Neighbor Island briefs
Advertiser Staff
$4 million sought to improve traffic
WAILUKU, Maui — A $4 million proposal to relieve traffic congestion on Pi'ilani Highway in Kihei was announced yesterday.
Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana said Gov. Ben Cayetano is requesting $2.5 million from the state Legislature and that the county will pitch in $1 million for interim improvements to the highway.
The project essentially would utilize existing road shoulders to widen the road from two lanes to four.
The state plans to come up with the rest of the money by pursuing contributions from corporations that have a stake in seeing the highway improved, Apana said.
Apana said details of the project were worked out earlier this week in a meeting with state Department of Transportation Director Brian Minaai.
Pi'ilani is Kihei's main highway.
The South Maui community was recognized by the 2000 Census as the area with the highest percentage of population growth in the state.
"Though the improvements will be interim measures, we have heard from many of our Maui County residents that they want relief now, even if it is a temporary project,'' the mayor said.
UHH officials help Gates Foundation
HILO, Hawai'i — Three University of Hawai'i-Hilo officials are in San Francisco this week to help choose a national pool of candidates for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awards due to go to 20,000 promising minority students.
UHH Upward Bound director Cornelia Anguay, minority access and achievement director Ginger Hamilton, and Hawaiian leadership director Hail Makuakane-Lundin were selected to serve on the committee scanning applicants for the Gates Millennium Scholars program.
UHH participation in the selection process came about because of the university's high enrollment of Native Hawaiian students, the highest of any four-year college in the state; its Hawaiian language program that offers the only master's degree in the country for a native American language; and its ongoing Hawaiian studies program launched two decades ago under the late Edith Kanaka'ole.
Summer Institute deadline extended
HILO, Hawai'i — The Center for Gifted and Talented Native Hawaiian Children has extended the deadline for applications to its Summer Institute 2001 program to March 30.
Na Pua No'eau, as the federally funded program also is known, is offering two-week residential enrichment programs at University of Hawai'i campuses in Hilo and Manoa on a wide range of subjects including volcanology, natural resources, art, computer technology, voyaging and medicine.
The programs are open to Native Hawaiian students in grades 6 through 11. More information is available by calling (808) 974-7678.
