Ka'u News Briefs Dec. 25, 2011

Thy Word Ministry-Ka`u says Aloha Ke Akua during the recent Pahala Christmas Parade. Photo by Julia Neal

WHAT MAKES CHRISTMAS SPECIAL? Gov. Neil Abercrombie released his Christmas message, saying, “We feel we need to remind ourselves about values that represent the holiday season. The value of giving, of sharing joy, of spreading the meaning of Aloha near and far – to family, friends, and even those we meet or scarcely know. 

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Dr. Nancie Caraway and
Hawai`i's First Dog Kanoa. Photo from the
Office of the Governor

     “We emphasize these things during the holidays because we fear we may have forgotten them more than a little bit since last Christmas. The idea of the greetings – Mele Kalikimaka, Hauoli Makahiki Hou – is to remind ourselves that perhaps this year we can keep their meaning fresh in our hearts and minds all through the year to come.”

HAWAI`I ISLAND YOUTH have started the Sustainable Hawai`i Youth Leadership Initiative and invite young people from all the schools on the island to join. The group recently premiered a film in which they describe dreams from the island becoming self-sustaining to ending racism, sexism and promoting the aloha spirit. Some of the activities include 17-year-old Wainani Traub, founder of the organization, becoming Hawai`i’s first youth delegate to the Youth Leadership Summit for Sustainable Development on Martha’s Vineyard with island youth from around the world. She also spoke at the recent APEC Summit in Honolulu.
     Founding member Skyla Graig-Murray wrote in Civil Beat recently: “I’m afraid we are throwing away our world. We are destroying our land and habitats to lay down concrete roads. This should be our top priority! SHYLI is important because our young people pledge to move forward to improve; to use what we can; and do so without hurting the environment around us. SHYLI is not just to teach people how to live with the world, but to show us how. We have an important vision for the future – a sustainable Hawai`i, and a sustainable world.”
     Ka`u youth can join. See. www.shyli.org.

THEFT OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS will be the subject of new and tougher laws against agricultural theft, according to a Colin M. Stewart story in the Hawai`i Tribune-Herald. The story quotes Big Islander and state House of Representatives ag committee chair Clift Tsuji saying, “One of my priorities in my legislation this year will be agricultural theft and vandalism, and what it does to the agriculture industry.” Tsuji called for more public support for ag theft laws. “My concern is that when we introduce the legislation we include the agricultural community as a whole. Sometimes we don’t have enough public comment during the public hearings, and we would like more participation from the public,” Tsuji told the reporter. 

Moa`ula Coffee farmers are on the lookout for thieves after one reported
incident in which a farmer claimed a large loss of coffee cherry. 

     The story also covers the reported theft of thousands of pounds of coffee cherry at Manuel Marques’ farm at Moa`ula. The Hawai`i Tribune-Herald quotes Marques saying he hopes the thieves return so he can catch them. He is claiming some $10,000 in losses and damage to the coffee fields by thieves breaking branches and shredding the coffee from the trees. 

     Nearby farmers said they have not seen any suspicious coffee pickers or noticed unusual activity in the area.
     Chris Manfredi, who represents the development company that owns the Moa`ula land where the farms of Marques and most of the other Ka`u Coffee Growers Cooperative members are located, also weighed in. The Tribune-Herald story quotes him as saying: “We understand that the value of coffee this year is especially very high. There appears to be a higher threat of agricultural theft. It’s something we have to watch out for. We’re being increasingly wary.” The story also reports Manfredi saying that lower yields in Kona from coffee berry borer invasions and other issues lowered supply and increased demand. He also pointed to the increase in popularity of Ka`u Coffee. Manfredi recently brokered a deal with Starbucks to sell Ka`u Coffee and is ordering a second container load from the Ka`u farmers. Competition has recently grown, with good markets established by the cooperative itself, the new Ka`u Coffee Mill and individual Ka`u Coffee farmers.

CHRISTMAS DINNER IS BEING SERVED at restaurants in Ka`u today. Hana Hou’s special menu begins at noon and includes prime rib, crab-stuffed lobster, scallop and shrimp fettuccine, salad bar and dessert.
     South Side Shaka’s closes at 9 p.m. today.

     Crater Rim Café at Kilauea Military Camp in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park offers brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Park entrance fees apply.

