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| Volcano community leader Betsy Mitchell is working with the county and youth to re-open Volcano Skate Park. She is seen here in a parade with Mayor Billy Kenoi. |
A VOLCANO SKATE PARK meeting last night drew skateboarders, Cooper Center park caretakers, farmers market-goers, and the county to talk about the problems of safety, noise and uncivilized behavior. The park is closed until issues can be resolved. According to Volcano community leader Betsy Mitchell, the county and Cooper Center Council agreed last night to keep the skate park open if a volunteer committee could be formed to oversee safety, conduct and maintenance. A hui of young people formed immediately and will make a presentation to Cooper Center and the county. “It was very inspiring to see the young people organize themselves and agree to make a plan to keep the skate park safe and secure,” Mitchell said.There are petition drives and images posted on the Internet by Damir A. Kouliev in support of re-opening Volcano Skate Park.
THE MILITARY IS A POTENTIAL CUSTOMER for biofuels planned for production in such places as Ka`u, where `Aina Koa Pono is planning to grow feedstock for a biofuels refinery it plans to build in Pahala. According to Pacific Business News, the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe plans to be off the state electric grid by 2015, with all vehicles at base facilities becoming gasoline-free. Vehicles run on biofuel are also expected at the Pohakuloa Training area on the Big Island, as the Department of Defense is a leader in developing renewable energy.
`Aina Koa Pono has a contract to sell biofuels from its proposed factory in Pahala to Hawaiian Electric but is also interested in the possibility of selling fuel to run vehicles and for other applications.
`Aina Koa Pono will make a presentation on Monday, Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. The company promises 300 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs in the field and factory. The public meeting is sponsored by the Ka`u Chamber of Commerce.
HAWAI`I ELECTRIC LIGHT company workers will stay on the job, as a tentative labor agreement was reached late last night. Parent company HECO, which owns the electric company on this island, as well as Maui, Lana`i, Moloka`i and O`ahu, averted a strike deadline last night, and the agreement will be sent for a vote by the membership of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1260. The union represents more than half of HECO’s employees.
THE STATE SENATE yesterday approved procedures that would allow the governor to make appointments to the school board without an advisory panel to make recommendations. The state House is considering a measure that would require an advisory board to choose and interview candidates to pass on to the governor for his final selection. This moves closer to the public mandate approved by the electorate last year, setting up a governor-appointed school board to replace the elected school board.
THE U.S. ARMY may be paring back its plans to expand its in-flight training area at Pohakuloa Training Area along Saddle Road. According to a Jason Armstrong story in the Hawai`i Tribune-Herald, both the Mauna Kea Management Board and Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park are concerned about multiple landing zones for helicopters planned for 8,000- to 12,000-feet elevation on both Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. His story says the park is worried about upsetting wildlife and creating noise that would disturb nature and visitors. The Mauna Kea board wrote that the military was planning to expand the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area by 44,000 acres and would be impacting state land. A military spokesman said the Army’s Environmental Assessment, released in December, poorly portrayed what the Army intends to do. The Army is preparing a full Programic Environmental Impact Statement.
The EIS will cover an Infantry Platoon Battle Course and an Infantry Platoon Battle area, with Shoothouse and Military Operations on Urban Terrain facility. The modernized Pohakuloa Training Area would be used by three active Army brigades – U.S. Army Reserve, National Guard and Marine Corps – as military units deployed to combat operations overseas redeploy back to their home station in Hawai`i. The military EA states that training has changed over the last decade, and infrastructure at Pohakuloa must accommodate the new doctrine standards.
Comments are being accepted through Feb. 7 and can be mailed to PTA PEAS, P.O. Box 514, Honolulu, HI 96809.
GRANTS TO SHARE 50 PERCENT of the cost of irrigation and water projects are available from the federal Bureau of Reclamation. County and state agencies and other water delivery authorities are eligible. Projects should seek to conserve and use water more efficiently, increase the use of renewable energy, protect endangered species, or facilitate water markets. Projects are selected through a competitive process, and the focus is on projects that can be completed within 24 months that will help sustainable water supplies in the western United States. See usbr.gov/watersmart/grants.html or call Tim McConnell at the Rural Development office in Hilo at 933-8313.
`Aina Koa Pono will make a presentation on Monday, Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. The company promises 300 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs in the field and factory. The public meeting is sponsored by the Ka`u Chamber of Commerce.
HAWAI`I ELECTRIC LIGHT company workers will stay on the job, as a tentative labor agreement was reached late last night. Parent company HECO, which owns the electric company on this island, as well as Maui, Lana`i, Moloka`i and O`ahu, averted a strike deadline last night, and the agreement will be sent for a vote by the membership of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1260. The union represents more than half of HECO’s employees.
THE STATE SENATE yesterday approved procedures that would allow the governor to make appointments to the school board without an advisory panel to make recommendations. The state House is considering a measure that would require an advisory board to choose and interview candidates to pass on to the governor for his final selection. This moves closer to the public mandate approved by the electorate last year, setting up a governor-appointed school board to replace the elected school board.
THE U.S. ARMY may be paring back its plans to expand its in-flight training area at Pohakuloa Training Area along Saddle Road. According to a Jason Armstrong story in the Hawai`i Tribune-Herald, both the Mauna Kea Management Board and Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park are concerned about multiple landing zones for helicopters planned for 8,000- to 12,000-feet elevation on both Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. His story says the park is worried about upsetting wildlife and creating noise that would disturb nature and visitors. The Mauna Kea board wrote that the military was planning to expand the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area by 44,000 acres and would be impacting state land. A military spokesman said the Army’s Environmental Assessment, released in December, poorly portrayed what the Army intends to do. The Army is preparing a full Programic Environmental Impact Statement.
The EIS will cover an Infantry Platoon Battle Course and an Infantry Platoon Battle area, with Shoothouse and Military Operations on Urban Terrain facility. The modernized Pohakuloa Training Area would be used by three active Army brigades – U.S. Army Reserve, National Guard and Marine Corps – as military units deployed to combat operations overseas redeploy back to their home station in Hawai`i. The military EA states that training has changed over the last decade, and infrastructure at Pohakuloa must accommodate the new doctrine standards.
Comments are being accepted through Feb. 7 and can be mailed to PTA PEAS, P.O. Box 514, Honolulu, HI 96809.
GRANTS TO SHARE 50 PERCENT of the cost of irrigation and water projects are available from the federal Bureau of Reclamation. County and state agencies and other water delivery authorities are eligible. Projects should seek to conserve and use water more efficiently, increase the use of renewable energy, protect endangered species, or facilitate water markets. Projects are selected through a competitive process, and the focus is on projects that can be completed within 24 months that will help sustainable water supplies in the western United States. See usbr.gov/watersmart/grants.html or call Tim McConnell at the Rural Development office in Hilo at 933-8313.