Ka`u News Briefs March 21, 2011

Wildfire in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, smoldering in forests of ohia and ferns,

slowed with rains. Photo courtesy of Whiskeytown Firefighters.

FIRE CREWS removed brush from locations of seismic sensors and installed a water tank to fight the Napau wildfire in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park over the weekend. With rain dousing the blaze and slowing its wind-pumped progress beyond the 1,800 acres already burned, the fire failed to capture much more land.
     Set by the March 5 Kamoamoa fissure eruption, the fire burned trees and ferns as its march was guided by old lava flows and wind. Fire information officer Gary Wuscher said the remaining high heat is located on the front and flanks of the fire. The firefighters from the park and from Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in California are strategizing their next move to put out the fire.

Al Galimba's beef from Kuahiwi Ranch is certified as a
Hawai`i Seal of Quality product. Photo by Chris Manfredi

THE HAWAI`I SEAL OF QUALITY branding program came to Ka`u over the weekend as Dr. Matthew Loke spoke to farmers in Pahala about Hawai`i being the most well known place name brand in the world. When a product says Hawai`i, people want to buy it, he told agriculturalists, offering them a way to join the promotion. Several Ka`u products are already branded by the Hawai`i Seal of Quality, including Aikane Coffee and the Al Galimba family beef from Kuahiwi Ranch. In promotional materials produced for the Hawai`i Seal of Quality, Michelle Galimba says that “agriculture is the first and most daring art, the art of taking up the materials of nature and making something out of it. Making gardens out of wild earth. Taming the beasts of the plains. And yes, turning the natural fecundity of living things to our purposes. Ranching is large-scale landscape art, among other things. And being part of the constant conversation between the soil, the grasses, the sky, the weeds, the animals, the very stones in the fields, and the people.” 

     Loke said that the Seal of Quality also helps producers to become food-safety qualified. For more information, see www.sealofquality.hawaii.gov.

POSSIBILITIES FOR KA`U HOSPITAL include constructing additional facilities beneath the building. The hospital sits on high posts with thousands of square footage of open area beneath it. Additional clinics, housing for temporary employees, and room for additional services like a CAT scan could be created by building out the space, said administrator Merilyn Harris during a community meeting on Saturday. More than $4 million was recently released by the state to replace louver windows and doors and for air conditioning and air cleaning infrastructure to improve Ka`u Hospital.

Ka`u Federal Credit Union has more than 3,000 members,
including keiki. Photo by Rollie Litteral

A NEW DEBIT CARD is in the works for the Ka`u Federal Credit Union, which made its report to the community over the weekend at its annual meeting. Manager Cheryl Weaver talked about the Kids Savings Project, which has helped 61 children at Pahala Elementary School to save more than $2,500 during the last six months. Children can open keiki savings accounts at all the credit union branches. The credit union’s new website has loan request forms that can be completed online, scam alerts, and updates on credit union activities. There are over 3,000 members of the local credit union.

Ko Ueno

JAPANESE NATIONALS with homes in Ka`u are predicting that Japan’s economy will come back from some of the worst disasters ever with the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant crises that began ten days ago. Ko Ueno, president of Yoku Moku America, Inc., has a home in Pahala and visited over the weekend. He said the area affected by the tsunami is fishing and farming country with smaller populations than the rest of Japan. He described the area as a cold part of Japan with fjords like in Scandinavia. Ueno’s Yoko Moku cookie business was unaffected at its factory and at its offices in Tokyo, he said. Orders for the product from such establishments as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Shirokiya are on time and increasing, said Ueno. Minako and Kayo Yamazaki, who run the international tourism promotion company The Contact, Inc. in Tokyo also said their business continues, with Japanese people planning to travel abroad. Minako and Kayo also own a home in Pahala.

