Ka`u News Briefs Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014

Hana Hou is gearing up for its annual Keiki Christmas Party tomorrow at 5 p.m. Santa will be there with gifts for keiki and food for all. Photo by Julia Neal

KA`U FARM BUREAU held its last meeting of the year last night at Pahala Community Center with Pres. Ralph Gaston reporting on the local chapter’s efforts to control the coffee berry borer. He said that coordinating and helping to obtain funding to fight the borer is testament to what the organization can do for local agriculture.

      Gaston said his vision is for Ka`u County, as the chapter is called, to evolve from its roots with mostly Ka`u Coffee farmers to include a broader base of agriculturalists from throughout the district. Ka`u is one of 11 Hawai`i Farm Bureau “counties” in the state.

Ka`u Farm Bureau works to control the coffee berry borer.
Photo by Peggy Greb/USDA Ag Research Service

      Its former president Chris Manfredi, of Na`alehu, is now President of the statewide organization, and Randy Cabral, of Royal Hawaiian Orchards, with offices in Pahala and Hilo, is Vice President for the statewide Hawai`i Farm Bureau Federation.

      Manfredi described the Farm Bureau as the largest agriculture lobbying organization in the state and in the country, noting that nationally, the American Farm Bureau Federation has more members than the National Rifle Association. Manfredi said he has represented the statewide organization in Washington, D.C. and at national conventions. He said that all members are invited to attend the next national convention in San Diego. He reported that keynote speakers in the past have included the star of the television reality show Duck Dynasty and a general from the U.S. military, former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal. Keynote speaker next year will be Jay Leno.

      Manfredi said the Farm Bureau “helps to strengthen your voices” at the state Capitol and in Congress. He called the Farm Bureau “a grassroots collaborative structure” and said that policies and legislative agendas are determined in a democratic fashion with members of many differing views getting together to come up with the official Farm Bureau points of view.

      He said that more members in the Farm Bureau give it more power and that dues, at $95 a year, for Ka`u, can be offset by many Farm Bureau programs, including discounts in shipping and purchasing.

      He said the Hawai`i Farm Bureau magazine, on hiatus for a couple of years, will be brought back as a quarterly. He said it will not only be about farming but also about food, with 10,000 copies printed and distributed by mailing to members and at Whole Foods grocery stores. He asked for suggestions from Ka`u and said he is looking for “heroes in agriculture” stories.

Hawai`i Farm Bureau Federation President Chris Manfredi said
the organization's magazine will be revived.

      He also announced a revamped website at HFBF.org and encouraged everyone to check it out.
      Concerning the 2015 state Legislature, Manfredi said the Farm Bureau helps to pass about ten measures per year, and this year there are 15 proposed.
      He noted that the Farm Bureau lobbies for funding for the local Soil & Water Conservation Districts and that Brenda Iokepa Moses is the Ka`u chair of the organization that helps plan farms and good agricultural practices.
      Manfredi stressed that ag needs more funding, the state Department of Agriculture receiving only one half of one percent of the state budget. “We think that’s wrong,” said Manfredi. “People want to get behind ag.”
      He said more help is needed to fight the macadamia felted coccid pest, warning that it could wipe out the entire mac nut industry in Ka`u.
      He also talked about new food safety laws that have such a high cost of compliance that home roasting and other small food prep businesses could be threatened.

      Manfredi mentioned state funding for irrigation system upgrades using old sugar plantation water tunnels and said the surveys are completed. He said the state administration and Legislature need to keep hearing from the public to keep the process going. He said the plan is for the state Department of Land & Natural Resources to lease the water system to the Agricultural Develoment Corp, which would lease to the individual ag water entities. These cooperatives and other entities are being established between Kapapala and Wai`ohinu. Manfredi said the process is “moving at a glacial pace… . When it does happen we will have millions to repair the water system and a lot more capacity than what is coming out of them now.”
      See more on the Farm Bureau meeting in tomorrow’s Ka`u News Briefs.

