Posted on: Sunday, March 10, 2002

City honors Hawai'i Kai resident

Advertiser Staff

The city honored Hawai'i Kai resident Murray Luther for decades of community work with a proclamation yesterday at the site for the new community sign that he championed.

Luther and several members of the community dug up the first shovel full of earth where the new community sign will be on Hawai'i Kai Drive near Duck Island.

Luther, 86, has dogged the city to get a sign put up after one that the community paid for and installed was removed by the state to make way for the widening of Kalaniana'ole Highway in the mid-1990s.

The new sign will be shaped like a boomerang and will face both directions to greet incoming and outgoing motorists. Construction should be completed by June.

The city plans three signs for Hawai'i Kai and two for 'Aina Haina.

City Managing Director Ben Lee called Luther the unofficial mayor of Hawai'i Kai.

"Murray is Hawai'i Kai and this sign will be Hawa'i Kai," Lee said yesterday at the groundbreaking ceremony. "Every time we drive by, we'll think of Murray Luther."