Ka`u News Briefs April 4, 2011

Honu`apo Lookout is one of the spectacular stops on the proposed State Scenic Byway in Ka`u.  Photo by Julia Neal

HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES and `Aina Koa Pono are hoping the state Legislature will change the Public Utilities Commission law to support their project for a refinery near Pahala and an energy farm between Na`alehu and Pahala. The House Finance Committee last week deferred a measure that would allow the PUC to approve the electric company spreading the cost of new projects across its customer base. That would include raising rates in O`ahu and Maui Counties as well as Hawai`i County by an average of under $2 per month to pay for the $320 million Aina Koa Pono refinery and farm.
     The PUC had ruled that `Aina Koa Pono biofuel would be used only on the Big Island and not in the other counties. Current law prohibits charging other customer bases for energy they do not receive, and the electric company and `Aina Koa Pono went to the legislature to change the law.
     They testified that the change in the law would allow would help the electric company comply with state demands to use more sustainable, alternative energies. The bill is scheduled for decision-making today in the House Finance and Consumer Protection Committees at 5:30 p.m. at the state capitol. The bill number is SB1347, and the public can go online and submit comments. 

Richard Lim

     Richard Lim, the new Director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism testified last week that he supports the bill to allow utility affiliates to aggregate their renewable portfolios so that costs can be shared around the state. The bill would also allow electric utility companies to use an automatic rate adjustment clause to recover costs for renewables. Lim said that aggregating costs can bring down rate impacts for residents on the neighbor islands and encourage more renewable energy development and lead to economic growth and jobs for these communities.

THE BUDGET BATTLES continue in the County Council this week. Council Chair Dominic Yagong proposes that county police officers and firefighters absorb a minimum five percent pay cut. He noted that all other county workers have taken furloughs and seen their income decrease, while police and fire have twice seen a more than 20 percent increase in pay during the last four years. Police and fire union contracts expire at the end of June, and cuts would have to be negotiated with the labor leaders. Yagong also wants to continue county worker furloughs, which Mayor Billy Kenoi wants to end on July 1.

THE KA`U CHAMBER OF COMMERCE has filed a nomination for Highway 11 in Ka`u to be designated as a State Scenic Byway. The Chamber established a committee with members: Chair Marge Elwell; Rell Woodward and Dallas Decker, of the Ka`u Chamber; Laura Schuster, Rita Pregana and Lora Gale, of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park; John Replogle, of The Nature Conservancy; Kenny Joyce, of Kalaekilohana; Wendy Vance, of Ka `Ohana O Honu`apo; Blossom De Silva and Lehua Lopez, of the Hawaiian Civic Club; Doug Sensenig, of Hawaiian Islands Land Trust; Lee McIntosh, of `O Ka`u Kakou; and Dennis Elwell, of Na`alehu Main Street. The committee chose a theme: “The Slopes of Mauna Loa,” and stressed the large stretches of untouched landscape. The Ka`u Chamber will meet at the Ocean View Community Center at 6:30 p.m., Monday, April 25, where Elwell will review the Scenic Byways program and nomination application.

SIGN UP TODAY FOR THE FREE Kahuku Junior Ranger Day on Saturday, April 9. Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park and the Queen Lili`uokalani Children’s Center invite keiki to bring the families to explore Kahuku and learn about ancient traditions of navigation and modern-day global positioning systems. The program is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and lunch will be provided. To register, call 985-6019. 

     The Kahuku Unit is now open to the public on most weekends. 

THE DRIVERS LICENSE DEPARTMENT at the Ka`u Police Station in Na`alehu has a new direct phone number. It is 854-7214. Drivers license examiner Katherine Okamura asks that residents leave messages and she will call them back to schedule appointments. The office is open on Tuesday and Wednesday each week. Services offered are: written tests for motorcycle and vehicle permits, license renewals and replacements, out-of-state transfers and road tests. Hawai`i drivers licenses are renewable six months prior to the expiration date. 

This 1924 eruption at Kilauea was much smaller than the 1790 blast.

THE EXPLOSIVE 1790 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA is the topic at After Dark in the Park tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium. Geologist Don Swanson, along with Bruce Houghton and Samantha Weaver of UH-Manoa, present the results of their most recent research into what happened and if it could happen again.

Ka`u News Briefs April 3, 2011

Miloli`i Halau has a computer room and library and could have a classroom for telecommuting to school.  Photo by Julia Neal

SENATOR GIL KAHELE said yesterday that he sees a lot of hope at the 2011 state Legislature. Along his regular weekend journey through Ka`u to meet constituents and visit his birthplace, Miloli`i, he gave a rundown on proposals that could affect this area.

THE HAWAI`I 2050 Sustainability law will be incorporated into the Hawai`i State Plan, he said. It passed its last committee last week without amendment and will bring a balance to food security, energy security and economic development, Kahele predicted. “Now we need to take it and run,” said the senator. 

Volcano School of the Arts & Sciences
seeks new classrooms.

