Neighbor Island briefs
Advertiser Staff
Panel OKs plan for Maui County center
WAILUKU, Maui — A proposal to create a one-stop center for county services finally won a recommendation from a Maui County Council committee yesterday.
Following several hours of discussion, the council's Budget and Finance Committee voted unanimously to approve Mayor James "Kimo'' Apana's request to issue $700,000 in bonds for renovations to a 12,000-square-foot space for the center at the Maui Mall in Kahului.
The plan had been held up because the committee had requested more information about it.
The administration recently agreed to a 10-year lease at the mall at a cost of $200,000. While the council last year gave Apana the green light to seek the new space, it reserved the right to approve the financing for renovations.
The proposal, which advances to the full council, would move the county's real property tax office and the Motor Vehicle Registration and Licensing Division from cramped offices at the War Memorial Complex to a centralized office where residents will be able to pay for water service, trash collection, property taxes and other fees at one place.
Five arrested in Big Isle drug raids
KEA'AU, Hawai'i — Big Island police conducted three raids Wednesday, targeting suspected drug dealers.
Community police officers and Puna patrolmen joined the Hawai'i County Police Department vice section in searching a Hawaiian Acres subdivision home and a residence in Kurtistown.
Detective Marshall Kanehailua said police seized 41 marijuana plants in the first raid along with a glass smoking pipe with methamphetamine residue, indoor growing lights and a timer. A 43-year-old man was arrested on three felony counts and released pending charges.
At the Kurtistown residence, police seized cocaine, crack cocaine, processed marijuana, glass tubes, scales and other drug paraphernalia.
Two men, ages 39 and 26, and a woman, 31, all of different Puna addresses, were arrested and released.
Kanehailua said a 7-month-old infant in the home at the time of the raid was placed under the care of Child Welfare Services. He did not reveal the relationship of the baby to any of the three people arrested.
In a third case, police in Ka'u arrested a 35-year-old man in the Green Sands subdivision for possessing dangerous drugs and having a glass smoking pipe. Additional details were not available.
Observers barred from burial site
Members of a group fighting for the protection of Hawaiian burials at the Hokuli'a luxury housing and golf project apparently were barred from entering the construction site, despite a court order allowing them to observe the work.
But Kona Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra ruled against a contempt-of-court motion yesterday and instead broadened the powers of the direct and cultural descendants to enter the construction site, including giving them access to the entire 1,540-acre project north of Kealakekua Bay.
Ibarra also extended the temporary restraining order granting the powers to March 24, a one-day extension.
Jim Medeiros, a member of the Protect Keopuka 'Ohana, said he and a few other descendants were refused access to the Hokuli'a site Wednesday. Ibarra on Tuesday had ordered developer 1250 Oceanside Partners to stop disturbing the burials and to allow the descendants to enter the construction site to determine whether the court order is being followed.
Representatives of the developer could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Fatal-crash hearing delayed again
HILO, Hawai'i — A hearing on the mental status of an O'ahu man involved in a deadly car crash while trying to escape police was rescheduled for a fourth time yesterday by Judge Riki May Amano.
Deputy public defender Michael Ebesugawa, representing Charles Rosario, asked for a delay until March 29 so he can talk with a member of the expert panel that will determine if the defendant is competent to stand trial on manslaughter, auto theft and other charges.
Authorities say Rosario, 20, was driving a stolen car when he rammed into another vehicle Sept. 7. A passenger in the second car, community college student and mother of five Ellison Sweezey, 34, died in the wreck. There are conflicting accounts of whether police were pursuing Rosario's car at the time of the crash.
Rosario's trial was to have started Feb. 26. He remains jailed in lieu of $25,000 bail.
