor Home’s office in an industrial park off C Street near Raspberry Road. Nobody was present outside, and the office door was locked.

In the state’s 29-page complaint, prosecutors said that Peter Harkovitch “has a history of using Alaska Motor Home’s assets as his personal assets,” directly using company funds for his own expenses. They also noted that he is jailed in Florida on criminal charges including aggravated battery, battery on a law enforcement officer and threatening a public servant linked to a domestic-violence case.

“The expenses associated with this litigation provide extra motivation for Alaska Motor Home’s owners to siphon money from the company, rather than to refund consumers or pay the company’s other debts,” prosecutors said.

In 2019, a Department of Law statement said Alaska Motor Home had imposed steep terms on renters including “a $300/hour charge for late returns, a $1,000 fine for putting fish in the RV refrigerator, and a $1,000 fine for leaving an RV excessively dirty.” None of them were disclosed until renters had already paid a deposit.

Under an injunction placed against Alaska Motor Home in that case, it is barred from arbitrarily canceling customers’ reservations. It must also keep exact records of any costs charged as a tax, as well as provide customers charged for damaging an RV a photograph of the damage and a history of repairs along with their itemized costs.

According to Thursday’s complaint, a Utah paralegal who rented a 26-foot RV in August 2023 was instead given a 32-foot RV against her wishes.

“When (the customer) told the Alaska Motor Home agent that she had booked a (26-foot) RV, and that a (32-foot) RV was too long, the Alaska Motor Home agent threatened to cancel her reservation,” prosecutors wrote. “The contract (she) had signed did not provide that Alaska Motor Home could substitute a different RV from the one listed on the contract.”

After the customer’s husband accidentally pumped gasoline into the RV’s water tank, prosecutors said, she informed the company and provided her Visa card. Staff did not immediately bill the card, but she soon saw $7,500 in unauthorized charges on it. After she froze the card and the American Express with which she had reserved the RV, she saw Harkovitch attempt to charge $7,240 on the American Express.

Soon afterward, the woman received a statement from Alaska Motor Home claiming she had paid $11,750 – which also noted the $7,500 she had already paid and claimed she owed an additional $4,240.

“These two statements are contradictory,” prosecutors wrote. “In addition, $7,500 plus $4,240 does not equal $11,750.”

The woman said she thought the RV was insured against damage, based on statements in Alaska Motor Home’s advertising.

“The contract (she) signed stated, ‘Insurance coverage includes collision, comprehensive, and liability,’” prosecutors wrote. “This contract language is in all of Alaska Motor Home’s RV rental contracts. However, this language is deceptive because Alaska Motor Home’s RV rentals do not come with insurance that insures the renter or driver.”

A dispute over the RV’s repair bills escalated until Harkovitch called the woman’s law firm in Utah, and she emailed him asking him not to call her at her office.

“Peter Harkovitch responded to the email stating, ‘Sorry, as a lawyer, your boss needs to be aware of the slime that works for her. Have a great day,’” prosecutors wrote.

Harkovitch also allegedly wrote the woman’s employer, who also asked him not to contact her at work.

On Sept. 2, 2023, Harkovitch sent the woman an invoice for $20,455, listed as $4,240 for “Water System Damage” – plus $235 a day for loss of the RV’s future use.

“The invoice charged for 69 days loss of use, a period running through Nov. 5, 2023,” prosecutors wrote. “However, (Nov. 5) was still more than two months away.”

The next month, the woman’s disputes of the initial $7,500 in charges were denied because Alaska Motor Home provided August documents bearing her signature through the online service Docusign. The state says those signatures were forged, after Docusign told investigators the woman had not signed any documents through the service that month.

Two other people also reported issues renting an RV from Alaska Motor Home during the 2023 season, according to the complaint. One couldn’t contact the company about a reservation, and the other had his reservation canceled but only received a partial refund of his costs.

The Anchorage Daily News reported in 2021 that a judge levied a $110,000 penalty against Alaska Motor Home over the 2019 allegations. As of Thursday, according to the state’s new complaint, Alaska Motor Home had paid about half of that penalty.

After the state relayed word of the outstanding penalties to Florida authorities, in an effort to collect the funds during that case, an attorney for Alaska Motor Home told state officials on Monday that the company would be closing down its operations Friday.

Still, according to prosecutors, the company was still taking reservations by late Monday afternoon. An investigator was able to book an RV rental for August on Alaska Motor Home’s website, providing a credit card number for a $500 deposit.

“If Alaska Motor Home is closing operations, there is no legitimate reason for the company to accept reservations or take credit card information for an August 2024 rental,” prosecutors wrote.

Haley declined to say whether Thursday’s lawsuit is the only state action that will be taken against the company.

The state is seeking an injunction to stop Alaska Motor Home from continuing to engage in deceptive practices, as well as penalties for its violations of state law. Prosecutors also seek to have renters’ costs reimbursed, but Haley said Friday that they can’t guarantee they will recover funds from the company.