VOLCANO SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCES is another mission of Kahele, who said he is trying his best, during tough budget talks, to fund the design of new classrooms. He said he may also approach the Office of Hawaiian Affairs since many of the students are Hawaiian. 

BOTH KULANI PRISON, near Volcano and Hawaiian Homelands near Hilo could be used to bring home inmates from expensive prisons, far away from their families on the mainland. Kahele said that it is unfortunate that so much money is being spent each year to house prisoners on the mainland, with little connection to their culture, families and the kind of programs that could help them become productive citizens when they are released in Hawai`i. He said that many prisoners are of Hawaiian descent and that the Hawaiian community is eager to help them here. He said putting at least one of the prisons closer to Hilo will also save transportation costs of going to court, work projects and rehabilitation programs. 

Kulani Prison between Hilo and
Volcano could be reopened.

THE MEN OF PA`A was credited by Kahele as Hawaiian men working together to mentor recently paroled prisoners to help them find work and positive meaning in their lives. He said such programs can go a long way to helping inmates heal.

EDUCATION FOR MILOLI`I children who are very isolated is another program that Kahele wants to work on. He talked about possible telecommuting to school from the Halau at Miloli`i, with successful Hawaiian mentors helping the children to receive good education while respecting their backgrounds.

TRANSPORTATION FOR STUDENTS, taking them long ways to campuses, is becoming a huge economic burden to the state. Kahele called plans to cut some of the bus funding “very scary.” He recalled the days of the one-room schoolhouse in Miloli`i and his family members walking the coastal trail to the school.

VOLCANO ART CENTER’S Spring Art Market continues today at the Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village. Free ongoing art demonstrations, guided family nature walks, creative keiki activities and more are in store until to 3 p.m., and original works of art are available for purchase directly from the artists.

Ka`u News Briefs April 2, 2011

Training by Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park will be available for 20 Ka`u High School youth, and some of them will receive employment opportunities.

HIGH ALTITUDE IMAGERY will give a new look at Hawai`i volcanoes as a specially equipped and modified Grumman Gulfstream III business jet will fly above the Big Island with instruments being developed to track the movement of magma. The project involves the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology and is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space administration.

     The mapping process is called Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar and will eventually be used by unmanned aircraft that would make multiple flights over the island and compare the data from one flight to another that could show deformations in the ground. The scientists will compare the data collected next week from data collected in January 2010. With all of the activity in the volcano this past year, they expect to see a big difference.
     This new technology could not only be used to predict and document volcanic activity but also the movement of tectonic plates to help predict earthquakes, and the movement in glaciers.
     The Gulfstream is expected to make its flights this Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. For more details, see uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov.

Ranger Jorge, a graduate of the summer intership program,
landed a jod and has drawn appreciation from visitors to
Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Jorge is now working
full-time at the park through Americorps.

TRAINING AT HAWAI`I VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK will be available for some 20 Ka`u high school students this spring and could lead to summer jobs at the park and with other nonprofit organizations in the district. Students can pick up applications at the Ka`u High School office, complete them and bring them to an interview this coming Thursday, April 7 at the high school. Last year the same training led to long-term employment for some of the interns. 

THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION is raising airport parking rates on May 1 to $9 a day at Hilo, Kona and other neighbor island airports and $15 a day at Honolulu Airport to fund airport improvements.

KA`U MUSICIANS are helping to raise money for victims of the tsunami in Japan today. Demetrius Oliveira and his band will be at Sangha Hall in Hilo today from noon until 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 presale and $25 at the door. Children under 12 are free. Money will go to the Red Cross.

ANOTHER JAPAN FUNDRAISER with Ka`u youth playing is the `Ukulele Jam to Benefit Japan’s tsunami survivors next Saturday, April 9 from 10 a.m. to sundown at the Lihikai Hawaiian Cultural Learning Center in Keaukaha. In addition to Ka`u youth, it features Keoki Kahumoku, Brittni Paiva, our own Buddy and Sammi Fo from Ocean View and Konabob – all of them regular teachers at music workshops at Pahala Plantation House. The event is free and donations to tsunami victims will be accepted. 

KA`U RESIDENTS CAN LEARN about hybrid cars this morning until 10 a.m. at Ka`u Federal Credit Union in Na`alehu. Kiko Martinez, of Big Island Honda, is offering free test drives of the 2011 Honda Insight. Light refreshments are being served. 

VOLUNTEERS ORGANIZED BY HAWAI`I WILDLIFE FUND are cleaning up Onikinalu Bay, south of Ka`alu`alu Bay, today. There are more Ka`u Coast cleanups scheduled for May 14 and June 4. Call 769-7629 or email kahakai.cleanups@gmail.com for more information.

THE SPRING ART MARKET is happening today and tomorrow at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day there are free art demonstrations, a guided family nature walk, creative keiki activities, food booths and more. Original works of photography, painting, jewelry and sculpture are available for sale directly from the artists.