Neighbor Island briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

BIG ISLAND

Army squatters given reprieve

A Big Island family that has lived without permission at an abandoned South Point Army site for about a decade will be allowed to remain at least a little while longer.

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands had imposed an eviction deadline tomorrow for the dozen or so members of the Viernes family.

Officials now plan to meet with the family in early February, said department spokesman Francis Apoliona in Hilo.

A group called Ka Ohana o Kalae had a license to look after the area, but no longer does so, Apoliona said. The department wants to discuss a new caretaker arrangement, he said.

Problems at the site include accumulations of trash and allegations that family members ask visitors for money to guard their cars, Apoliona said. Some motorists who didn't pay found their cars broken into, he said.

Identity sought in drowning

Big Island police were trying to identify a woman who died of an apparent drowning at Kahalu'u Beach Park.

Police and fire crews called to the park around 7:45 a.m. Saturday found the woman floating in shallow water, officials said.

She was taken to Kona Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The woman is described as Asian, in her early 40s, about 5 feet tall and weighing about 150 pounds.