Ka`u News Briefs Nov. 8, 2011

A Crown communications tower between Pahala and Na`alehu with
KAHU radio founder Wendell Ka`ehu`ae`a.  Photo by Julia Neal

A CELLULAR PHONE TOWER is planned for Maile Street in Pahala, according to a small legal-style notice that was published in the Hilo newspaper on Nov. 2. The cell tower is proposed by Crown Castle USA, which owns more than 23,000 cell towers across the United States. The notice describes the address as 96-3207 Maile Road in Pahala. There is no Maile Road in Pahala, and the notice is likely referring to the old mill site on Maile Street. 

     Castle already owns two cell towers on the old cane haul road between Pahala and Na`alehu. The notice says that “Crown invites comments from any interested party on the impact of the proposed tower on any districts, sites, structures or object significant in American history, archaeology, engineering or culture that are listed or determined eligible for listing the National Register of Historic Places.”
     Specific information regarding the project is available for comments by calling Janis Merritts at 480-735-6931 during normal business hours in Arizona. The notice says that comments must be received by Nov. 28, 2011. However, the notice has neither a postal nor an email address for comments.

SCHOOL LUNCH PRICES will go up, according to a measure passed by the state Board of Education last month. A story by Colin Stuart in the Hawai`i Tribune Herald says that the Department of Education needs to raise $6 million to pay for instruction and other expenses. 

Brian De Lima

     Stuart quoted Big Island BOE member Brian De Lima as saying the decision to hike lunch prices was difficult. “We were discussing the next supplemental budget, and we knew that one of the things that needs to occur is we want to spend more money in the classroom,” De Lima said. “So the question came up: ‘Is providing lunch a core function (of the school system)?’” 

     The price of lunches will go up 90 percent, and the BOE is hoping to phase in the increase over two years, the Tribune Herald story says.
     Reduced prices and free lunches for qualifying students of low-income families would remain the same price.

A WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED TO THE PUBLIC regarding an offer for a high interest savings rate offered by Advanced Financial & Consulting Group, LLC. An advertisement was circulated offering six percent and five percent interest rates. According to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Division of Financial Institutions, the company is not licensed by the state banking division. The department verified with the FDIC that the company is not insured by the FDIC. Consumers are asked to file a complaint with DFI if they have invested funds with this company. A DFI complaint form is available on DFI’s website at http://hawaii.gov/dcca/dfi, or the consumer may file a letter complaint.

Miss Ka`u Coffee and Miss Aloha
Hawai`i, Brandy Shibuya

MISS KA`U COFFEE, BRANDY SHIBUYA, will be welcomed home on Friday after winning the islandwide Miss Aloha Hawai`i competition in Kona. Shibuya will be welcomed at the Veterans Day Concert this Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Pahala Plantation House. She will perform hula. Also on stage will be One Journey; the Ka`u High School Ensemble; the Rev. Dennis Kamakahi; David Kamakahi; George Kahumoku, Jr.; Moses Kahumoku; John and Hope Keawe; James Hill; Anne Davison and more. Plate lunches and bottled water will be on sale as a fundraiser for the Ka`u High Ensemble. 

NOVEMBER VISITOR ARRIVALS to Hawai`i, statewide, are up eight percent, along with higher hotel occupancy rates. The improving visitor industry posted $2.14 billion in revenue in the first nine months of this year, up 13.4 percent over the same period last year and 21 percent higher than 2009. The hotel occupancy rate remained relatively low on the Big island in September, but increased to 58.3 percent from 51.9 percent for September last year. The statewide occupancy rate was 74.5 percent, with the highest on O`ahu at 84.1 percent, followed by Kaua`i at 71 percent and Maui at 65.9 percent.

Bill Chapman

THE HISTORY OF VOLCANO HOUSE is the topic of After Dark in the Park tonight at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitors Center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Historian and archaeologist Bill Chapman, a professor at University of Hawai`i-Manoa, will focus on the first Volcano House. He works on documenting historic buildings and sites within the national park when he comes here each summer with a class of college students.

OCEAN VIEW COMMUNITY CENTER is the site of the Ka`u Community Development Plan Steering Committee tonight at 5:30 p.m. Much of last month’s meeting was postponed to listen to community concerns about an idea to incentivize for new homes in Ocean View to be built in a more centralized neighborhood closer to Hwy 11, utilities and other services. Most of those who spoke said they like living remotely, while planners said that fast growth could make their dwellings no longer remote and create traffic and other problems as experienced in the last decade in Puna. Tonight’s meeting will focus on the overall progress of the Ka`u Community Development Plan.