Haley said Alaska Motor Home has begun sending cancellation notices to customers, who he said will have to book new RVs and accommodations at likely higher costs or cancel trips entirely.

Haley also urged anyone owed money by Alaska Motor Home to fill out a consumer complaint form on the Department of Law website.

“All I can say is we’re going to do our best, and we can’t help people if we don’t know who they are,” he said.

Alaska Public Media’s Matthew Faubion contributed information to this story.

Ally Hartman and Baylee Loyd’s bookstore is an experience. Each of the three rooms has a distinct vibe and different subgenres sorted by colors on the shelves. One room is green and white, another pink, and the third is black.

“The dark room isn’t going to be all romance. It’s going to be mostly dark romance and fantasy. Because the books, their covers, mostly fit that vibe,” Hartman said.

Growing up, Loyd said she would read whatever she could get her hands on. Hartman said she hasn’t always enjoyed reading. But when both sisters became pregnant in 2022, Loyd said it gave them something to bond over.

“It was books. And then that’s how this whole thing came together,” said Loyd.

Beauty and the Book Alaska specializes in the romance genre — a growing trend in Alaska and around the country. The store, located in the City Center strip mall in midtown, has been a fun and fulfilling project for two sisters who bonded over reading after giving birth to their first children.

Loyd said she didn’t have much time to read as a young adult. She was working full time, trying new hobbies and managing a social life. She said she fell into deep postpartum depression after giving birth and was looking for a healthy coping mechanism. She started reading the Ice Planet Barbarians series by Ruby Dixon.

“I read all 35 books in the series, within two weeks,” Loyd said.

At least nine other romance book stores opened across the country last year. Several more, including Beauty and the Book, are opening this year. The stores are taking advantage of a boom for the genre. In 2022, sales of romance books surged about 52% according to Publishers Weekly.

Some experts credit the TikTok hashtag #Booktok with helping drive the trend. It’s a large subcommunity with over 33 million posts on TikTok where readers share and review books they’ve read.

Dozens of customers lined up down the sidewalk on opening day Saturday. The sisters said they were surprised when customers began lining up almost an hour before opening.

Hartman said they wanted to create a kind of “haven” in person for romance book lovers in Anchorage. Loyd said their store has something for everyone, from sports to scientific romance, to more subtle forms of the genre.

“You can read a fade to black where you don’t get any of the super hardcore romance scenes,” Loyd said. “You get a kiss and a cuddle and then the book’s over. And that’s perfect for some people.”

Hartman and Loyd say they also want their store to carry a selection of romance novels that readers can’t find at big box stores. They reached out to individual authors rather than publishers to stock their shelves, which Hartman said had its perks.

“They [authors] were sending us swag to have here that match their books, they were sending us signed books,” Hartman said. “And sending us all their love and support giving us connections to publishers.”

The sisters say their mom, Sasha Loyd, is their biggest supporter and encouraged them to bring personality to the space. She’s also their investor. The sisters say their mom isn’t a reader, but read a four-book series they recommended in a month. Loyd admits she reads on her Kindle, but she said traditional book is a different experience.

“There’s really nothing like going into a store and grabbing a book that the cover looks interesting. Or you heard about it on #Booktok and you didn’t go straight to your Kindle and download it,” Loyd said.

The sisters are fans of numerous romance book stores, but one of their favorites happens to be a few hours away.

Olivia Pack opened The Ivy in Fairbanks in February. To her knowledge, it was the first romance bookstore in the state. She said she’s always been a reader. She said there isn’t much to do for fun in Fairbanks if you’re not an outdoorsy person.

Pack is a mother to twin toddlers. Like Baylee Loyd, Pack said reading helped her postpartum depression and anxiety. She said The Ivy provides a space for mothers to escape in a book and “live a different life for a moment.”

“I just figured, what would be better than to open up a romance bookstore and help give women you know, a healthy hobby to have outside of like being a mom or working full time or whatever it is,” said Pack.

Pack said she wasn’t sure how much of a demand there was for romance novels, or a bookstore dedicated to them. But she said customers were lined up outside the building opening day, and many became regulars.

She said the community gets excited about new local businesses popping up, whether it be her bookstore or a restaurant.

“Anytime a new small business pops up, and just once I’ve been here for a long time, everyone really tries to nurture them and you know, just really support them,” Pack said.

For Pack and the Beauty and the Book sisters, opening the bookstores is a passion project. Hartman said she’s not expecting to get rich off selling books, and it’s not her goal either.

“This is something we’re going to enjoy doing,” Hartman said. “It’s just something fun, you know. You live such a short life. You can work super, super hard, or you can enjoy the little things. And this is one of those little things that we can enjoy.”

Beauty and the Book sold so much inventory on opening day that they couldn’t reopen Sunday. But by Wednesday, they had restocked the shelves, and were ready to sell more books.

A state oil and gas auction that offered royalty-free leases in the Cook Inlet basin as an incentive for new exploration drew only three bids, according to results released Wednesday by the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas.

