The U.S. Census Bureau is ready to ramp up its local hire for next spring’s big count. Jessi Curtis of the Census Bureau in Anchorage was in the Central Peninsula on Monday, raising awareness about the actual count and to drum up applicants for the temporary census jobs.

“Our recruiting assistant Mark will be at the Job Center every single Monday for the next couple months from 11:30 to 1:30. And he'll be there to assist people with their applications, to answer questions. The application's really easy. You can do it on your phone or on a computer, it takes 10-15 minutes doesn't require a resume or your work history. It's really just your basic information,” Curtis said. “So you can certainly do it without coming to the Job Center, but if you'd like some extra assistance or you'd like to use a computer or you have some questions, general questions about the census, that's a good time to meet up with us and we can help you through the process.”

And in regards to pre-employment background checks and hiring in Alaska during the age of legal cannabis, the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District’s Tim Dillon wanted to make something clear in this exchange with Curtis.

“And then it goes through the background check. It's a pretty relaxed check. It's very fast. Most people make it through. We're certainly not going to be sending dangerous people to people's homes,” Curtis said. “But otherwise, you know, a lot of people do make it through that check. And then once you're through, we'll let you know and then we'll set you up for training and then from there, it's off to the races.”

“One thing that I want to make sure that that everybody hears Jessi say this,” Dillon asked, “A U.A? Do you have to pass a drug test?”

“No, we do not drug tests at the Census Bureau,” she said.

“Okay, that's been a question. I've been asked an awful lot by people,” Dillon said. “So and for some reasons, some people don't believe me when I tell them so it's it's great to hear it directly from the federal government.”

Dillon also sought to ease the minds of the generally privacy-forward Alaskans on the Central Peninsula about who may be knocking on their doors and what they’ll be asking.

“So a couple of things that are going on one, we're making sure that if there's a job open on the Kenai Peninsula, I want someone from the Kenai Peninsula to be hired. And that's part of what Jessi's job is, is making sure of that,” Dillon said. “But the key thing is when people say, 'Well, I don't want to go given the government all sorts of information.' If you have filled out or applied for your Permanent Fund, which, according everybody, all the news, everything, everybody applies for their Permanent Fund, just about everybody. You have already given the government more information, and more questions have been answered than what you're going to answer on the census. And I think that's really, really important for people to know.”

The best option however, according to Dillon, is filling out the Census online, followed by sending back the mail-in survey.