In the Arctic Alaska community of Kivalina, city administrator Janet Mitchell scrambled Monday to figure out how to pay for heating oil at the city's polling place on Election Day, but ultimately solved the mini-crisis by tapping into Saturday night's bingo proceeds.
Early in the day, she emailed a regional election supervisor in Nome, Northwest Arctic Borough officials, Gov. Sean Parnell and a reporter hoping for someone to step in and authorize the purchase of 30 gallons of heating fuel for the village's polling place, the community hall.
Kivalina, a village of about 375 people, is on a barrier island about 80 miles northwest of Kotzebue. It was 8 degrees in the village on Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
Kivalina's community building is so big it takes overnight to heat up and requires 30 gallons of fuel at $6.45 a gallon, Mitchell said in the email. The city didn't have that money, she said.
"The biggest election of the year and we can't even heat the building on our own," Mitchell wrote.
The city runs off gaming proceeds from bingo, but "that was used for payroll last week," Mitchell said in an interview Monday. "We operate day-to-day."
The community building is heated only for events, and usually whoever leases it covers that, she said. But the city was told the state typically doesn't pay for heating oil at polling places, she said.
Bingo receipts proved enough to get the needed heating fuel, she said.
"We were able to come up with enough from Saturday's games to purchase 30 gallons," Mitchell said. That cost about $200, she said.