Neighbor Island briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

BIG ISLAND

Crash victim identified

HILO, Hawai'i — Big Island police have identified a man killed in a one-car traffic accident in Puna on Sunday as Rigoberto C. Rodriguez, 47, of Pahoa.

The crash occurred on Pohoiki Road, east of the Route 132 junction, when Rodriguez apparently lost control of his 1988 Plymouth Reliant and ran off the left side of the road, striking a utility pole. Police said he was not wearing a seat belt.

KAUA'I

Puerto Ricans to be honored

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — A monument and plaque celebrating the centennial of Puerto Rican immigration to Hawai'i will take its place alongside Japanese and Filipino monuments in Lihu'e.

Members of the Kaua'i chapter of the Puerto Rican Heritage Society Hawai'i will dedicate the monument at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 23 in the park fronting the historic County Building.

Puerto Rican immigrants came to the Islands to work in the sugar industry, the first arriving Dec. 23, 1900, and the last of the wave coming in October 1901, said Bobby Castillo, Puerto Rican Centennial commissioner.

He said the plaque will "honor those courageous Borinquenos who left their homeland to fulfill their hopes and dreams of a better life for themselves and their families."