Ka`u News Briefs Jan. 4, 2011

Teri Nguyen is a property owner who fought against privatization of the Kama`oa Road remnant.

THE PROPOSAL TO SELL THE KAMA`OA ROAD remnant to private landowners failed the county council’s finance committee yesterday and will move to full County Council with a negative recommendation. Council member Brittany Smart said a handful of people testified against the proposal, saying that selling off public roads to private parties could set a precedent leading to blocking off public access to the shoreline, forests and hunting trails.

BUILDING A PERMANENT TRASH TRANSFER station for Ocean View became a major topic with the county council Finance Committee yesterday. It delayed its approval of $8.8 million for a Wai`ohinu recycling and reloading station until plans for Ocean View can be firmed up. Rell Woodward and Don Nitsche said it is unfair to put such a big capital improvements project in Wai`ohinu before providing for Ocean View, which has a temporary trash bin for residential waste, available only on Saturdays. Robin Lamson also attended. Council member Brittany Smart said she plans to meet with the Department of Environmental Management to push for a solution for Ocean View.

THE THREE-YEAR-OLD IMPORTANT AGRICULTURAL LANDS LAW that allows the state Land Use Commission and property owners to preserve land for ag use is yet to be employed in Ka`u. However, it is making traction in other parts of the state. Moloka`i Ranch is asking the LUC to preserve 4,919 acres for cattle ranching. Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. has already won approval to receive Important Agricultural Land Status for 27,105 acres at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. on Maui and 3,773 acres at Kaua`i Coffee Company.
     Incentives to put land into Important Agricultural Land status include loan guarantees, tax credits for ag facilities, ease in permits for ag processing plants, and allowing employee housing on prime ag land. It also allows owners to urbanize land equivalent to 15 percent of the acres protected. So far all the applicants have waived urbanization. The state program is separate from the agricultural easements being placed on 8,000 acres of Ka`u by Olson Trust.

THE BIG ISLAND BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION is conducting an islandwide survey throughout January. Unofficial counts show that hundreds, possibly thousands, of bee colonies died on the Big Isle during 2010, according to Cary Dizon, president of the organization. Varroa mites arrived in 2008, bringing an epidemic causing Small Hive Beetle infestation that swept the island in three months, destroying hives, Dizon said.
     The survey seeks to find the healthy, managed colonies and those colonies lost in the past year. Reports of feral honeybee colony losses are also needed, Dizon said. See zoomerang.com/Survey or call 640-0278.

THE BIG ISLAND has been selected to host the international Western Apicultural Society annual convention. It will be held in Waikoloa. Anyone interested in the business or hobby of beekeeping is invited to join the Big Island Beekeepers Association. Meetings are quarterly at Komohana Ag Extension Service in Hilo.

Avocats Hawai`i veterinarians volunteer
to spay and neuter wild cats.

TRAPPING WILD CATS TO SPAY AND NEUTER THEM is being promoted in Ka`u by Avocats Hawai`i. The nonprofit would like to organize spay and neuter clinics for which community residents use Avocats traps to catch feral cats and bring them to a central location where a volunteer veterinarian spays and neuters them, gives them inoculations and a flea treatment. After keeping them overnight the cats go back into the wild. Such programs have reduced wild cat populations significantly between Kona and Ocean View, said Avocats volunteer Joann Young. Anyone wanting to organize a spay and neuter clinic for their town in Ka`u can call her at 929-8393. This spay and neuter program also requires some fundraising, as it costs $20 per cat to support the supplies and travel for the veterinarian. 

THE COUNTY OF HAWAI`I’S HI-5 Redemption Center at Wai`ohinu Transfer Station is now open on Saturdays and Sundays through March 31 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 pm. The center is operated by Arc of Hilo. New hours are good through March 31.

Bay Clinic's Dental Van is available to the public
in Na`alehu this week.

THE BAY CLINIC MOBILE DENTAL VAN is open today from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Na`alehu. It is closed for lunch from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Call 965-3073 for an appointment.

Ka`u News Briefs Jan. 3, 2011

Tissy Kaniho says she wants the road to be private to protect her cattle and horses.
Others fear it will set a precedent blocking public access around the island.

THE KAMAOA ROAD ISSUE comes up before the County Council Finance Committee today at its meeting in Keauhou. Ka`u’s council member Brittany Smart said that she has not changed her position on refraining from selling publicly owned roads and was looking forward to any additional testimony on the matter. Former council member Guy Enriques had proposed that the county sell the 1.5-mile remnant at the end of Kamaoa Road on the South Point bluff to private landowners there. Other council members, including council chair Dominic Yagong, said it could set a poor precedent around the island for selling public access to the coast, graveyards and recreation areas.

