Neighbor Island briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

BIG ISLAND

Goal set for UH-Hilo center

HILO, Hawai'i — A draft federal environmental assessment for the proposed Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center in Hilo should be finished by mid-August.

Sidney Fuke, a consultant hired to prepare the document, said a more detailed environmental impact statement will be done if the University of Hawai'i-Hilo and NASA decide it is needed.

UH-Hilo and NASA want to open the $28 million center in June 2005 on 9.1 acres of now-vacant land in the University Park of Science and Technology.

MAUI

Bicyclist killed by delivery truck

WAILUKU, Maui — A 55-year-old woman was killed yesterday morning when her bicycle was hit by a delivery truck on Waiehu Beach Road.

The victim, who has not been identified, has no local address, according to Maui Police Department traffic investigators.

The bicyclist and the Meadow Gold delivery truck were heading south on Waiehu Beach Road near the Lower Main Street intersection at 7:29 a.m. when the accident occurred in the right-turn lane.

This is Maui's seventh traffic fatality of the year, compared with 11 at the same time last year.