Parent Nikki Fontanilla and make-up professional Myra Sumida help
  contestants Dayse Andrade Malia Corpuz mix up their own blush.
Photo by Nalani Parlin

MISS KA`U COFFEE CANDIDATES received help from Myra Sumida, of Motives Cosmetics, who volunteered to give young pageant candidates and parents make-up tips yesterday. Candidates had the opportunity to have make-up applied, foundation mixed to match their specific skin tones and mix their very own blush. The pageant is Saturday, April 23 at 5:30 p.m. at Ka`u High School Gym. 

TUTU & ME BRINGS ITS preschool program to Pahala beginning tomorrow. The free program is open to children age 5 or younger and their caregivers. Call 929-8571 for more information.

Ka`u News Briefs March 20, 2011

Supermoon over Ka`u last night in a photo taken by Peter Anderson. Look for another big moon over
the Big Island tonight, as the moon remains close to the Earth after sunset.

THE BILL IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE to allow fuel tax money at the gas pump to help repair private roads like those in Ocean View passed the Senate Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations and Military Affairs on Thursday. It heads for the Ways and Means Committee, and on to the full Senate if it passes. The measure has the support of Mayor Billy Kenoi and County Council Chair Dominic Yagong, who said they recognize that people living in such subdivisions as Ocean View pay taxes at the pump and deserve a share of this state income to fix their roads.

Ocean View and other communities with private roads want some of the fuel tax
 charged at the pump in order to help make roads safer for such services
as fighting this fire. Photo by Charles Tobias

     It is proposed that a committee would accept proposals from private community associations that maintain roads, detailing how they would use the fuel tax money. There were only a dozen letters from the public at the Legislature, with most of them in support of the bill. However, the Tax Foundation of Hawai`i opposed the measure, saying it would make the county liable for road conditions in such private subdivisions.


MANAGEMENT AND THE PUBLIC MET concerning the future of Ka`u Hospital yesterday. Administrator Merilyn Harris said that $4.1 million has been released for air conditioning, air treatment against vog and to replace doors and windows to make the hospital airtight, when needed. A complication is asbestos in ceiling tiles, which requires an expensive process to remove them before putting in a new ceiling with air conditioning ducts.

Community members meet with the board and administration of Ka`u Hospital,
along with Sen. Gil Kahele. Photo by Julia Neal

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS TO THE HOSPITAL include putting all records into a digital data bank in cooperation with Hilo Hospital. Computers can be rolled to a patient’s bed so that doctors and nurses can have medical records at hand. The digital recording of information also helps to reduce errors in diagnoses, treatment and mistakes in administering drugs. The Big Island is one of a few communities in the country that have received millions of dollars in grant money to go digital with hospital records. The efficiency and some sharing of data about health and sickness is expected to make medical care delivery more efficient and less costly. Some community members asked about the risk of patients’ private information being misused and were told that the privacy rules were becoming more strict.

Sen. Gil Kahele meets new Ka`u Coffee Farmers Cooperative president
Gloria Camba (l), along with Day Day Hopkins from the
County of Hawai`i Department of Research and Development.

THE NEED FOR HOME CARE was also discussed as the population is aging, and there are a number of Ka`u residents who have been trained as nursing assistants to deliver home care who need jobs here, said Jesse Marques, of the Ka`u Rural Community Health Care Association.

THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNITY in helping with the hospital in raising money and volunteering was applauded by members of the regional board overseeing the facility.

THE KA`U COFFEE FARMERS COOPERATIVE installed new officers last night at Pahala Community Center. The president is Gloria Camba, vice president is Leo Norberte, secretary is Trini Marques and treasurer is Richard Sambojan. They were sworn in by Day Day Hopkins, who has been assisting them with promotions, education and grants through the county Department of Research & Development since the sugar plantation shut down 15 years ago and many of the farmers lost their jobs in the sugar industry. Currently there are more than 35 members, and all of them own their homes, becoming part of the diversified agricultural economy that has grown after the demise of sugar.

THE KA`U FEDERAL CREDIT UNION installed its officers last night. Manager Cheryl Weaver praised the community and her staff for their support during tough economic times. The president is Sharon Moore-Fisher, vice president is Eulalia Jara, treasurer is Rollie Litteral and secretary is Julia Neal. The credit union was founded generations ago by workers in the Ka`u sugar industry who found it difficult to get loans to start businesses and mortgages for homes. It has extended its reach to the entire community of Ka`u. It has more than 3,000 members.

