O'ahu briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
HONOLULU
Auto show targets youths
The Hawai'i Automobile Dealer's Association is offering public school students free admission to the annual First Hawaiian International Auto Show.
The auto show runs April 5-8 at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
The automobile association, First Hawaiian Bank and the Department of Education have joined forces to create awareness and support for the department's new education standards. A booth will be set up at the entrance for educators to explain the standards.
Students who sell at least two discounted $5 tickets to the show will be admitted free. The automobile association also will give students a $1 gift certificate for each ticket sold that will be redeemable at select Ala Moana Center stores.
The advanced discount ticket program runs through Thursday. For more information, visit the auto show's Web site.
'Ask the Mayor' back on the air
The radio call-in program "Ask the Mayor" starts again today after a hiatus following Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' re-election in September.
"Ask the Mayor" features a new format with appearances by department heads and other guests. The program aims to include more in-depth discussions on city and state issues.
The show will continue to give information on city programs and serve as a hotline.
Harris took a vacation and was unable to return to the show until today due to scheduling problems.
The show, which began in 1994, will air from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays on KGU Radio 760-AM.
CENTRAL
City examining boulder issue
City engineers have examined some large boulders hanging precariously over Waipahu Street and are checking on property ownership before attempting to fix the problem, city spokeswoman Carol Costa said yesterday.
Several Waipahu residents said Thursday at a Waipahu Neighborhood Board Meeting that they feared the boulders could come tumbling down.
Board chairwoman Annette Yamaguchi said the boulders are four to six feet high and are clinging to the mountainside, held up by tree roots.
"It definitely is a situation that needs attention," Yamaguchi said. "A small earthquake could jar it loose. This is not something you put on the back burner."
Costa said that if the land is owned by the land, a course of action will be decided upon quickly. If the land is private property, the city will talk with the land owner about the matter.
NORTH SHORE
Family sues Waimea park
The family of a man is suing Waimea Valley Adventure Park, claiming the man's drowning in 1999 was related to a cliff diver diving from 60 feet into the basin where the man and others were swimming.
As the result of a dive by Bo Frese on March 26, 1999, Dan Vu Nguyen suffered injuries resulting in his wrongful death, the lawsuit filed yesterday in Circuit Court alleges.
The family's attorney, Scott Kubota, said he believes Frese dived on or near Nguyen, who may have been forced into the rock wall, and was discovered by firefighters an hour later in 25 feet of water with lacerations to his lower lip and leg bruises.
Kubota said a pool monitor asked a cliff diver to monitor swimmers while she used the restroom. However, cliff divers were allowed to dive while swimmers were in the vicinity, Kubota said.
Named as defendants are Attractions Hawai'i, doing business as Waimea Valley Adventure Park, Maxwell Associates Inc., the Florida-based company that Kubota said supplied divers, and Frese. Unspecified damages are being sought.
Waimea Valley officials and Frese could not be reached yesterday evening for comment.
Kubota said Nguyen, who was 21 years old at the time, was a University of California-Berkeley student in Hawai'i for spring break.
