Happy Mothers Day

Nothing terribly exciting to blog about today. So I’ll just wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mothers Day :).

Stacey Higa’s Hokulia Bypass Resolution,Saddle Road Re-Alignment Delays, Hawaii DWS Using Hydro Power,Kona Blog Reader Suggestion To HDOT

There was a letter to the editor in WHT which really blew my mind today. The letter writer, among other things, attacked Councilman Stacy Higa because his Hokulia bypass resolution passed. Below is the rebuttal letter to the editor which I submitted to WHT this morning:

I strongly feel Gordon Toms unfairly attacked Stacy Higa for getting his Hokulia bypass resolution passed. Firstly his resolution is non-binding. Secondly it was approved by a 8-1 and 6-2 margin on its first and second readings. Where Mr. Toms outrage against the other council members for voting the way they did if he has such big issues with this resolution ?

In regards to this resolution,I think I need to clarify some things.It simply urges the Department of Public Works to seek bids to construct the 1,500 foot Coupe segment of the Hokulia bypass. I personally don’t see a problem with this. Judge Ibarra ruled on September 25, 2007 that the condemnation was legal. He consequently awarded possession of the land to Hawaii County pending appeal on December 3rd, 2007 and upheld that decision in a late January 2008 ruling.

Currently the Coupe’s have filed an appeal with the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals. It is unknown when they will issue a ruling on the Coupe’s appeal. Even more troublesome is the fact that the Coupe’s could appeal this all the way to the U.S Supreme Court.Which will probably take years to play out. All the while the clock is ticking on surety bonds that Hokulia posted to guarantee completion of the bypass. By my calculation there is 38 months left until the bonds expire.

So in my view, time is of the essence to get this road completed. I know there is risks involved with doing this. There is a remote possibility the appellate court may reverse Judge Ibarra’s rulings and require the Coupe segment of roadway be torn up. But I think the chances of that are slim. Chris Yuen, Hawaii County’s planning director and Ivan Torigoe,Hawaii County’s corporation counsel, have stated publicly that its extremely unlikely that the courts would order this to happen.

I would urge Mr. Tom to do some more research before spouting off baseless accusations about Stacy Higa’s resolution and the Queen Kaahumanu highway widening. A good place to start your research is on my blog, the Kona Blog.

Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona

I’m a bit puzzled by this WHT article about the delays in completing the Saddle Road 6(5) phase (between m.m 35 and m.m 41.5). Firstly according to this website, the 6(5) phase is going to be advertised for bids on July 30, 2008, with the bid opening occuring on September 4th, 2008. I find it hard to believe it will take 2 years to get this 6.5 mile roadway segment completed. Secondly, the headline for this article is wrong.The BLNR extended the FHWA’s conservation district use permit until September 2010.Brennon Morioka stated here this phase would be opened to the public in the summer of 2009. By my calculations, that is slightly over a year delay, not 2 years.

I find it funny that WHT finally wrote up an article on the Hawaii Department of Water Supply using hydroelectric power to run their water pumps. Richard Ha blogged about this back in March 2008.

Lastly, I sent this Kona blog reader suggestion to the HDOT in regards to have to reconstruct the Palani Road/ Queen Kaahumanu highway intersection for the Queen Kaahumanu widening project.

Aloha,

I know someone who made this suggestion how the Palani Road/Queen Kaahumanu highway intersection reconstruction (Due to Queen Kaahumanu widening) should be done. He suggested the work should be done exclusively at night . If its during the day, it will cause traffic gridlock at one of the key roadway intersections on this side of the island.This will cause a lot of people to grumble once again that this should’ve been handled better.

Aloha,
Aaron Stene

Hawaii’s Rough Economic Ride,Hawaiian Telcom New Management,Big Island Vistor’s Bureau Trying To Attract More Flights,More Illogical Legislative Bills,More On Kristine Kubat’s Incomprehensible Diatribe,Another SO2 Monitoring Site

It looks like the State of Hawaii is in for a economic rough ride the next couple years,according to the latest UHERO economic forecast. Which the Honolulu Star Bulletin and Advertiser reported on (here, and here).It should be interesting to see if this forecast rings true. In my view, I question the severity and when any economic rebound will happen. Higher oil prices are not going away.Which pretty much impacts the cost of everything. The latter will consequently make this economic slowdown more severe and any recovery farther out.

