Ka`u News Briefs Dec. 4, 2010

Ka`u Coffee is a popular item at the Ka`u Farmers Market, celebrating its ninth anniversary today. Everyone is invited to stop by the market in front of Ace Hardware in Na`alehu.

Guy Enriques

THE OUTGOING County Council will meet for the last time on Monday. On the agenda is a resolution introduced by Council member J Yoshimoto to extend a Sincere Gratitude to Council Member Guy K. Enriques for his service to the county of Hawai`i. Enriques leaves his post on Monday and has promised to remain involved in community service, including working toward the new shelter gym in Pahala.

THE NEW COUNTY COUNCIL will be sworn in on Monday at noon at the Civic Auditorium, with Brittany Smart taking her seat for Ka`u and District 6. The first council meeting will follow at 3 p.m. The new council will appoint Council Chair Dominic Yagong and the County Clerk -- Ka`u's own Jamae Kawauchi. Brittany Smart is expected to become chair of the Environmental Management Committee and vice chair of Governmental Relations. 

UPCOMING MEETINGS of the new County Council will be Wednesday, December 15 at 9 a.m. at Sheraton Keauhou, then the first committee meetings on Tuesday, January 4 and a full Council meeting on Wednesday, January 5, both in Hilo.

A NEW PROGRAM TO PROTECT THE NATIVE FOREST within neighborhoods will be dedicated this afternoon at 4 p.m. at the Volcano Art Center educational center. The idea is that home builders will nestle houses into the rainforest rather than clear cut houselots, leaving the overstory – the canopy of the forest for native birds and other wildlife. The name of the program is KIPUKA MOSAIC. Owners of houselots can donate an easement that requires retaining most of the trees on the property in perpetuity. The first easements in Volcano will be dedicated at the ceremony today. The project is co-sponsored by the Hawai`i Island Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the Volcano Community Association.

THE VOLCANO Festival Chorus Concert will be held tonight at 7 p.m. at the Kilauea Military Camp Theatre at 7:30 p.m. The chorus performs Season of Wonders and favorite Christmas carols. The concert is free.

Demetrius Oliveira

A FUNDRAISER FOR KAHU station co-manager Demetrius Oliveira will be held tomorrow, Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. right here on Maile Street in Pahala. The event raises money to help pay for surgery to restore Demetrius’ health. There will be live entertainment all day and some Christmas gifts for sale. Donations can be made to the Demetrius Oliveira Medical Fund.

Ka`u News Briefs Dec. 3, 2010

`Amakihi is one of the native forest birds that will benefit
from the Kipuka Mosaic Project. Photo by John DeMello/TNC

KIPUKA MOSAIC is a new program to protect the native forest canopy in neighborhoods where people build houses. The effort is designed to encourage the nestling of homes into the rainforest rather than clear-cutting houselots. A dedication for this program will be held tomorrow at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus on old Volcano Highway at 4 p.m. The program conserves the forest canopy as a flyway for native birds and a pathway for other native life. It preserves the forest within the residential community, with landowners donating an easement on their properties, insuring that the forest and its overstory are there forever. The project is co-sponsored by the Hawai`i Island Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the Volcano Community Association.

A coffee berry borer in relation to coffee cherry.

A PLANT QUARANTINE INTERIM RULE went into effect yesterday, establishing two quarantine zones to restrict movement of coffee plants, plant parts, unroasted coffee green beans and coffee bags to prevent and slow the spread of the Coffee Berry Borer on this island and to the rest of the state. One quarantine area extends from Kaloko in Kona to Manuka State Park to keep the borer out of Ka`u. The other quarantine covers the entire island and requires heat treatment, fumigation or other methods before shipping coffee green beans from here to other Hawaiian Islands. Coffee growers can call the Plant Quarantine Branch at 808-832-0566. 

     Farmers can also call Brenda Iokepa-Moses to receive coffee borer traps provided by the Department of Agriculture to check on coffee orchards to make sure they are clean of the coffee borer. Call 928-0500.

PUBLIC HEARINGS on whether to allow a San Diego shipping company into Neighbor Island service should have been held by the Public Utilities Commission on the Neighbor Islands, Ka`u’s state senator Russell Kokubun said yesterday during an information meeting on O`ahu. The lack of local public hearings showed that the PUC is O`ahu–centric, he said. Farmers and ranchers submitted complaints, some noting Young Brothers’ threat to cut services in face of the competition. The decision to allow the ocean freight company Pasha to service routes from Honolulu to Hilo and Kahului twice monthly has already been approved by the PUC. Young Brothers testified that Pasha is “cherry picking routes,” leaving Young Brothers to service the less profitable routes. This could become an issue in the next state legislature.
     For cargo going to and from the mainland, both Horizon Lines and Matson have already announced rate increases. Farmers and ranchers fear that interisland rates will also rise and service will be reduced.

THE BOYS & GIRLS CLUB of the Big Island is searching for a new Chief Operating Officer. The club services some 200 young people in Ka`u, which has one of the biggest organizations on the island. The job description can be found at www.bgcbi.com.

SENIOR HOLIDAY BINGO will be held today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Na`alehu Community Center. Sponsored by `O Ka`u Kakou, it is open to everyone 55 years of age and older.

A SUICIDE PREVENTION CLINIC will be held on December 8 and 9 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Pahala at the River of Life Assembly of God Church on Pa`au`au Street. Those interested can call Teresa Alderdyce at Ka`u family Center at 929-9611, Ext. 10 or email suicide preventionhawaii@gmail.com.

Peter Anderson's Nene will grace the cover
of The Directory 2011.

THE KA`U DIRECTORY, which serves as a local phone book and guide to businesses, services and community groups in Ka`u, is nearly pau. Contributors are urged to finalize all their information in the next week. Call 928-6471 or contact the sponsor, the Ka`u Chamber of Commerce. 

THE CHAMBER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE will have its monthly meeting Monday, December 6 at Ocean View Community Center at 7 p.m. The mayor’s information officer will be the keynote speaker and will discuss the temporary transfer station at the county’s Kahuku Park. Note the time has been changed from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. That temporary bin is accepting bagged rubbish tomorrow, and every Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the county Kahuku Park. 

GOVERNOR NEIL ABERCROMBIE’S meeting with area residents has been changed from 11 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sunday, December 12. The ceremony to welcome the governor and meet with him is open to everyone. Children from the Boys & Girls Club, representatives of the schools, hospital, coffee farmers, seniors and other groups are planning to attend. It is followed by the annual Pahala Christmas Parade at 1 p.m. 

FLOATS ARE BEING PLANNED for the Christmas Parade, and all walking groups and floats are welcome to participate. Call Eddie Andrade at 928-0808. 

KA`U MAIN STREET celebrates the ninth anniversary of the Ka`u Farmer’s Market in Na`alehu, tomorrow, Saturday, December 4th. The public is welcome to celebrate all day long.

Ka`u News Briefs Dec. 2, 2010

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.

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.