Community

Across the country, the number of people voting early in the general election is up. It’s not clear from the numbers yet whether Alaskans are keeping pace with that trend. But people on the ground say it’s the busiest election they’ve seen.

Around lunch-time, Martha Upicksoun came to the Division of Elections’ regional office in midtown Anchorage to vote. But then, she turned around and walked back toward the parking lot.

“The line is to the door,” Upicksoun said. Sure enough, the line snaked down a hallway and into the vestibule, with people crowding inside to get away from the cold.

Upicksoun calls herself a “super-voter,” someone who dutifully turns out for every election. But this is the first time in forty years of casting ballots she’s trying to do it before Election Day.

“I’ve been hearing about early voters, I’ve been following the predictions,” she said. “I just thought ‘well, I think I’m going to give it a try.’”

Upicksoun isn’t annoyed by the long line but has other errands to run and thinks the polling site will be less busy later on. If not, she says she’ll try one of the other locations around the municipality.

Another early voter, Michele Pamer, was in an upbeat mood even though she waited 40 minutes to cast her ballot. But she had to vote today, she explained because she’s “out of time.”

“I have too many obligations next Tuesday — taking seniors to vote!” Pamer said.

Pamer votes in every election, which is also the case for Richard Miller, who said his 15-minute wait was completely painless.

“Normally I vote on Election Day, but I knew I was going be out of town,” Miller said. “So I came down to do it.”

He’s voted at this site in the past, he said and added, “This is the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen here.”

That seems to be the consensus around Anchorage, and around the state. As of Thursday, 45,794 Alaskans had voted, according to figures from the Division of Elections. That’s only about half the number of early votes cast in the last presidential election in 2012 — 99,684 total. But there are a few days left, including a weekend, and ballots are still pouring in by mail.

Local and state officials say that from their perspective, the early returns are “strong.”

“It’s an exciting election,” said Julie Hussman, supervisor for the state’s elections operations in Anchorage.

Hussman said her staff is processing more than 2,000 ballots a day at sites across the municipality. She doesn’t have the hard numbers, but it looks busier than past elections in Alaska she’s overseen.

Despite the uptick, she isn’t hearing about any problems from voters.

“People have not complained,” she said by phone. “The people have been great.”

Voters are generally waiting 15 to 20 minutes in Anchorage, according to Hussman.

Early voting hours and locations can be found here.

The body of fallen Fairbanks Police Sergeant Allen Brandt has returned home.

A procession was held Tuesday in Anchorage, where people gathered along the streets to honor him.

Brandt’s remains were taken from the state morgue in Anchorage to the Ted Stevens International Airport airport for transport back home to Fairbanks.

Nolan McCloud was one of the people who attended the procession.

He learned about the gathering from a police department text message.

“Well, I used to be a firefighter up in Fairbanks, and I went to the procession when the two troopers got killed a couple summers ago,” McCloud said. “I like to show my respect for the fallen, and that’s why I came.”

Having attended several processions in the past for fallen law enforcement, McCloud was pleased with the turnout the procession received.

“I really like to see that the community’s coming out to it,” McCloud said. “It’s really unfortunate that it happens to our law enforcement, but I like the support from the community. And I like that the community has come out to show their support.”

Brandt died in Anchorage on Friday because of complications from surgery to remove shrapnel from his eye.

He was shot five times Oct. 16 while responding to reports of gunfire.

The suspected shooter, Anthony George Jenkins-Alexie, 29, is in custody.

Pallbearers, including Fairbanks Deputy Chief Brad Johnson and Sgt. Brandt’s 8-year-old son, placed Brandt’s body on a plane at Ted Stevens International Airport where it was flown back to Fairbanks.

A funeral service for Brandt is scheduled at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.

A co-op grocery store is trying to get off the ground and will hold a kick-off event this weekend to draw members.

Merissa Koller Williams is the board president for the Kodiak Harvest Cooperative, a group trying to put together a community-owned grocery store downtown.

“We have to have 500 members in order to really even start negotiating for a site or talking to banks,” Koller Williams said. “It’s probably going to a $5 million project, so we have to have a certain number of members before we even get started. So, if it takes us a year to get all the members we need, than that pushes our project back. If it takes us a month, then we’re ready to go.”

Koller Williams said the cooperative’s goal is to sign up 100 members between 6 and 10 p.m. at the kick-off Saturday, and if it meets that goal, it will receive a donation from the Food Co-op Initiative, which specializes in helping cooperatives get started.