It is good to see that Hawaiian Telcom has shaken up management again with the hiring of Eric Yeaman as CEO.But I have my doubts this shakeup will do any good. Hawaiian Telcom has a uphill battle to stem land line losses to cellular phone companies and Oceanic Time Warner.

They really need to get their IPTV service up and running. So they can better compete against Oceanic Time Warner’s all in one bundles. But due to the way Carlyle purchased Verizon Hawaii in 2005, it didn’t leave them any financial flexibility to significantly improve the overall telecom infrastructure. For the IPTV service to succeed, Hawaiian Telcom needs to reduce the loop lengths. So more people can qualify for their 7Mbps/11Mbps speed tiers.Hence why they recently petitioned the FCC for Universal Service Fund support.

It appears the Big Island Visitors Bureau is trying to get the community to write letters to them in support of additional airlift to the Big Island, according to this HTH article.

On a related note, the legislature strikes again with the illogical legislation regulating the inter island airline market. Why does this seem like deja vu all over again ? This seems to be another boondoggle like on the lines of the nefarious gas cap.Apparently this legislation is awaiting Governor Lingle’s signature.Hopefully she doesn’t do the latter. Thus letting this business unfriendly legislation die quickly.

I stumbled upon this website while reading the reader comments here. Which shows detailed air quality statewide.

Lastly, I really liked this reader comment in response to Kristine Kubat’s “incomprehensible diatribe”.Which she really took an an unfair potshot at the residents of West Hawaii.

” That’s all Kona needs - another east-sider telling us how to “fix’ our problems.Way to go! Since you have all the answers, you can be the first to come out here, Kristine, and start planting the first trees, developing the first parks and so on and so forth, and then you can go back to your writing desk and toot your happy little horn about how you magically found the way to push through all the red tape and actually get the county council to listen to the needs of Kona’s residents.

Get off your high horse already. You live in a place where you have roads and malls and all that stuff that you feel Kona residents are being trivial about for requesting. I can bet if you lived in Kona, you’d be p!ssed, too - and you would ALSO see what a pain in the a$$ it is to get the freaking county council to do ANYTHING to improve life over here - and that INCLUDES things like adding public parks, sidewalks, options for mass transit and all that public betterment stuff you take for granted because you already have it there in Hilo. “

Ted Hong Spouting Off Again, Waste To Energy Plant Funding Rejected,Realtime SO2 Monitoring Site,Interesting Interview With Hokulia CEO John DeFries,Kawahae Harbour HSF Readyness

Republican candidate Ted Hong again spouted off in this Hawaii Reporter article about the doom and gloom direction our economy is going. I agree with Ted Hong’s basic premise that Hawaii’s business climate is poor. But I really detest politicians who employ scare tactics to gain votes. Come on lets get real here Governor Lingle, who is Ted Hong’s good buddy,stated recently that “the closures of Molokai Ranch and Aloha Airlines do not reflect underlying problems with Hawaii’s economy.”

Thank goodness the Hawaii County Council rejected funding the proposed Hilo waste to energy plant. Now the focus can be shifted to more reasonable alternatives.

Hat tip to Hunter Bishop for blogging about NOAA’s realtime SO2 emission monitoring site.

I found this interesting interview with Hokulia’s CEO John DeFries today.

Lastly, I received this e-mail from Ian Birnie today in regards to how ready Kawaihae harbor is for the Hawaii Superferry.

“Hi Aaron,

We’ll probably have to use Pier 1, if earthquake-related damage is repaired by then, or Pier 2-A, which also has some damage but will hopefully be repaired soon. We recently received an insurance settlement, so we are finally initiating repairs. The barge to be used in Kawaihae is in Honolulu and can be delivered here, but depending on whether we use Pier 1 or Pier 2, the ramp may have to be moved from one side to the other, i.e., if we use Pier 1, the ramp goes on the port (left) side, but if we use Pier 2, the ramp will go on the starboard (right) side.

The longer range plan is to develop a new pier down near the LST ramp, but that’s a few years off. The advantages of using one of the existing piers is that we can use a separate access gate into and out of the harbor, and we already have a paved area to in which to queue the vehicles.

