Posted on: Thursday, June 13, 2002
Hawai'i briefs
WINDWARD
Sewage spills into bay
Officials posted warning signs at Kane'ohe Bay after sewage spilled from a broken 18-inch sewer line at 44-653 Kane'ohe Bay Drive yesterday. The spill was stopped at
4 p.m. and crews were working to bypass the broken segment of the pipe. The amount of sewage spilled was not determined, the city said.
City repair crews found the site of the break at 11:30 a.m. The pipe runs from Aumoana Place to Kane'ohe Bay pump station No. 2.
HONOLULU
Student gets new wheelchair
A Kalihi Kai Elementary School student whose electric wheelchair was stolen one week ago will receive a donated temporary wheelchair today at Shriners Hospital.
Joseph Faaleaoga's wheelchair was stolen from outside his classroom on June 4. He has since been using a manual wheelchair loaned to him by Shriners Hospital.
Faaleaoga will receive a refitted power wheelchair at 11 a.m. today at the hospital. The wheelchair was donated by a Maui family whose child has outgrown it. Faaleaoga will use the chair until a new one can be ordered.
Since the theft, Shriners Hospital has received a flood of phone calls from people wishing to donate money. Yesterday, the hospital said it has received enough money to buy a new $7,500 power wheelchair for Faaleaoga.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Apana to allow tax increase
WAILUKU, Maui — Mayor James Apana told the Maui County Council that he will allow a bill that raises the annual vehicle weight tax to become law, even though he thinks the increase should be delayed for one year.
Apana told the council in a letter Monday that the increase, which boosts the county's vehicle weight tax by 66 percent for passenger vehicles and 33 percent for heavy-equipment vehicles, was unwarranted now.
"So many of our businesses and residents are just getting back on their feet following the effects of the Sept. 11 disaster and the timing is inopportune," Apana said.
Despite that, the mayor did not veto the measure and will allow it to become law without his signature on Jan. 1.
STATEWIDE
Group awarded federal grant
The federal government has awarded about $363,000 to a Native Hawaiian group dedicated to the proper treatment of ancient remains.
Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei, or Group Caring for the Ancestors of Hawai'i, will receive $175,412 in the first year and $187,412 in the second year of the program. The grants were from the Administration for Native Americans and will be used to pay for the reburial of Native Hawaiian remains and funerary objects that were inadvertently moved, and also for the handling of repatriated cultural items.
The grant will also be used to help Native Hawaiians from the Big Island, Kaua'i, Maui and Moloka'i care for ancestral remains through workshops and a database.
