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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Cemetery may lose its utilities over unpaid bills

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

Severe problems continue for the financially troubled Honolulu Memorial Park, according to Rod Tam, city council member and vice president of a fund-raising group for the cemetery.

The Nu'uanu cemetery's pagoda, a replica of one in Nara, Japan, and a registered state historic site in its own right, needs major repairs.

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Tam said at a news conference yesterday that water and electricity are about to be turned off for the second time in 16 months because of unpaid utility bills.

He said the trustees of the Honolulu Memorial Association have not taken the necessary steps to have the state license the cemetery, which would allow plots and niches to be sold to pay the bills and pay for park maintenance.

The elderly volunteers who have been maintaining the grounds can no longer do the heavy labor, said Tam, vice president of the Kyoto Gardens Association, a sister organization to Honolulu Memorial Park.

Tam wants the trustees to step down in favor of new trustees who, he said, are more willing to move the process forward.

But an association spokesman said progress is slowly being made.

Tam said the trustees also failed to purchase a $100,000 bond required for a state license to operate.

Honolulu Memorial Park was founded in 1958 and is on Nu'uanu Avenue. The owners filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 28, 2001.

Honolulu Memorial Park has three entities: Honolulu Memorial Park Inc., a for-profit corporation responsible for the sale of plots and niches; Honolulu Memorial Association, a nonprofit to manage and maintain the cemetery; and Kyoto Gardens, a nonprofit responsible for fund-raising.

Honolulu Memorial Association trustee Bruce Matsui said the association's primary duty is to manage the perpetual plot maintenance fund.

Matsui said the bond has not been purchased because securities companies require the trustees to personally guarantee it, which is something they are not willing to do.

"That has been a difficulty," Matsui said. "We can try and get a corporate trustee to take over primary responsibility for the fund, and that is something we have been trying to do. We have been trying to work with Rod and his group, and I think we're pretty close to resolving the situation. I know he has expressed some recent frustration, but I'm still pretty optimistic that we will be able to work things out."

Tam said alternative trustees were elected last year but have not been allowed to take over the association.

"The way to solve this is for the trustees to step down," Tam said. "Then we can get a license, sell niches and pay for everything."

Matsui said someone still has to be willing to post the money for the bond.

"Rod has indicated they have people willing to do that," Matsui said. "As long as it is done properly, we are willing to step aside."

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

Saving the pagoda, which is on the Hawai'i Register of Historic Places, became a rallying cry for those who own niches — burial places — in the pagoda.

More than a year of protests and legal maneuvering followed.

After the bankruptcy case was dismissed by the court in September 2003, the Richards family turned over its interest in the cemetery to a nonprofit Friends group, consisting mostly of retirees who have loved ones buried or inurned at the cemetery.

Now, if the utilities are shut down, the families of nearly 8,000 people buried or inurned there should be prepared to bring their own water for flowers, clean their loved ones' headstones and trim the nearby grass until maintenance issues are resolved, Tam said.

"Its a sad day. We've tried for three years to get this park on its feet," Tam said.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.