Last Friday evening in Haines, there was only one place to be: The brand new Quick Shop, a shiny new building stocked with everything from ice cream and gun safes to an entire row of Xtratuf boots.

It seemed that much of town was packed into the building on the Haines’ waterfront — the store had just reopened after burning down more than a year ago.

The October 2024 fire destroyed a string of apartments and businesses including the convenience, liquor and sporting goods shop known collectively as the Quick Shop.

“It’s a big day for our town,” Haines Mayor Tom Morphet shouted from the checkout line that stretched through the store.

Minutes after opening, some 50 people were already in line, with dozens more milling about. Many kids’ arms were piled high with goodies.

Further back in the store, owner Mike Ward was busy scanning toilet paper amid the chaos. In between greeting customers, and accepting their congratulations, he said it’s been a long road to get here.

“It’s a relief to finally be open,” Ward said. “But we got a lot of work ahead of us, so it’s not that much of a relief.”

Ward said he aims to have the store fully stocked and in order by the fire’s two-year anniversary on Oct. 5. He added that he rebuilt as quickly as possible because he had heard a larger convenience chain was thinking about moving into Haines.

“So that’s one of the major reasons why I got aggressive, right?” he said. “I didn’t even think about taking the money.”

But the money part hasn’t been easy. Ward had insurance, but his policy didn’t come close to covering rebuilding costs – or the $1.8 million in inventory that also went up in flames.

“I got hosed,” he said. “I took a $2.5 million loss.”

The loss was felt in the community, too. Haines’ grocery stores close by 8 p.m. most days, and even earlier on Sundays. The Quick Shop is open until midnight.

“I feel like not having anywhere to get food late at night is pretty hard for people. So I feel like everyone’s pretty excited to have it back,” said local Ryan Irvin, who worked on the crew that built the facility.

He added that it’s cool – and somewhat novel – for the community to have a space that was actually built for its purpose.

“We’re always retrofitting old buildings, making them work. But this is actually designed for what we’re doing, what Mike’s doing, rather,” Irvin said.

Morphet, the mayor, echoed that point. He said the new store is a testament to Ward’s faith in Haines’ capacity to keep it open.

“We’re only 2,000, 2,500 people here, so it’s kind of a shot in the arm to town morale,” Morphet said. “People like the town to have nice stuff, and this is beautiful.”

The first month of the U.S. war against Iran caused crude oil prices to skyrocket around the world, and the price of Alaska’s oil has risen particularly far.

That rise is making tens of millions of dollars, maybe a few hundred million dollars if high prices persist, available for state services and the Permanent Fund dividend, even as it squeezes the finances of individual Alaskans.

In figures newly compiled by the Alaska Department of Revenue, the average price of a barrel of Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude was $111.17 in April.

That’s $8.70 higher than the average price of a barrel of Brent crude, a benchmark price for Europe’s North Sea oil. It was also $13.11 per barrel higher than the average price of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for oil from America’s second-largest state.

“The differential is the largest monthly value since the year 2000 and may be the highest value in history,” said the Department of Revenue, referring to the gap between Brent and North Slope crude.

“The large premium is due to a tightness in the Pacific basin oil market, where ANS is traded,” the department said.

Alaska crude goes to refineries in Washington state and California, with a small volume delivered to a refinery in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula.

In addition to Alaska oil, U.S. West Coast refineries obtain their crude from Canada, North Dakota and California oil fields, and a substantial volume from overseas suppliers.

“Uncertainty about shipping and delivery is incentivizing refiners to pay a premium for available crude that does not transit areas with substantial security risks. Crude grades from the Americas are the safest option. Brent primarily trades in the Atlantic basin, where the impacts from the Iran war are not quite as pronounced on a barrel-for-barrel basis.”

The premium now being paid for Alaska crude will have a significant impact on the state treasury if it continues for months.

Each $1 increase in the average price of a barrel of ANS crude for a full year is worth roughly $30 million to $50, depending on the price.

While more than half of the state’s general-purpose revenue now comes from the Alaska Permanent Fund’s investments, oil is still the No. 2 source of flexible spending money for the state, and prices — combined with production — cause the amount of available money to flex up and down each year.

Legislative budgeters write the state spending plan with an average crude price in mind for an entire fiscal year, from July 1 through June 30 of the following year.

In the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, the Department of Revenue expects prices to average $75.26 per barrel.

Thanks in part to the Alaska premium, the average through May 5 was $75.71. Every day that prices stay above that level, the more unexpected money the state will receive.