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Chefs in Japan have selected Aikane Plantation's Ka`u Coffee
as one of the top 100 food products in Japan.
Photo from cuisine-kingdom.com

KA`U'S AIKANE PLANTATION COFFEE COMPANY has been selected as one of the top 100 food products in Japan. Each year, products are selected by top chefs in Japan and listed at cuisine-kingdom.com. Categories are Fresh Food, Processed Food, Seasoning, Beverage & Alcohol and Kitchen Tools & Tableware. 

      “This is quite an honor considering how many products throughout the world are brought into Japan,” said Aikane Plantation owner Phil Becker.

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“CLEANER ENERGY, MORE AFFORDABLE ENERGY, and to get there as quickly as possible” are goals of NextEra Energy, Eric Gleason, president of NextEra Energy Transmission told Tom Callis, of Hawai`i Tribune-Herald. The Florida-based company announced plans to purchase Hawaiian Electric Industries for $4.3 billion last week.
      “What gets my attention is the prolific, diverse, world-class renewable resources of all types (on the Big Island),” Gleason told Callis. “If there is an island in the state that gets to 100 percent renewables first, it ought to be the Big Island.”
      Gleason said NextEra Energy is considering wind, biomass, solar and geothermal but has yet to decide which sources to pursue. He is confident renewable energy will contribute to lower energy costs.
      The cost of about 17 cents per kilowatt to produce electricity on the Big Island is mainly attributed to oil, according to Gleason. “The price to beat for renewables is 17 cents,” he said. “As long as you can integrate costs effectively, you can save customers money.”
      Gleason told Callis, “Our view is the way technology is today that some level of fossil fuels could give the degree of (firm power) that’s going to be required. Maybe not forever. That’s why we support HELCO’s plan that they filed that includes some fossil fuel use in the system.”
      See hawaiitribune-herald.com.

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HAWAI`I COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE REPORTS that lava continues to flow in the Pahoa area, slowly covering another 225 yards in the last 24 hours as of 8:30 a.m. today. The flow front is currently in a relatively flat area and approaching steeper paths of descent, which could cause the flow to gain speed as it heads toward Hwy 130, 2.2 miles away.

      A community meeting to update residents takes place Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Pahoa High School Cafeteria with representatives from Civil Defense and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

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Oral Abihai demonstrates `ukulele making tomorrow.
Photo from NPS

ORAL ABIHAI SHARES HIS PASSION for making `ukulele from discarded or naturally fallen pieces of wood tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center lanai in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply. 

HANA HOU RESTAURANT’S KEIKI Christmas party is tomorrow at 5 p.m. in Na`alehu. The event features gifts for keiki, food for everyone and a visit from Santa.

THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER FOR the Christmas coloring contest at Pahala Community Center is Thursday. Keiki in preschool through sixth grade are invited to participate. For more information, call Nona at 928-3102.

THE PUBLIC IS INVITED to Ka`u Scenic Byway Committee Meeting Thursday at 5 p.m. at Na`alehu Methodist Church. For more information, email richmorrow@alohabroadband.net.

VOLCANO MIDDLE SCHOOL THEATER NIGHT is Thursday at 6 p.m. at Kilauea Military Camp Theater in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Fifth- and sixth-graders present free performances. Call 982-7344 or email kden73@aol.com for more information.

KA`U COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN Steering Committee continues its discussion of the first comprehensive draft of the plan Saturday at 10 a.m. at Na`alehu Community Center. The public is invited.
      According to planner Ron Whitmore, when the Steering Committee thinks the CDP is ready for full community review, then the broader community and stakeholders will have a thorough opportunity for review and recommendations. Only after the Steering Committee is satisfied that the CDP truly reflects community preferences will it recommend that the CDP be adopted by the County Council.
      Residents can read the draft at kaucdp.info and at local libraries and community centers.
      For more information, email ron.whitmore@hawaiicounty.gov. or call 961-8137.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

See kaucalendar.com/Directory2014.swf.