Ka'u News Briefs Dec. 24, 2011

Mantracker crew films prey hiding from Mantracker during a recent shoot in Ka`u. Photo from Mantracker

KA`U HOSPITAL AND THE REST OF EAST HAWAI`I may benefit from Hawai`i Medical Center shutting down two facilities, including a major hospital on O`ahu. East Hawai`i hospitals, including Ka`u, often import traveling nurses, medical technicians and physicians to keep positions filled. Some 1,000 employees have lost their jobs on O`ahu with the closing of Hawai`i Medical Center. State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations director Dwight Takamine, himself a Big Islander, said that East Hawai`i vacant positions have been posted on the state website. Perhaps some of the people let go on O`ahu would be willing to move to Hilo, Hamakua or Ka`u. Takamine, who witnessed mass job losses when sugar shut down in his hometown on the Big Island, also said, “Our hearts go out to the nearly thousand employees and their families who received this news during the holiday season.” 

Kapapala paniolo Leon Chow is Mantracker's local guide
and sidekick. Photo from Mantracker.

Prey from Kona runs from Mantracker at Kapapala Ranch.
Photo from Mantracker

MANTRACKER, the television program that shows two men on horseback hunting down two people on foot, chose Ka`u again, and filming wrapped up this week. The location was entirely on Kapapala Ranch between Pahala and Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Kapapala paniolo Leon Chow was once again cast as Mantracker’s local guide and sidekick. Two of the human prey came from Kona, and the other two were a father and daughter team from Miloli`i. The prey and Mantracker called the landscape they crossed, hiding and running from Mantracker, “very thick.” They crossed open forest and took refuge in lava tubes. Whether the prey made it to their destination is a secret until the two shows air in 2012. Mantracker first filmed in Hawai`i two years ago, also in Ka`u. 

ELECTRIC BILLS HAVE GONE up by more than 50 percent in the last year, and Hawaiian Electric Co. is trying to explain with television advertising. Since the Japan tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan, nuclear energy has been replaced by oil in many places from Europe to Japan, sending prices for oil used by HECO into a skyrocketing trajectory. HECO vice president Robbie Alm said Hawai`i should get off fossil fuel as fast as possible with sun, wind, biomass, geothermal and biofuel. People can help out with conservation. “Small, everyday things add up,” said Alm. He mentioned natural lighting and air ventilation during a KITV interview.

DEATH BY 1,000 CUTS is what Small Business Hawai`i executive director Sam Slom is calling the recent surge in costs for health insurance, electricity and transportation fuel. Slom, who is also a state senator, said that “it’s not one thing necessarily that puts small business over the edge. It is all the costs adding up over time, like recent increases in water and motor vehicle and sewer fees, that can make it difficult to operate any business, he said. The latest big increase is in Kaiser Permanente Health Insurance, which only recently reached out to cover Ka`u residents and businesses. Around the state, about 162,000 Kaiser members will see premiums rise 8.8 percent on Jan. 1. 

Harming a monk seal is a felony, reminds DLNR chief
William Aila, Jr. Photo by Julia Neal

WATCH OUT FOR ENDANGERED ANIMALS, including monk seals and nene, warns the National Park Service and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. During this holiday season two monk seals were either killed by boats running into them or on purpose by people. DLNR chief William Aila, Jr. said his staff is investigating the death of the seals, which both happened on Moloka`i. It is a felony to intentionally harm a monk seal, Aila reminds the community. 

     A nene was run over on the road to Haleakala on Maui. The most dangerous location for nene on the Big Island is on Hwy 11 in the Ka`u Desert near Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park and Kapapala Ranch.

Watch out for nene between Pahala and Hawai`i
Volcanoes National Park. Photo by Julia Neal

A NEW MANAGER is taking over the administration of public housing in Pahala and other communities around the state. Hakim Ouansafi was hired recently by the Hawai`i Public Housing Administration to manage more than 6,000 public housing units on more than 80 sites statewide. His background is in hotel management and public service.
     The major source of funding is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The mission is to provide Hawai`i residents with affordable housing and shelter without discrimination. Efforts focus on operating and maintaining low-income public housing, administering a large Housing Choice Voucher program, and striving for the efficient and fair delivery of housing services to the people of Hawai`i. 

THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH will be the subject of a presentation by the man who discovered it. Capt. Charles Moore will give a talk and present his book Plastic Ocean on Jan. 6 at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Hawai`i Wildlife Fund. Moore has visited Kamilo and other Ka`u Coast locations to bring attention to the plastics that are growing in volume as one of the main ingredients of the soup of the ocean on which many sea life species depend. He is the founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. 

     Megan Lamson, of Hawai`i Wildlife Fund, will also give a presentation at the Jan. 6 event in Volcano. Moore will make a separate presentation on Jan. 4 at West Hawai`i Civic Center at 5 p.m.

CHRISTMAS DINNER IS BEING SERVED at restaurants in Ka`u. Hana Hou has a special menu beginning at 4 p.m. today and noon tomorrow. The menu includes prime rib, crab-stuffed lobster, scallop and shrimp fettuccine, salad bar and dessert.
     South Side Shaka’s, also in Na`alehu, closes at 4 p.m. today, Christmas Eve, and 9 p.m. tomorrow.
     Crater Rim Café at Kilauea Military Camp in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park offers Christmas Day brunch tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Park entrance fees apply.

Ka'u News Briefs Dec. 23, 2011

Planners showed the public the plan to raise Hwy 11 at Kawa. Photo by Julia Neal

TODAY IS THE DEADLINE for comments on the plan to raise Hwy 11 along some 3,000 feet of road at Kawa to alleviate flooding risks. When Kawa floods, access is cut off to the hospital in Pahala from Na`alehu. Emergency vehicles, school buses and around-the-island traffic are blocked along the coastal road and must take the old sugar cane haul road in the mountains. For travel during construction of the raised road, a bypass would be built makai of Hwy 11, starting about 100 yards south of the main entrance into the Kawa surfing beach.
     The Kawa Drainage Project Environmental Assessment explains that Hwy 11 would be raised some 10 feet above grade to 46 feet above sea level. An 84-foot-wide culvert, eight feet high, would be placed beneath the highway.
     Whether the elevated highway, something like an overpass, would be visible from Kawa Beach, where the largely unfettered and panoramic views are of table top mountains, ranches, forests and Mauna Loa, is one of the questions.
     During a public meeting earlier this month, planners said that the wetlands, springs and other features would not be disturbed at Kawa by the new flood project.
     Comments can be sent to the state Department of Transportation’s Hawai`i District Office, 50 Maka`ala Street, Hilo, HI 96720.
     The draft EA is available at Pahala and Na`alehu public libraries, and online at http://hawaii.gov/ health/environmental/oeqc/index.html.

COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICTS are finalized, with the county Redistricting Commission signing off on the report yesterday after assessing populations and redrawing voting maps based on the latest federal census, which is taken every decade. Candidates can start signing up to run for County Council on Feb. 1, when nomination papers will become available at the county Office of Elections. The new District 6 will extend farther north and will include the home of South Kona Council member Brenda Ford, who could be facing incumbent Ka`u Council member Brittany Smart, should both decide to run. While the obligation of the Commission is to create voting districts with about the same number of people in each one of them, the Commission is suggesting for next time that population differences between districts be allowed by as much as 5.99 percent to help keep communities together.

Jeju volcanic island in Korea and Hawai`i Volcanoes
National Park build their sister relationship as more
flights between Korea and Hawai`i are planned.

DAILY FLIGHTS TO HAWAI`I from Seoul, South Korea will begin July 16 on Hawaiian Airlines. More Koreans are expected to visit Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. The Korean volcanic island of Jeju has been building a sister park relationship with Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, with cooperation between park officials, as Jeju is a World Heritage Site. 

     Hawaiian currently flies from Korea four times a week. The new daily flight is expected to leave Seoul at 10:20 p.m. and arrive in Honolulu just after noon, in time for travelers to hop a plane to Hilo. The new flight will increase Hawaiian Airlines lift from Seoul and Hawai`i to 96,000 total air seats a year. Hawaiian also plans to add a third daily flight between Los Angeles and Honolulu in 2012.

GORDON KIMO LOPES has been identified as the likely victim of drowning while SCUBA diving at South Point. The 49-year-old Ocean View resident was reported as calling for help during a night dive after 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening. Rough waters kept rescue divers out of the water. A boat from Keauhou arrived before midnight, and firefighters found Lopes, who had passed away. The location was near the lighthouse, according to the police report.