The state Senate already has a plan for that extra money.

The first $96 million would go to an “energy relief” payment that increases the amount of the 2026 Permanent Fund dividend by $150 per Alaskan. The next $111 million would be distributed to public schools, and anything above that would go into the state’s principal savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve.

While Alaska’s state treasury is receiving a boon from the high prices, legislators don’t expect it to last. In the fiscal year that starts July 1, they’re anticipating significantly lower average North Slope oil prices.

“The Senate operating budget, when combined with spending agreements for the capital budget, balances the budget on $73/barrel oil, with some money left over,” said Bethel Sen. Lyman Hoffman, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, speaking about the Senate’s budget proposal on May 6.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Two Norwegian filmmakers say their debut documentary, Anchorage Welcomes You, is meant to put viewers face-to-face with people living on Anchorage streets — not to prescribe a political fix, but to “describe the situation” and the human stakes behind a crisis visible across the city.

“I think the core story is to shine a light on the prevalence of the problem that is in Anchorage when it comes to drug abuse and homelessness,” said director/cinematographer Peter Gupta. “But it’s also to show how people are … capable of taking a wrong turn in life and coming back from it.”

The documentary was shot over multiple trips to Anchorage spanning roughly two years, beginning with a summer 2022 visit, followed by a winter 2024 return and a completion last fall.

Gupta, along with editor/screenwriter Rasmus Aarskog Sætersdal, said the project first grew out of Gupta’s canoe trip down the Yukon River, where he said he saw “communities ravaged by drugs and alcohol.”

“I canoed the whole length of the Yukon in 2017,” Gupta said. “And I saw what was going on in all the villages. And I wanted to go back and make a film at some point.”

Gupta said he met Anchorage resident Erinn Leann — a central figure in the film — at the end of that trip and told her then he planned to return to Alaska to make a documentary.

A title drawn from a sign — and the ‘duality’ beneath it

The film’s title comes from the weathered “Anchorage Welcomes You” sign seen by commuters entering the city — and, the filmmakers said, from what they described as the contrast between Anchorage’s image and the encampments they saw nearby.

“It was interesting when we were there the first year and we saw this Anchorage welcomes sign falling apart and a whole … camp growing up beneath it,” Sætersdal said. “And it was just this … you can say duality of presentation for the city.”

Gupta said the pair debated keeping the name, but after multiple test screenings they found Alaskans preferred the working title.

“We’ve had ambivalent feelings about the title of the film because it’s kind of tongue in cheek,” Gupta said. “We didn’t want to keep it at some point, but the people from Anchorage really wanted to keep it.”

Building trust — and setting rules

Much of the film unfolds in intimate, up-close moments that are hard to capture in traditional daily news reporting.

Sætersdal said filming required clear rules and consent. He said the filmmakers spent time walking the same routes and meeting the same people repeatedly. Gupta added that trust was foundational.

“I think it’s so important, that respect for whoever is participating, that’s a prerequisite for bringing them into the project,” he said.

Anchorage through outsiders’ eyes

Asked what makes homelessness in Anchorage distinct, Gupta said his travels shaped his perspective. Gupta described what he called “social fragmentation” and “hopelessness” — a situation he said can be more than just a lack of material resources.

“I’ve been around the world,” he said. “And the poverty in the United States is different.

“When you go to the United States, there’s a social fragmentation in a way that is quite unique. And I think there is a hopelessness and a different character to it … it’s not only a material problem. It is also a social problem.”

Sætersdal added Alaska’s identity as a frontier draws people seeking escape.

“Alaska still has this mythical place in imagination as the last frontier,” he said. “You see also people coming from all over the country … coming to Alaska in escapism of something. And then there’s nowhere else to go.”

‘Not to tell the people of Anchorage what to do’

Gupta and Sætersdal said they hope the documentary sparks conversations without presenting a single prescribed solution.

“What we’re trying to do with this film is not to tell the people of Anchorage what to do about homelessness,” Gupta said. “It’s about describing what’s happening and sparking a conversation.

“We hope that we can kind of make the homeless appear as resourceful and also capable of changing. But it’s not down to us what to do with it.”

Returning to Anchorage — and trying to bring the film home

Now, the two say the hope is to screen it in Alaska — and eventually get broader U.S. distribution. They said navigating distribution has been its own grind, but Sætersdal added that Alaska continues to pull at them creatively.

“Alaska really is a place that it sticks to you,” Sætersdal said. “You can’t unsee it once you’ve been there and you can’t like brush it off. It becomes a part of you.”

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com