Aloha,
Ian Birnie”

WHT Lack Coverage Of Hokulia Layoffs,Queen Kaahumanu Resurfacing,A Incomprehensible Diatribe,Proposed Thirty Meter Telescope,Hawaii Superferry

I’m really surprised that West Hawaii Today still hasn’t published anything about the layoffs Hokulia. Maybe they are afraid about reporting about this, especially since they said recently that Hokulia is not near bankruptcy ?

I just got word today that the bid opening to resurface Queen Kaahumanu Highway between Lako Street and Malulani Gardens should hopefully happen by June 30, 2008.

My jaw dropped after I read this op-ed by Kristine Kubat of Big Island Weekly. In my view her “incomprehensible diatribe” will do nothing to help bridge the divide breaking this island apart. She is certainly a “subversive nut”. Who would rather push her own agenda versus trying to come up with constructive solutions to help this island.

There was interesting article about the proposed telescope planned for Mauna Kea. The Thirty Meter Telescope will be a massive undertaking. Projects like this should be welcomed and supported. But it wouldn’t surprise me that “subversive nuts” like Kristine Kubat will try to torpedo this project.

Lastly, the Hawaii Supeferry is still awaiting the community’s response before resuming service to Kauai.It is obvious the residents of Kauai don’t want the Hawaii Superferry servicing their island for the foreseeable future.Thus the HSF should instead start Big Island- Oahu service already.

Saddle Road Update,Hokulia Bypass, New Connector Road Opening Up,Hokulia Property Tax Contribution,Federal Stimulus Check Update

I found out a few days ago that the supplemental EIS for the m.m 41.5-Mamalahoa Highway phase of the Saddle Road improvement project should be done by the fall of 2008. If everything goes right, it should be accepted by early 2009.

The reason the SEIS has to be done is because the US Army purchased 23,000 acres of former Parker Ranch land for Stryker training. Thus the alignment of this phase of Saddle Road had to change to minimize the civilian and military traffic interaction.

Interestingly back in 2004 , the US Army expressed no concerns about any military/civilian traffic conflicts.

“Officials dismissed a newly suggested concern that construction of a later phase of the Saddle project could conflict with the Army’s desire to obtain 23,000 acres of Parker Ranch land in the same area.

Pohakuloa commander Lt. Col. Fred Clarke said there would be no conflict because no live firing is planned in the 23,000-acre area.

Smith said the only accommodation that might be necessary would be some underpasses for military vehicles to drive under the highway.”

Here is another example as to why the Hokulia bypass needs to be completed. The Honalo intersection between Highway 180 and Highway 11 has been a bottleneck for years. Especially as of late because people tried to use Highway 180 to avoid the traffic jam on Highway 11. Thus DPW instituted traffic flow changes at this intersection. For a time, there was a police officer there making sure people are following the rules.Then DPW decided to use the honor system. Which obviously did not work.

In my opinion, the only long term solution to relieve traffic congestion in South Kona is the completion of the Hokulia bypass. Robert Thomas, are you listening.

On a positive note, another new connector road will be opening up to help the traffic flow on Hualalai Road.This is a very good news. Especially since the current intersection between Queen Kaahumanu and Hualalai Road is not signalized.The Puapuaanui Street/Queen Kaahumanu highway intersection on the other hand is signalized. So overall this will give the residents of Hualalai Road a safer alternative to get on to Queen Kaahumanu Highway.

It blows my mind that Mayor Kim’s last budget will be topping 400 million. I wonder if he got the memo that we are entering a recession. The county should be looking at reducing the budget, not increasing it.

Someone I know said that Hokulia currently contributes 25% of Hawaii County’s property tax revenue. I pointed out to this person that Hokulia has not been fully built out yet. So its unlikely that 25% figure is accurate. I e-mailed Hawaii County about this seeking clarification. Below is the response I got from William Takaba:

“Aaron,

Mayor Kim asked me to respond to your question about the property taxes paid by the Hokulia project. This is the information obtained from our real property tax division:

The percentage would be 1.58% of the total taxes. This is based on the 2008 assessed values and the previous (2007) tax rates. There would be only a slight change if tax rates changed.

Net Taxable Tax Amount
Total Assessment $29,505,634,549 $230,519,833
Hokulia Assm’ts $435,810,300 $3,639,016

Bill”

Lastly, I found a online tool which will give you a idea when when you will receive your federal stimulus check.There is also a payment schedule which will also give you an idea when you’ll receive your money. I found out that I should be receiving my 600.00 tomorrow. The beauty of direct deposit :).