Plan released in 2007 for the new Wai`ohinu Recycling Station

THE $8.8 MILLION WAI`OHINU reload facility and transfer station also comes up before the County Council Finance Committee today. Brittany Smart chairs the Environmental Management committee, which oversees the collection, recycling and disposal of rubbish. She explained this morning that the final cost was not yet fixed but the project would include a central location where trucks would come from Pahala, Ocean View, Miloli`i and Waiea. Garbage would be sorted and reloaded onto larger trucks to send to the appropriate facility. This would end the practice of partially filled rubbish trucks traveling on the highway. It would also provide for a commercial rubbish drop-off site. Right now, many businesses are illegally taking their waste to residential rubbish transfer stations.

Existing Wai`ohinu Transfer Station

     Construction expenses would include building the reload facility, upgrading retaining walls and chutes and constructing the recycling facility. The new facility in Wai`ohinu would also create new jobs.

THE OCEAN VIEW TRANSFER station is not ignored in favor of Wai`ohinu, said Smart. She reported that it is funded, and once the land purchase is finalized, the county is ready to get the permits to begin construction.

VOG, HOW DANGEROUS IS IT? is the title of a PBS show on Thursday, January 6 at 7:30 p.m. The live broadcast will feature Lani Petrie, of Kapapala Ranch, one of local businesses hardest hit by emissions blowing from the volcano straight over to its pastures between Pahala and Volcano. Also on the panel is state Rep. Bob Herkes, who has championed help for people affected in their business and their health by the emissions, particularly in 2008 and early 2009. Dr. Elizabeth Tam, of the U.H. Medical School, who is studying the effects of emissions on health, and Jeff Sutton, with the U.S. Geological Survey, are also on the panel. 

THE BAY CLINIC Mobile Dental Van visits Ka`u Family Health Center this week. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Call 965-3073 for an appointment. The van is in Ka`u the first week of each month.

Ka`u News Briefs Jan. 2, 2011

More than 8,000 acres of ranchland, farmland and forest are being conserved in Ka`u.

THE HAWAI`I ISLAND LAND TRUST, which has been working with The Nature Conservancy to preserve some 8,000 acres for agriculture and nature through land conservation easements in Ka`u, formally merged yesterday with the Maui Coastal Land Trust, Kaua`i Public Land Trust, and O`ahu Land Trust. 

     Doug Sensenig, who serves as Hawai`i Island director for the expanded organization, said, “We are excited about the merger because we’ll be able to work with more landowners who want to see their land protected for the future well being of all Hawai`i Island’s people. Our local council will make sure the Island’s special character is respected.”
     Combined, the new Hawaiian Islands Land Trust already oversees 15,229 acres of conservation land across the state, including: 188 acres on Hawai`i Island; 11,810 on Maui; 3,057 on Moloka`i; and 174 on Kaua`i. Currently in active negotiations with Olson Trust and other landowners on Hawai`i Island, Kaua`i, O`ahu, and Maui, the Land Trust expects to announce thousands more conservation acres within the first quarter of 2011.
     A statement from the group says, “In Hawai`i, land is our most important and valuable resource. Its conservation helps ensure clean air and drinking water, food security, scenic landscapes and views, recreational places, and habitat for a diversity of ecosystems. Land conservation in Hawai`i is especially imperative due to the added significance of inseparable cultural relationships and our intrinsic space limitations.”
     Hawaiian Islands Land Trust is a nationally accredited nonprofit organization with the mission of acquiring, preserving and protecting conservation lands across Hawai`i for the benefit of the natural environment and current and future generations.

THE U.S. ARMY is asking for public input on its plan to expand and upgrade Pohakuloa Training Area facilities along the Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The military is submitting a Programic Environmental Impact Statement on potential effects with construction and operation of an Infantry Platoon Battle area at Pohakuloa. The expanded facility “would improve the current shortfall in collective (group) live-fire training capabilities for units stationed in Hawai`i,” says a media release from the military.
     The military wants to construct and operate an Infantry Platoon Battle Course Live-fire Shoothouse, and a Military Operations on Urban Terrain facility.
     The public is invited to scoping meetings to ask questions and examine tabletop displays. Comments will be allowed. A Hilo scoping meeting will be on Tuesday, January 11, at 
Hilo Intermediate School
, 587 Waianuenue Avenue, with an open house from 
5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. 
and an open microphone session from 7 to 9 p.m. See www.garrison.hawaii.army.mil.

THE HAM RADIO operators of Ka`u are having a potluck at Manuka Park at noon today. Ham radio operators provide emergency communication for police, fire, civil defense, hospitals and the Red Cross. To join, go to Manuka this afternoon or call Dennis Smith at 989-3028.

Trees are being chipped to make mulch for gardens.

TREECYCLING is happening at Wai`ohinu transfer station through January 16. Trees and greenery should be free of decorations, lights, tinsel and ornaments. Artificial and flocked trees are not accepted. Trees will be chipped and made available for use in gardens.

KIDS GO BACK TO SCHOOL this week in Ka`u, with a teachers workday on Monday and students back to the classroom on Tuesday. Remember that all furloughs have been cancelled so there will be more classroom days through the end of the school year.