A MATERIAL RECYCLING FACILITY with conveyor belts would be a “finely tuned and efficient process” to upgrade the county’s sort center, according to County Council member Brittany Smart. Mayor Bill Kenoi said he is open to the idea and all other proposals that would put less garbage into the landfills, according to a Jason Armstrong story in the Hawai`i Tribune-Herald. The County Council voted this week to approve a resolution urging the mayor to consider soliciting bids to convert the county sort station into a material recycling facility. The resolution asks the county to advertise for proposals by Feb. 29. According to the Tribune-Herald story, the mayor called the proposal an “11th-hour” suggestion, with the Council having already approved the sort station to cut back on rubbish shipped to the Pu`uanahulu landfill once the Hilo dump becomes full. Kenoi said additional county employees will run the sort center after receiving the state Department of Health permit. Equipment has already been purchased, including an excavator and loader with a grapple. 

     The resolution states that privatizing the recycling with a more sophisticated method would save millions of dollars in avoided cost for the county and keep the organics and recyclables out of the Hilo landfill. It says that cross-island shipping of waste would be avoided and that up to 30 green jobs would be created. Methane could be a byproduct. 

     This example of a materials recycling center in San Jose, CA shows the handling of trash along the conveyor belt.

     1) As incoming material moves along a conveyer belt, workers pull out large items, cardboard and plastic bags and toss them into bins. Unusable trash is thrown away.
     2) The recyclables move into a double-deck screening machine that separates newspapers, mixed paper and containers into separate streams. Material bounces over rows of square wheels spinning 1,000 times per minute. Blasts of air dislodge cans and bottles from newspapers. Gaps between rollers allow smaller items to fall onto conveyer belts.
     3) Workers again pull out any trash and discard it.
     4) Next is the trommel-mag - a large, rotating tube with small holes in the sides and an electromagnet at one end. Small items such as bottle caps fall through holes. The electromagnet snags tin cans. Then it's on to the air classifier, where a powerful fan blows lightweight aluminum and plastic onto one conveyer, and heavier glass falls onto another. Workers sort glass and plastics.
     5) An electromagnetic device diverts aluminum cans into a storage bin.

Stealth towers can take the place of
classic metal cell towers.

NEXT FRIDAY IS THE DEADLINE for comments on a 120-foot-tall cellular communications tower planned off Maile Street for land makai of the Old Pahala Community Clubhouse, according to the county Planning Department. The proposal filed with planners shows the cell tower about 200 feet from Maile Street near the intersection of Maile, which goes to Hwy 11 and Lower Moa`ula Road, which goes to the county transfer station. The company planning the cell tower is Crown Castle USA. A notice from the company states that “Crown invites comments from any interested party on the impact of the proposed tower on any districts, sites, buildings, structures or objects significant in American history, archaeology, engineering or culture that are listed or determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.”
     Comments should be addressed to Monica Gambino, 2000 Corporate Drive, Canonsburg, PA 15317 or by phone at 724-416-2516. 

THE GREEN MARKET at Ocean View Community Center is open today from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Items available include fresh produce, fruits, herbs, flowers and plants.

TO KEEP THE KA`U REEFER in Na`alehu open, Kaohi Mokuhali`i is selling pipikaula, the old Hawaiian-style, marinated sun-dried beef, in one- and two-pound packages for $10 a pound. Contact her at 938-9040 or kmokuhalii@yahoo.com, or Carol Massey at 929-9001or masseys2@hawaii.rr.com.

Varsity player Royden Esperon looks
to score amid three Kea`au defenders.
Photos by Nalani Parlin

JV player Larry Navarro led
his team with 22 points.

KA`U HIGH BEAT KEA`AU 61-52 last night. Played at home, it was the second game in Varsity Boys Basketball this season. Junior Nathaniel Kauhi was on fire, racking up Trojan points in the first half. The Cougars chased the Trojans the entire game, but could never gain the lead. Kauhi was top scorer with 20 points. Junior Greg Javar was right behind with 16 points, putting away three three-pointers. 

     In JV, the Trojans were first to score, enjoying a slight lead until the end of the first quarter. Ka`u turned up the juice in the second half, but it was not enough to win. Final score was 59-52. Sophomore Larry Navarro put away a game-high of 22 points.
     In soccer, the Trojan boys Varsity team tied with HAAS, 1-1. Senior Patrick Garcia scored for Ka`u, making the first Trojan goal of the season.