O'ahu briefs
Advertiser Staff
Storytelling festival returns
After a two-year hiatus, the popular Starlight Storytelling festival is returning to the Leeward Coast with events from 5 p.m. to 9 today and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Ma'ili Beach Park.
It features Hawaiian storytelling, hula performances, keiki games, and food and craft booths.
Kumu hula John Keola Lake will be the featured storyteller .
Members of Na Kupuna O Wai'anae will share stories about growing up on the Wai'anae Coast. Area bands including Manaleo, Backyard Boys and Ricky Tataipu & Friends will perform.
For details, call 696-1217.
Free flu shots being offered
The Waimanalo Health Center will provide free flu vaccines every Friday from 9 a.m. to noon beginning today and running until Dec. 28.
The vaccine is free for patients under Medicaid or Medicare and for those who are uninsured. It is also free to Med-Quest patients who have the Waimanalo Health Center as their primary care provider.
There will be no out-of-pocket cost for Med-Quest-Net patients and anyone with private insurance.
The vaccine is recommended for people over 65 or anyone, regardless of age, who is at high risk or have a chronic illness such as heart, lung, and kidney diseases, asthma, diabetes or anemia. Call 259-7948.
Residents want landfill removed
Residents of Waimanalo will rally this weekend to let the Air Force know that they want an old World War II landfill removed from Bellows Air Force Station instead of covering it up with dirt.
But the Air Force has not made a decision about the landfill, said Maj. Stephen Clutter, public affairs officer for the 15th Air Base Wing, at Hickam Air Force Base.
The rally will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday at the Waimanalo Polo Field, across the highway from Bellows' main gate.
Rally organizer Carroll Cox, of EnviroWatch Inc., said the community will push for removal because hazardous waste was dumped at the site prior to its closing in the mid 1970s.
A major concern is the possibility of pollution from the site contaminating Waimanalo Stream, which runs past the site, Cox said.
The Air Force has said tests indicate the site doesn't pose any human health problems, although the ecology may be affected slightly.
Cox said the community has been planning the rally since late summer and has decided to go forward because of conflicting information it has received this week concerning the disposition of the landfill.
Clutter said Col. Al Riggle, wing commander, has put the decision on hold, with the hopes that the community will work through the Bellows Restoration Advisory Board to iron out differences.
Sewage leaks into Pearl Harbor
The Navy announced yesterday that an estimated 167,000 gallons of sewage wastewater spilled into Pearl Harbor one week ago.
Late in the day last Friday, crews discovered a leak in an old pipeline near Bravo Pier 17.
The line was immediately secured, but during the period that the pipeline was leaking, an estimated 175,000 gallons of sewage leaked into a utility tunnel, which overflowed into the harbor.
The Department of Health was notified the same day.
Repairs to the pipeline are under way.
Pearl Harbor is closed to all nonmilitary traffic, and no fishing is permitted in the harbor at any time, the Navy said.
Hawai'i court director named
Walter Ozawa, a former city parks director during former Mayor Frank Fasi's administration and the director of the State Office of Veterans Services, has been named administrative director of Hawai'i's court system, Hawai'i Chief Justice Ronald Moon announced .
The appointment is effective Oct. 15. Current court administrator Michael Broderick leaves the judiciary next Friday to join the Hawaii Justice Foundation.
Ozawa retired from theArmy as a colonel after 30 years of military service. He is a graduate of University of Hawai'i- Manoa.
Judges appointed to new terms
Chief Justice Ronald Moon has reappointed Peter C.K. Fong, Michael Marr and Lillian Ramirez-Uy as part-time judges for four-year terms in Honolulu District Family Court.
Their terms are effective from September through July 2005.
Fong is a partner in the law firm of Fong & Fong, focusing on personal injury cases. He has been a part-time judge since 1989.
Marr, a part-time judge since 1987, is a sole practitioner in private law. Ramirez-Uy has been a part-time judge since 1991.