Ka`u News Briefs Monday, Dec. 8, 2014

ILWU pensioners, including retirees and former workers at the sugar plantation, fill Pahala Community Center for their annual
 Christmas party. Photo by Emie Peralta

THREE HAWAI`I ISLAND PLANTS ARE INCLUDED in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Candidate Notice of Review, a yearly status appraisal of plants and animals that are candidates for Endangered Species Act protection. Exocarpos menziesii, Sanicula sandwicensis and Phyllostegia stachyoides are three of 22 species from the state of Hawai`i added to the list, which now has 146 species recognized by the Service as candidates for ESA protection. The 22 species include 18 Hawaiian flowering plants and four ferns found on one or more of the Hawaiian Islands. All are being negatively affected by nonnative animals and plants.

Sanicula sandwicensis is one of three Hawai`i Island
plants being considered as an endangered species.

      The Service is now soliciting additional information on these species and others that may warrant ESA protection to assist in preparing listing documents and future revisions or supplements to the Candidate Notice of Review.
      Candidate species are plants and animals for which the Service has enough information on their status and the threats they face to propose as threatened or endangered, but for which a proposed listing rule is precluded by other, higher priority listing actions. The annual review and identification of candidate species helps landowners and natural resource managers understand which species need most to be conserved, allowing them to address threats and work to preclude ESA listing.
      Although candidate species do not receive ESA protection, the Service works to conserve them and their habitats using several tools: a grants program funds conservation projects by private landowners, states and territories; and two voluntary programs ­– Candidate Conservation Agreements and Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances ­– engage participants to implement specific actions that remove or reduce the threats to candidate species, which helps stabilize or restore the species and can preclude ESA listing.
      All candidate species are assigned a listing priority number based on the magnitude and imminence of threats they face. When adding species to the list of threatened or endangered species, the Service addresses species with the highest listing priority first.
      More information can be found online at fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/cnor.html.

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Kupono Palakiko-Leffew, at left, joined other Hawai`i seniors
Patrick Keamoai-Strickland and Preston Dudoit for the Life
Champion Senior Bowl. Photo from Ka`u Trojans

KA`U HIGH SCHOOL’S VERY OWN Kupono Palakiko-Leffew represented the Trojans to play in the inaugural Life Champion Senior Bowl, which was held at Kamehameha’s Paiea Stadium Saturday. 

      The Big Island Interscholastic Federation and state Department of Education played no part in this event. Instead, it was brought together by Hawai`i Football Club president Keala Pule with a goal to land scholarships for seniors across the islands.
      The senior bowl, the state’s only showcase for seniors, was watched by over 200 colleges across the country through scoringlive.com and welcomed by about 1,500 fans across the state.
      The event brought 86 seniors to play from across the state’s five leagues and even a player from Guam. Coaches split the players into two teams. The players of each team were given freedom to choose a name together. Through this, the teams were known as Aztec Coqui Frog Bags and Shmoney Squad.
      Palakiko-Leffew gained yardage in the first quarter alongside quarterback Jordan Taamu. The teams were pretty much tied for the duration. By the end of the fourth quarter, with the score 28-28, a sudden-death overtime decided the final score. Within the first play of overtime, the Aztec Coqui’s Keanan Luis scored the final touchdown, settling the game at 35-28.
As described by one of the players, “The experience was great, and even though we’d only known each other for a few days, we all became a family.” The players were together since Wednesday, staying in the same building, practicing together and getting to know each other. (Story by The Ka`u Calendar newspaper intern Kaweni Ibarra.)

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Jim Robo

THE CHAIR AND CEO OF THE COMPANY that is buying Hawaiian Electric Industries for $4.3 billion prefers large solar installations to rooftop solar, reported Duane Shimogawa in Pacific Business News.

      Jim Robo, of NextEra Energy, said large, utility-scale solar projects are cheaper and more cost-effective than rooftop solar. “This is a scale business, and scale matters, which leads to lower cost,” he said. “Energy costs are very expensive here. It’s important to not be dogmatic about one or the other. What’s in the best interest for customers? That’s what we need to figure out.” 

      Marco Mangelsdorf, president of Hilo-based ProVision Solar, told PBN that “NextEra would be buying HEI with the idea of making money, not doing the ‘right thing’ to make this state some kind of renewable energy paradise.”
      Robo said modernizing the grid is another way to lower costs. He said using smart meters is part of NextEra’s plan, similar to what its subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Co., has done.
      Another subsidiary, NextEra Energy Resources, has a track record in developing wind, solar and natural gas projects.