A RUMMAGE SALE continues today until 4 p.m. at Discovery Harbour Community Center. Proceeds support Discovery Harbour’s Volunteer Fire Department.

KA`U MAIN STREET SPONSORS a Plant and Seed Exchange today from noon to 3 p.m. The exchange is held on the third Sunday of every month at the historic Naohulelua Church and garden on Kamaoa Road in Wai`ohinu.

Ka`u News Briefs March 19, 2011

Wildfire in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park bumps into old lava flows, pushed by wind.

A CREW FROM WHISKEYTOWN NATIONAL RECREATIONAL AREA in northern California began working with firefighters from Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park yesterday to help fight the wildfire started by an active lava flow. Volcanoes park staff who are fire-qualified are pitching in this weekend, and fire managers are flying the perimeter to assess the fire. The fire has burned more than 1,833 acres, and while strong winds fueled and pushed the fire yesterday, it was also hampered by bumping into lava flows and land previously burned during the Luhi fire in 2003. 

     Gary Wuchner, the fire information officer, said that the relative humidity will show a trend toward dropping this afternoon, making the fuels more receptive to fire. They expect the relative humidity in the fire area, which is makai of the caldera, to be 40 percent. Normally it is 60 percent humidity.
     The most fire activity is located along the flanks of the fire to the south and southwest, where there are patches of dead, down, and standing trees killed by the 2003 fire, the recent drought, and a freeze last year.

The almost-Supermoon, photographed
last night, will become the Supermoon
tonight - the biggest moon since 1993.
Photo by Peter Anderson

THE ALMOST-SUPERMOON was captured last night by Ka`u photographer Peter Anderson, who is also planning to study the full moon tonight, when the moon will be the closest to the Earth since 1993. It will appear 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger. The full moon will rise at 6:57 p.m. and set at 6:12 a.m. 

A FEMA TEAM is arriving from the mainland to assess damage from last week’s tsunami that led to the complete closure of Kona Village Resort, with its employees laid off with no plan to re-open. The tsunami destroyed beach houses at Honomolino, Okoe and Kapua Bays on this side of Miloli`i. Tsunami waves also changed the underwater seascape along the Ka`u Coast.

KA`U HOSPITAL is asking community members to come to the hospital today to meet its administration and regional management and board as well as state Senator Gil Kahele. The meet and greet starts at 3 p.m. at the Pahala hospital campus at the corner of Hwy 11 and Kamani Streets. Plans to improve the hospital and develop new programs will be presented. Ideas from the community are also welcomed.

THE KA`U COFFEE COOPERATIVE will hold its annual meeting to induct new officers this evening at 5 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. The new president is Gloria Camba, vice-president is Leo Norberte, secretary is Trini Marques, and treasurer is Ricardo Sambajon. Dayday Hopkins, from the county Office of Research & Development, will induct the new officers. R&D has helped coordinate education and promotions for the coffee farmers since 1996, when the sugar plantation shut down in Pahala and many of the plantation workers became coffee farmers.

THE HAWAI`I SEAL OF QUALITY program will be presented by state Department of Agriculture representative Matthew Loke tonight at 6 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. Aikane Coffee is already branded with the seal, and Loke will explain how other agricultural products from Ka`u might qualify. All farmers and producers of ag products are invited to attend.

A COMMUNITY BOOK SALE goes on until 1 p.m. today at Kauaha`ao Church in Wai`ohinu.

THE KA`U FEDERAL CREDIT UNION ANNUAL MEETING AND STEAK FRY is this evening at 6 p.m. at Na`alehu Community Center.

YOU CAN TAKE YOUR RECYCLABLES to Na`alehu School Gym until 1 p.m. today and receive 5 cents per container and additional 20 cents per pound for aluminum. In addition, Atlas Recycling will donate another 20 cents per pound to the school for all aluminum collected.