Vandals continue to hit Kailua landscaping
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KAILUA — Eight newly planted fan palm trees didn't even have a chance to take root before vandals knocked them over and destroyed them just hours after they were put into the ground Wednesday in Kailua District Park.
Kyle Sackowski • The Honolulu Advertiser
At another area in the park, other newly planted trees were mutilated and killed within the past two weeks, said Carol Ann Ellett from the Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle.
Royal Contracting employee Hermene Duquez discovered six vandalized palm trees that he and others planted near the Kailua recreation center.
"We have all these (city) vision projects going in, and there's some maniac loose that's going around chopping these trees down," Ellett said. "It is just so frustrating."
Plants in Kailua have taken a beating this year at the hands of people who have chopped, poisoned and uprooted them at Kailua schools and parks. In January, 13 trees were poisoned at the Lanikai lookout at Alala Point; in incidents in February at Keolu Elementary School and April at Ka'elepulu Elementary, more than 30 ti plants and seven palm trees were chopped.
The fan palms destroyed Wednesday were installed behind the police station on Ku'ulei Road in the heart of Kailua town, but in an area that is out of sight of passers-by. David Lim, head of the landscape division of Royal Contracting Co., said he checked the plants at 6 that evening and they were fine. But when his worker arrived at about 7:30 a.m. yesterday to check the watering system, the trees were down and their tops broken, killing the palms.
The 4-foot palms, worth about $150 each, were pushed or kicked over, Lim said. Several hibiscus were also uprooted.
"It's so depressing," he said. "The hard work, the money being expended to beautify something and all in vain."