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ILWU pensioners from left: Treasurer Warren Toriano, Advisor Margaret Cabudol, President Clyde Silva, Secretary Emie Peralta, Advisor Pauline Enriques, First Vice President Franco Longakit, Second Vice President Augusto Ballo and Advisor Raymond Kamei.

ILWU PENSIONERS OF PAHALA held their 2014 Christmas Party yesterday at Pahala Community Center. The organization is made up largely of retired and former sugar plantation workers. Officers are President Clyde Silva, First Vice President Franco Longakit, Second Vice President Augusto Ballo, Secretary Emie Peralta and Treasurer Warren Toriano. Advisors are Margaret Cabudol, Pauline Enriques and Raymond Kamei.

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ON FRIDAY, HAWAI`I WILDLIFE FUND COMPLETED its 2014 marine debris season loading net and line into a container for shipment to Honolulu. The team loaded about 4.5 tons of net into a 40-foot container provided by Matson Navigation’s Ka Ipu `Aina program. Megan Lamson, Marine Debris Project Coordinator for HWF, said most of the net and line was recovered from the southeast Ka`u coast. The container will be shipped to O`ahu, where Schnitzer Steel will chop it into pieces, and then it will be burned at the Covanta H-Power plant. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program arranged this Nets-to-Energy partnership to keep material out of the landfill and create electricity with it. Since 2005, HWF’s tally for these net and line shipments is about 75 tons.

Hawai`i Wildlife Fund loaded 4.5 tons of derelict fishing net found this year
along the Ka`u Coast onto a container for shipment to an O`ahu
waste-to-energy plant. Photo from HWF

      Lamson said, “This container shipment is only a fraction of the total debris we’ve collected from the Hawai`i Island shoreline. This year, winds and currents brought in different proportions of marine debris – less net and line and a higher percentage of other floating debris, including fish traps, buoys, crates, tires, boat pieces and an extensive list of normal household items.”
      While HWF works with other groups on the island gathering debris from multiple sites, their main focus is on the Ka`u Coast, where more debris washes ashore than any other place in the main Hawaiian Islands. The organization began this work in 2003 and in recent years has been removing an annual average of 15-20 tons for a total to date of about 173 tons.
      HWF’s marine debris cleanup work is supported with a grant from NOAA. “We have other local partners that also help with in-kind donations and funding, and we have a large group of volunteers that are critical to the overall effort,” Lamson said. “The container loading, for example, would not be possible without the tractor assistance provided by JD Services, LLC.”
      The next large cleanup event in Ka`u will be held Saturday, Feb. 7. To volunteer or for more information on HWF’s other activities, see wildhawaii.org or contact kahakai.cleanups@gmail.com or 769-7629.

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Dick Hershberger portrays Thomas Jaggar tomorrow and every other Tuesday.
Photo by Ron Johnson

DARREN GOODMAN GLASS EXHIBIT opens today and continues through Saturday, Dec. 20 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Volcano Art Center Gallery in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply. 

KA`U FARM BUREAU PRESIDENT RALPH GASTON invites members and prospective members to its meeting today at 6 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. Hawai`i Farm Bureau Federation is a nonprofit organization of farming families united for the purpose of analyzing problems and formulating action to ensure the future of agriculture thereby promoting the well-being of farming and the state’s economy.

KA`U RESIDENT DICK HERSHBERGER brings Hawaiian Volcano Observatory founder Thomas Jaggar to life tomorrow and every other Tuesday during A Walk into the Past. Participants meet at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center and walk to Jaggar’s underground workshop new Volcano House in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.

A HAWAIIAN `UKULELE DEMONSTRATION takes place Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center lanai in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Oral Abihai shares his passion for making `ukulele from discarded or naturally fallen pieces of wood. Free; park entrance fees apply.

HANA HOU RESTAURANT’S KEIKI Christmas party is Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Na`alehu. The event features gifts for keiki, food for everyone and a visit from Santa. 

