Ka`u News Briefs June 19, 2011

One Journey and friends at the recent Ka`u Family Fun Fest to raise money for Bay Clinic's new building. The group won top high school music video at last night's ceremonies in Honolulu. Photo by Julia Neal

ONE JOURNEY WON BEST MUSIC VIDEO in Honolulu last night for the statewide Brown Bags to Stardom contest. One Journey also won best musical arrangement and best song. 

Eunice Longakit won Best Female Vocalist
 in the Brown Bags to Stardom music video
competition last light in Honolulu.

Lead singer Eunice Longakit won best music vocalist. One Journey took runner-up trophy in the best musical group category. Their music video came in third place in the online popularity voting, more than 600 votes ahead of the fourth-place winner. Producer Johnny Kai said the win was incredible given the small school size of Pahala and the big school populations at the O`ahu schools that competed. 

THE AXIS DEER INVASION CHALLENGE was discussed at a small gathering of Hawaiian Homes Commissioners and Native Hawaiians yesterday at Na`alehu Community Center. According to community organizer Anna Cariaga, who attended the event, Hawaiians asked the commissioners to help organize local hunters to get rid of the invasive deer, which were previously found only on Lana`i, Moloka`i and Maui and have been seen now in Ka`u. She said the local hunters would make use of the meat for their families. She said organized eradication through local hunting groups would be much better for the community than helicopter hunts that sometimes leave the game to decompose in the wild. She said she strongly disagrees with anyone who might think it is OK to import axis deer to build herds for hunting. “This is illegal, and anyone doing this can be arrested and fined,” she said. The commissioners on hand were Lei Mana DaMate and Ian Lee Loy. 

HAWAIIAN HOMES’ PURCHASE OF 40 houselots in Discovery Harbour has not gone well, and only one house has been built. Anna Cariaga, who met with commissioners yesterday, said construction is too expensive and Hawaiians who live a rural life of ranching, farming, hunting and fishing are hesitant to move into a subdivision with restrictions on what can be in the yards, hanging out clothes to dry and other attempts to upscale the community.

GEOTHERMAL FOR KA`U was also discussed at the Hawaiian Homes meeting, with emphasis on Native Hawaiians being the beneficiaries of such alternative energy projects. Thousands of Hawaiian Home acres in Ka`u are in the South Point, Kalae, area.

Abel Simeona Lui says he is appealing last week's ruling
that would turn over Kawa to the county.

ABEL SIMEONA LUI traveled around Ka`u yesterday and told the press and community members that he is appealing a decision by Judge Joseph P. Florendo that could clear the way for the county to make more than 800 acres between Punalu`u and Honu`apo into a coastal preserve and park. Lui and his followers, who oppose the park, said they are working on federal court cases and also claimed that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is helping them to avoid eviction. Florendo ruled last week that former owner Thomas Okuna owned the property and legally sold one section at Kawa to realtor Marcia Johnson who sold it to the county for a park. He also ruled that Okuna legally sold two other sections to the Edmund C. Olson Trust, which purchased them for the purpose of providing them to the county for coastal preservation. The area has estuaries and many Hawaiian historic sites. Lui claims that it was unfairly taken from his family and that he is the heir tasked with stewarding Kawa. 

THE DEADLINE TO ENTER the Na`alehu Fourth of July Parade has been extended to July 1. `O Ka`u Kakou is sponsoring the parade on Saturday, July 2 at 11 a.m. Patriotic citizens, businesses and organizations interested in participating or donating can call Debra McIntosh at 929-9872.

KILAUEA MILITARY CAMP CELEBRATES Father’s Day with a brunch until 1 p.m. and a Surf ‘n’ Turf special from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Crater Rim Café in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Call 967-8371 for more information. 

TO MARK THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER, Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park is waiving entrance fees on Tuesday, June 21. Also, Kilauea Military Camp, inside the park, is making all its facilities and services available to the general public for the day. For more information call 967-7315.