Board gets $1,000 gift from resident

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

A Wai'alae Iki resident has donated $1,000 to the Kuli'ou'ou Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board to ensure that the board has enough money to continue holding its monthly meetings at the 'Aina Haina Public Library meeting room as it has for nearly 20 years.

The benefactor, who asked not to be named, will be honored at the community board's August meeting, said board chairman Bob Chuck.

The donation is enough to ensure that the board can afford to comply with the library system's efforts to meet the requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. As part of that effort, the library now requires that groups renting its meeting room have available a handicapped-accessible restroom. That means the board, like other groups, will have to pay rental fees as well as overtime pay for library employees who must stay to allow access to a handicapped-accessible restroom.

In effect, the board will have to pay $100 more a month than it had been paying in rental fees for the room. The additional fee is part of a policy that the library system has been putting into effect since late 2001.

Chuck said he was surprised when the resident called with the donation.

"The citizen of East Honolulu thinks our Kuli'ou'ou/Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board is doing a great job for the citizens and so he will make a monetary contribution that will enable us to continue to be able to meet in the room of the 'Aina Haina Public Library," Chuck said. "Wow. What a nice, generous person."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.