HAWAI`I STATE LEGISLATURE’S Public Access Room presents a workshop about the legislative process Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Ocean View Community Center. Entitled We the Powerful, the workshop covers how the public can participate in the Legislature. The workshop will consider several questions: Do you want a say in which state laws get passed, or don’t? Do you want to make a difference? Would you like to find information and track activity on the Legislature’s website? Do you want to be part of finding solutions?

      Suzanne Marinelli, coordinator at PAR, leads the presentation. PAR is a division of the non-partisan Legislative Reference Bureau.
      For more information, call 974-4000 ext. 7-0478 or email par@capitol.hawaii.gov.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

See kaucalendar.com/Directory2014.swf.

Ka`u News Briefs Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014

Individuals can still sign up to participate in Pahala Christmas Parade a week from today on Sunday, Dec. 14. Pahala Preschool rode in the parade last year. Photo by Julia Neal

CONGRESSWOMAN TULSI GABBARD HAS JOINED a group of bipartisan colleagues to call attention to significant policy provisions that were inserted into the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 without a vote or serious debate. The annual defense bill includes a two-year extension of the authority to equip and train so-called moderate Syrian rebels.


Rep. Tulsi Gabbard

      “It is absolutely unacceptable to include an open-ended policy of arming and training so-called ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels in the NDAA without any serious public debate or a standalone vote,” said Gabbard, a twice-deployed veteran who has repeatedly criticized the strategy to arm Syrian rebels. “Giving weapons and training to these rebels whose stated purpose is to overthrow President Assad will have lengthy and costly consequences because it continues the broken policy of overthrowing regimes and nation-building that has cost so many precious lives and our nation’s treasure, drawing us into another country’s civil war. I voted against this provision on Sept. 17, when the Administration promised Congress would be able to reassess this strategy in December 2014. To the contrary, Congress has had no opportunity to discuss, debate, or vote on this standalone question. There is no reason to bury this issue in a major must-pass annual defense bill that includes critical provisions for our military’s readiness and our troops’ well-being. We must have a standalone vote so the American people’s voice can be heard.

      “Congress cannot continue to offer tacit support for a strategy that does not support achieving our mission of destroying ISIL and the Islamic extremists who seek to harm us. By continuing to funnel weapons to rebels in Syria, whose vetting and loyalties are questionable and untested, we face the likely outcome of our weapons falling into the hands of our enemies yet again, to be used against Americans and innocent civilians.”
      Gabbard joined a bipartisan letter led to Speaker John Boehner reiterating these concerns about the Syria train-and-equip provisions inserted into the NDAA agreement.

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Sen. Mazie Hirono

HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES’ merger with NextEra Energy is receiving widespread reaction. In its announced last week, HEI said NextEra is supportive of its plans “to enhance Hawai`i’s energy future by lowering electric bills, giving customers more service options and nearly tripling the amount of distributed solar, while achieving among the nation’s highest levels of renewable energy by 2030.” 

      HEI called NextEra “one of the nation’s largest and most well-respected electric utilities” and “North America’s largest producer of renewable energy from the wind and sun.”
      The announcement is “profound and historic for Hawai`i,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono. “Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. is well established in this community, and the decision to combine with NextEra Energy, Inc. … deserves careful scrutiny on behalf of Hawai`i consumers and residents. I look forward to meeting with HEI and NextEra leaders to hear how Hawai`i can lead in clean energy and protect the interests of the customer.”
      Richard Ha, owner of Hamakua Springs Country Farms and a proponent of geothermal energy, said the merger “will be very good for Hawai`i,” on his blog at hahaha.hamakuasprings.com.
      “NextEra has the balance sheet and other resources to support significant investment in Hawai`i’s transmission and distribution system to enable much higher levels of renewable energy sources,” Ha said. “Most of all, this change in ownership of our electrical utility will finally make much needed new and different approaches possible. What we all want is a lower cost of electricity.
      “We are unique on the Big Island. Beside solar, wind and biofuels, we have proven geothermal. Once it’s developed, geothermal wants to run 100 percent of the time, and the more it runs, the cheaper it is to the ratepayers.

