State seeks comments on redesigned warning signs
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
The flash-flood graphics look too much like a man taking a dip in a calm pool and the falling rocks don't look like rocks, but other images got a tentative OK last night when the state unveiled its new warning signs.
"We're mostly looking for comment on the pictographs here," said Michael Buck, an administrator with the state's Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
"We want to know whether they say what we mean them to say."
The Na Ala Hele trail advisory council on O'ahu got the first look last night during a meeting at a state office on Makiki Heights Drive. Meetings were also held on Moloka'i and Hawai'i last night, and meetings are scheduled during the coming days on Lana'i, Maui and Kaua'i.
The signs also may be viewed online, and comments e-mailed to the State Department of Land and Natural Resources.
A working group formed to design the signs, consisting of county, state and federal officials, will review the comments before developing final versions and rules about where and when to post the signs, Buck said.
Some of the signs are meant to be installed at trail heads. Others would be posted near the danger itself. A few are what Buck called "management signs" would mark areas closed to foot or auto traffic.
Some of the signs, including new danger signs for lava flow areas, have yet to be developed.
Buck said the process could be completed by June.
"OK, so get rid of that one," Bill Gorst, chairman of the Na Ala Hele O'ahu Advisory Council, said last night after several members of the group, which included hikers, bikers, four-wheelers and other parties concerned about public land use, expressed concerns over the flash-flood warning signs.
"The way it is drawn," Gorst said, "it looks like a swimming pool."
Arthur Park, a lawyer who represented the families of 32 people injured or killed during a landslide at Sacred Falls in 1999, brought along a sign to offer as an alternative to the state's version of falling rocks.
The Na Ala Hele group, which preferred Park's sign, made a few recommendations to make it applicable to more areas likely to be subject to falling rocks.
Seeking public comment on the signs is part of a series of events set in motion when the Legislature passed a bill last year establishing a process for installing and maintaining warning signs.
The legislation was instigated by the Mother's Day rockslide at Sacred Falls in 1999 that killed eight people and injured 50.
Attorneys Park and Laurent Remillard had argued that the state had failed to properly warn the families of the potentially fatal dangers they would face at the falls. The loose boulders hundreds of feet above their heads, on steep slopes that fluted up like the sides of a champagne glass, were not visible from the area below, he said, and signs the state had posted were insufficient.
An $8.56 million settlement was reached between the state and the families late last year.
Under the terms of the new bill, posting and maintaining proper signs would be considered legally adequate warning of dangerous natural conditions.
The law will remain in effect for five years, and then be reviewed.
On Maui, a meeting to view the signs will be held today, 2 p.m., at DLNR-Forestry Kahului Baseyard, 685 Old Haleakala Highway, in Kahului. Public testimony is at 3 p.m.
Lana'i's meeting is at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the Lana'i Senior Citizen Center in Lana'i City.
The Kaua'i meeting is at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at the DLNR-Forestry baseyard at 4396D Pua Loke in Lihu'e.
The signs may be viewed at www.state.hi.us/dlnr/warningsigns. Comments may be sent to curt@dofaw.net.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com
• • •
 |