The annual areawide Cook Inlet sale featured special terms for the 725 tracts covering 3 million offshore and onshore acres in the basin: A set $40-per-acre price and a requirement that buyers share the profits from any future production in exchange for a complete elimination of state royalties that are typically set at 12.5%.

Hilcorp Alaska, LLC, the dominant operator in the inlet, was the sole bidder in the lease sale. The three bids submitted by the company totaled $177,636.40, according to the division.

It was the second attempt by the Division of Oil and Gas to lure Cook Inlet lease sale bidding by eliminating royalties. A sale held in December of 2023 with the same terms drew six bids.

The head of the Department of Natural Resources conceded in a statement that this year’s sale fell flat.

“While the State of Alaska is disappointed by the low level of interest in this sale, it is encouraging to see Hilcorp continuing to invest in oil and gas leases in Southcentral Alaska,” Department of Natural Resources Commissioner John Boyle said in the statement.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy and some members of the Legislature have pushed for royalty reductions or eliminations to encourage more oil and natural gas production in Cook Inlet. The idea is one of the responses to a looming shortfall of deliverable natural gas to Anchorage and the surrounding Southcentral region. The region has for decades depended on natural gas for heat and generation of electricity.

A bill that would reduce royalties for both oil and gas passed the Alaska House in May but failed to reach the Senate floor before adjournment. Key senators said they saw little evidence that slashing royalties would make a difference for Cook Inlet natural gas production.

Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, was among the skeptics during the session. On Wednesday, she said the Cook Inlet lease sale results add to evidence supporting that skepticism.

“I’m not convinced that royalty relief is the answer,” she said during a brief interview at the Resource Development Council for Alaska annual luncheon in Anchorage.

Giessel pointed to the analysis of a hired consulting firm, GaffneyCline, that listed numerous factors as disincentives to Cook Inlet oil and gas investment. Among the factors GaffneyCline cited are the isolated and relatively small market, the aged infrastructure, the lack of support service and some difficult environmental conditions.

“There’s a lot of other factors that keep people from seeing Cook Inlet as economic,” Giessel said.

But Boyle said he still believes in royalty reductions for Cook Inlet and that the administration continues to support the idea.

“I think Cook Inlet royalty relief is absolutely essential to making Cook Inlet economic and seeing more Cook Inlet oil and gas production,” he said in a brief interview at the RDC event.

The administration’s push for royalty cuts on existing leases and units is different from the royalty elimination used in the annual lease sale, and thus would have more impact, Boyle said.

“We already have existing leases and existing units where there’s known resources but there’s not development or the required amount of investment to bring that into development,” he said.

A lesson from the latest lease sale, he said, is that there is “little to no appetite for exploration or leasing that goes well beyond what’s known in the Cook Inlet at this time.”

Of the three tracts that drew Hilcorp bids, the largest is located on the west side of the inlet, near existing onshore natural gas units. The other two tracts are also onshore, near what used to be the federally administered Sterling Unit, also an historic gas producer.

The state also held a concurrent lease sale that offered 1,004 tracts covering 5 million acres on the Alaska Peninsula. That lease sale drew no bids, extending a long streak for oil and gas auctions in that part of the state.

The Alaska Peninsula was added to the state’s areawide leasing program in 2005, and the sale that year drew 37 bids, mostly from Shell. The only other years in which companies bid for Alaska Peninsula leases were 2007, when a single bid was submitted, and 2014, when three bids were submitted.

The Division of Oil and Gas will continue to evaluate all available areas, including the Alaska Peninsula, for annual lease sales, said Lorraine Henry, a spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources.

This story originally appeared in the Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.

A street in Anchorage now shares the same name as one from the magical, fictional world of Harry Potter.

The previously unnamed West Anchorage street sits between West 29th and 31st avenues and Doris Street and Lois Drive. The street serves 10 lots, and the city determined that it needed a name to better guide emergency services. That got 12-year-old Janna Wilcox thinking.

“When we got the letter that the street was going to be renamed, I’m a huge Harry Potter nerd, so I was like, ‘What can I name this that’ll be like Harry Potter?’” Wilcox said at Tuesday night’s Assembly meeting. “And I thought, Grimmauld Place.”

In the Harry Potter universe, Grimmauld Place is where Potter’s godfather Sirius Black lives, and where the young wizard occasionally stayed.

Wilcox said she sent her neighbors a letter with her suggestion, along with some brownies. She said the vote was close among property owners and she was pleased that her name was approved by the mayor.

“I was really happy when we got the executive order and that Grimmauld Place had won in a coin toss,” Wilcox said.

Anchorage Assembly members like Karen Bronga applauded Wilcox for engaging in the public process.

“I am really pleased with your outreach and coming up and speaking,” Bronga said. “I think you are a bright light in community activism, and keep it up.”

The Assembly unanimously approved naming the street Grimmauld Place.