Koller Williams says a lifetime membership per household is $150.

Members vote for who joins the cooperative’s board of directors and will eventually get member discounts as well as member dividends based on how much the family spends at the grocery store annually. Interested residents can sign up at the event Saturday.

The event will feature a talk from a member of the Fairbanks Co-op Market, a silent auction, and local food.

“We had a couple ladies on our committee who reached out to community members and had produce donated as well as wild game and seafood, so we’ve had everything from kale to potatoes to onions donated, and we’ve got salmon donated from the fishing vessel North Star,” Koller Williams said.

The Kodiak High School culinary students will cater.

The event will be Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. at the convention center and will be free and open to the public.

It’ll also have a Halloween theme, so Koller Williams encourages arriving in costume.

A 19-year-old woman who was shot in the head earlier this month remains in critical condition as of Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage.

Juneau police say the gunshot that wounded Geneva Anowlic-Okikton in a Mendenhall Valley townhouse was fired through the floor of the second story into the first, where it struck the top of her head.

Police spokeswoman Erann Kalwara says the investigation is still ongoing.

The Homer Folk School recently opened its doors, offering a variety of hands-on classes in everything from beekeeping to kayak building.

On Oct. 8, the Folk School hosted a lively open house at the Ageya Wilderness Center to give the community a preview of some of the courses offered.

At one of the interactive demonstrations, Neil Wagner stands next to a wooden contraption about three feet tall. It looks a little like a medieval torture device, but it’s actually an apple press. Wagner leads a group of kids as they learn how to make homemade apple juice.

The kids stand on tiptoe and drop apples into a whirring grinder powered by a small motor.

“Just throw ‘em, there you go. Just keep your hands out,” Wagner says, carefully shielding the kids’ fingers from the spinning metal teeth.

The grinder spits the chopped apple pieces into a large wooden bucket. Wagner likes to use a mix of sweet and tart apples to make juice. This year, he has baskets of Cortland, Parkland and American Beauties.

Once the bucket is full of chopped apples, he covers it with a wooden top.

“How are you gonna squeeze the juice out?” a boy asks, eyeing the bucket.

“Well, you’ll see right now,” Wagner answers. He turns a large metal screw by hand, pressing down the wooden top on the chopped apples.

The kids squat near the bottom of the press, watching a plastic tub slowly fill with apple juice. They crowd around the apple press, waiting for a cup of the sweet juice. To Wagner, the sight looks familiar.

“It’s kinda like hornets flyin’ around,” he says, laughing.

A few steps away, in a nearby yurt, Maligiaq Padilla explains how to build a kayak by hand.

“When you build a kayak, you want to make sure you have a nice straight grain of the wood,” Padilla explains.

Padilla lives in Anchorage, but he’s originally from Sisimiut, Greenland, an Inuit town 30 miles above the Arctic Circle.

He kneels next to the 17-foot kayak and runs a finger along the curved oak ribs inside. There are 52 wooden ribs, each cut and bent by hand.

“You steam the wood or you soak the wood and steam it for about an hour, then you start bending the ribs,” he says.

Padilla points out the little details that make this kayak special.

“There’s the whale baleen, there’s walrus teeth here and some antlers on the tips to protect the kayak. And this one is a sealskin rawhide,” says Padilla.

For Folk School Board Member Robin McAllistar, the opportunity to learn about other cultures firsthand is just one of the reasons why folk schools are so valuable.

“There’s a continuum that all humans need in order to have joy, sustenance, sustainability, community and culture. Those are the things that Folk School brings,” McAllistar says.

Having a folk school in Homer just makes sense, she explains.

“It’s perfect for our town and our community, which is so rich with artisans and craftsmen,” McAllistar says.

You don’t have to be a master craftsman to teach a class at the Folk Homer School. At the open house, McAllistar herself led a seed saving class.

“This is called a wet set. I’m going to take just a piece of paper towel and I’m going to spread these seeds on it,” McAllister explains.

There have been several past attempts to get a Folk School up and running in Homer. But this time, it’s here to stay, McAllistar says.

“Homer Folk School is something that’s going to be here for a long time. So hop on and enjoy the ride,” she says.

The Homer Folk School currently offers a variety of classes, including carpentry, winter gardening and wild plant medicine. In the coming months, they plan to add more classes and expand their reach in the community.