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| An artist rendering of the Thirty Meter Telescope planned for Mauna Kea. |
THE OCEAN VIEW COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORP met last night and approved a proposal for the Air National Guard to send an Innovative Readiness Training team to help with capital improvement projects in Ka`u. The Air Guard would provide labor and equipment, and local government and other funders would come up with the materials for such projects as drilling multiple wells in Ocean View, a new community shelter and gym and to retrofit the current community center to also serve as a shelter. Improving the county Kahuku Park and the Ocean View road system, as well as building a school, are also on the wish list. The readiness team could work in Ocean View for as long as three years. Among those Ocean View residents championing the cause are Paula Donovan and Loren Heck. Incoming Council member Brittany Smart attended and said she is very supportive and excited about the opportunity. She credited outgoing Council member Guy Enriques for helping to move the project forward.
VOTER OWNED ELECTIONS, a group out of O‘ahu who worked with the legislature, is meeting with Brittany Smart today to go over publicly funded elections which provided some $38,000 for her campaign that swept her to victory Nov. 2 over incumbent Guy Enriques. The organization will also give a presentation at the University of Hawai`i-Hilo. Smart said she thought the publicly funded election favored incumbents more than intended, with the stiff requirements to sign up for the funding. She said there were a few hardships along the way, but these could be eased with refining the procedures. She said that the public funding would be more equitable if it provided the same amount of public funding for candidates in each district. Currently, it is based on what the last successful candidate spent.
EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT benefits for a number of people in Ka`u, some 4,000 people in Hawai`i and nearly two million people across the country, began running out yesterday. Benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.
A PUBLIC HEARING ON the proposed 30-meter telescope for the top of Mauna Kea will be held today at 6 p.m. at the Hawai`i County Council meeting room in Hilo and again on Friday at the Natural Energy Laboratory in Kailua-Kona. Scientists and supporters have come to Ka`u to present the plan at public meetings in recent years, saying it will be the strongest telescope ever built by man and will give new insight into the history and the future of the universe, as well as provide employment and funding for education here. Opponents say that Mauna Kea is sacred and already has too many telescopes on top of the mountain. Testimony is being gathered by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, who will decide whether or not to issue a Conservation District Use Permit. For more information, visit hawaii.gov/dlnr.
THE PUBLIC IS INVITED to the inauguration of the Hawai`i County Council members this coming Monday at noon at the Hilo Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium. The nine-member council will be comprised of Fred Blas, Brenda Ford, Pete Hoffmann, Donald Ikeda, Dennis Onishi, K. Angel Pilago, Brittany Smart, Dominic Yagong and J Yoshimoto. Third Circuit Court Judge Ronald Ibarra will administer the oaths. Keynote speaker is executive vice-president of KTA Superstores, Derek Kurisu, who champions local food production and has been the keynote speaker at graduation ceremonies at Ka`u High.
THE INCOMING GOVERNOR has announced three additional positions: Josh Levinson, communications director; Laurie Au, deputy communications director; and Donalyn Dela Cruz, press secretary. Abercrombie is in Washington, D.C. right now at the Democratic Governors Association Annual Meeting and for a White House meeting for elected governors.
VOTER OWNED ELECTIONS, a group out of O‘ahu who worked with the legislature, is meeting with Brittany Smart today to go over publicly funded elections which provided some $38,000 for her campaign that swept her to victory Nov. 2 over incumbent Guy Enriques. The organization will also give a presentation at the University of Hawai`i-Hilo. Smart said she thought the publicly funded election favored incumbents more than intended, with the stiff requirements to sign up for the funding. She said there were a few hardships along the way, but these could be eased with refining the procedures. She said that the public funding would be more equitable if it provided the same amount of public funding for candidates in each district. Currently, it is based on what the last successful candidate spent.
EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT benefits for a number of people in Ka`u, some 4,000 people in Hawai`i and nearly two million people across the country, began running out yesterday. Benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.
A PUBLIC HEARING ON the proposed 30-meter telescope for the top of Mauna Kea will be held today at 6 p.m. at the Hawai`i County Council meeting room in Hilo and again on Friday at the Natural Energy Laboratory in Kailua-Kona. Scientists and supporters have come to Ka`u to present the plan at public meetings in recent years, saying it will be the strongest telescope ever built by man and will give new insight into the history and the future of the universe, as well as provide employment and funding for education here. Opponents say that Mauna Kea is sacred and already has too many telescopes on top of the mountain. Testimony is being gathered by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, who will decide whether or not to issue a Conservation District Use Permit. For more information, visit hawaii.gov/dlnr.
THE PUBLIC IS INVITED to the inauguration of the Hawai`i County Council members this coming Monday at noon at the Hilo Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium. The nine-member council will be comprised of Fred Blas, Brenda Ford, Pete Hoffmann, Donald Ikeda, Dennis Onishi, K. Angel Pilago, Brittany Smart, Dominic Yagong and J Yoshimoto. Third Circuit Court Judge Ronald Ibarra will administer the oaths. Keynote speaker is executive vice-president of KTA Superstores, Derek Kurisu, who champions local food production and has been the keynote speaker at graduation ceremonies at Ka`u High.
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| Brittany Smart will take the oath to represent Ka`u on the County Council next Monday. |
KA`U’S NEW COUNCIL MEMBER Brittany Smart is slated to become the chair of the Environmental Committee and co-chair of the Government Relations Committee. The chair of the Council will be Dominic Yagong. This morning, Smart said that the county needs to wait on floating a $56 million bond until estimates of future tax revenues are completed in February. She also said that specific projects should be tied to the bond and not just suggested. One of the projects is an 8.8 million dollar recycling and transfer station in Wai`ohinu.
GOVERNOR NEIL ABERCROMBIE will be sworn in next Monday in Honolulu. He will tour the state later in the week and will come to the Big Island on Sunday, December 12. His only two stops will be Pahala and Waimea. He will meet everyone who wants to attend at Pahala Plantation House from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. before the Pahala Christmas Parade. He will head off for Waimea for an evening gathering on the north side of the island.
THE INCOMING GOVERNOR has announced three additional positions: Josh Levinson, communications director; Laurie Au, deputy communications director; and Donalyn Dela Cruz, press secretary. Abercrombie is in Washington, D.C. right now at the Democratic Governors Association Annual Meeting and for a White House meeting for elected governors.