Hawai'i briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
WINDWARD O'AHU
Youth escapee surrenders
After more than five months at large, the last of 10 girls who escaped from the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility in Kailua last year surrendered to police yesterday.
The 17-year-old girl turned herself in at the Kailua police station and was returned to the youth facility.
She was one of 10 teenage girls who overpowered two guards Aug. 31 and fled in a van. Eight were caught within three weeks, but the last two weren't captured until November and yesterday.
Kailua group adds Web site
The Kailua Bay Advisory Council, a group working with communities to improve water quality in the Ko'olaupoko region from Waimanalo to Kane'ohe, has a new Web site — kbac-hi.org — offering information about water quality, workshops, stream walks and more. Beginning Saturday, residents can also take a clean-water quiz to enter a monthly drawing for the "Experience the Clean Waters of Ko'olaupoko" prizes.
HONOLULU
Alcohol involved in fatal collision
Alcohol played a part in the head-on collision Sunday that killed a Waimanalo man, according to Honolulu police.
Ramus Seabury, 62, of Waimanalo, died when a 19-year-old Kailua man apparently fell asleep at the wheel near the entrance to Olomana Golf Links, crossed the center line and collided with a vehicle driven by Seabury as he headed to work.
Police also said they have determined that alcohol was not a factor in an off-road accident last Thursday in a He'eia wetland outside Kane'ohe. Kurt Ching, a Kahuku High School senior, died after the truck driven by a 19-year-old man flipped over, tossing Ching and four others from the truck bed. The truck rolled on top of Ching, but the others escaped serious injury.
Both cases are still under investigation.
Waikiki patrol expanded
Aloha Patrol officers walking the streets of Waikiki have new uniforms and an expanded patrol schedule for 2003.
The officers, under the jurisdiction of the Waikiki Business Improvements District Association, patrol the public sidewalks along Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. They are also providing bike patrols and taking up stationary posts at several locations to work with police and private security groups to fight crime and help in emergency situations.
The officers now wear white shirts accented with a blue Hawaiian print on the shoulders, gold badges, blue pants and baseball caps with the WBIDA logo.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Money provided for conservation
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Hawai'i will get $1.73 million to provide grants to landowners for conservation programs that benefit habitats of endangered or at-risk species.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources has committed an additional $721,276 toward the program, and has identified 15 projects on five islands covering 105,140 acres. The projects include construction of barrier fences, removing pigs and goats from native habitat, providing sources of seeds for endangered plants, and establishing rotational grazing systems that will help the Hawai'i state bird, the nene.
The federal money is part of the Landowner Incentive Program, and it requires at least 25 percent participation toward the cost of projects by landowners, the states or nonprofit groups.
