honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:02 p.m., Monday, September 8, 2003

Bankrupt Nu'uanu cemetery closed

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The Honolulu Memorial Park has closed indefinitely, according to a note taped in the window of the locked office door at the Nu'uanu Avenue cemetery, and the closure could be permanent.

Access is being allowed to the grounds, but water has been turned off, the restrooms are closed and there will be no further maintenance of the grounds, the note says.

The cemetery, owned by the Richards family, has been in bankruptcy for two years while negotiations continued on a plan that would turn over the cemetery to a nonprofit corporation of plot and niche holders, giving them a chance to save the park’s historic pagoda.

When filing for Chapter 11 protection, the owners asserted that the cemetery was bankrupt and estimated that it would take $1 million to repair the 37-year-old pagoda, a replica of the Sanju Pagoda in Nara, Japan.

In August, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris set a Sept. 2 deadline to complete the proposed restructuring, but the park closed its doors Friday with no plan completed.

Neither attorneys for the Richards family nor for the non-profit Friends of the Honolulu Memorial Park, could be reached for comment this morning.

The notice says efforts to turn the park over to the friends group have failed and the park is insolvent. The note advises families with urns in the pagoda to make arrangement for permanent removal.

"The owners are no longer able to bear the present continuous losses," the note says.