Richard Ha

      “What if we guaranteed the geothermal developer, say, 25 megawatts, and put no restriction on generating electricity for hydrogen manufacturing over and above the 25 megawatts. If, for instance, the geothermal company installed a 30-megawatt generator, they could sell 25 megawatts to the utility and sell the excess five megawatts cheap to make hydrogen. That would solve our liquid transportation problem, via hydrogen fuel cells, and we could make nitrogen fertilizer so as not to be dependent on petroleum byproducts. That’s only one example of what we could do with new thinking.
      “This sale is an unexpected but very interesting turn of events. We welcome NextEra.”
      Henry Curtis, director of Life of the Land, which promotes sound energy and land use, expresses skepticism. On his blog at ililanimedia.blogspot.com, he says NextEra’s subsidiary, Florida Power and Light, “is not a renewable, energy-efficiency paradise.”
      Curtis cites FPL’s Ten-Year Power Plant Site Plan 2014-2023, which shows 0.139 percent of its power being generated by solar in 2013, with that increasing to 0.145 percent by 2023.
      He also cites an article in the current issue of Sierra Club Magazine claiming that FPL “recently petitioned its state’s public service commission to reduce its efficiency goal to two one-thousandths of one percent.” 

Henry Curtis

      While FPL’s 10-year plan includes “a number of conservation/energy efficiency and load management initiatives,” David Guest, managing attorney for Florida’s Earthjustice office, said in the Tampa Tribune that “this summer, FPL abruptly yanked its rebate program that offered $1,000 back to customers who installed solar water heaters.”
      Guest said the energy-efficiency programs that the utilities do offer “unfairly apply to high-end homeowners. The majority of low-income people, who are most in need of a break on their monthly power bills, don’t get affordable incentives to make their homes more energy efficient.”
      According to Curtis, Robert Harris, Hawai`i representative of The Alliance for Solar Choic, said, “NextEra is very supportive of renewable energy that they own, they control and they can sell.”

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HAWAIIAN VALUES, CULTURE, TALENT AND FOOD are celebrated today at the annual Makahiki held at Punalu`u Beach Park with everyone invited. Local bands volunteer, and free food is served up both days, with many people camping out.

DARREN GOODMAN GLASS EXHIBIT opens tomorrow and continues through Saturday, Dec. 20 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Volcano Art Center Gallery in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply.

KA`U FARM BUREAU PRESIDENT RALPH GASTON invites members and prospective member to it meeting tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. Hawai`i Farm Bureau Federation is a nonprofit organization of farming families united for the purpose of analyzing problems and formulating action to ensure the future of agriculture thereby promoting the well-being of farming and the state’s economy. 

      On its website at hfbf.org, the organization states, “Our guiding policies originate at the grassroots County Farm Bureau level with the ideas, opinions and contributions of our concerned membership. We encourage the participation of every member and try to have open communication with them through our annual convention, county meetings and our monthly newsletter. Policies are adopted after discussion at our county and state meetings.”

Santa returns to Hana Hou for the annual Keiki Christmas
Party Wednesday. Photo by Julia Neal

HANA HOU RESTAURANT’S KEIKI CHRISTMAS party is coming up Wednesday, Dec. 10 at 5 p.m. in Na`alehu. The event features gifts for keiki, food for everyone and a visit from Santa. 

PAHALA CHRISTMAS PARADE IS A WEEK from today on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 1 p.m. Floats, walking groups, tractors and classic cars, choirs, public officials, schools and more wind their way through Pahala from the armory to the hospital and to Holy Rosary Church for refreshments. Everyone is welcome. To sign up, call 928-0808.

KA`U SCHOOL OF THE ARTS OFFERS a free Christmas Concert after Pahala Christmas Parade. The concert begins at 3 p.m. Sunday Dec. 14 at Pahala Plantation House, featuring Ka`u `Ohana Band, Halau Hula O Ka `Imina Na`auao Kahiko and a sing-along with Ka`u Community Chorus. Potluck refreshments are welcome.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

See kaucalendar.com/Directory2014.swf.