Hurricane Felicia is expected to weaken
over the weekend as it approaches the Big Island. Civil Defense officials believe
Felicia will become a tropical depression by Monday, bringing with it heavy rain and high surf. Because of high surf, the
County of Hawaii has closed all county parks between Whittington Beach park in Ka’u and Laupahoehoe beach park in Hamakua from 2:30 pm Sunday through Wednesday morning.
Kailua-Kona state representative Denny Coffman and West Hawaii state senator Josh Green will hold a public community meeting on Friday, August 21st, 6 pm, at the Kealakehe High School Cafeteria. The Big Island lawmakers will discuss problems related to beach access near the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, specifically the area near Konaaiki beach.
The state Department of Agriculture is proceeding with a draft environmental impact statement for a long-planned South Kona irrigation system. According to “West Hawaii Today”, the state lacks the funding or even a site for the project, but officials decided to go ahead with an EIS because the project would be controversial.
According to “West Hawaii Today”, Hawaii County is moving ahead with plans to replace the outlawed large capacity cesspools serving the Queen Liliuokalani Village subdivision in Kailua-Kona. The $1.7 to $2.1 million dollar project should begin in the first quarter of 2010 and will paid for with county funds.
Big Island state representative Clift Tsuji told “West Hawaii Today” that he and state representative Jerry Chang left a recent meeting with Governor Linda Lingle feeling optimistic that something would be done to retain agricultural inspectors scheduled to be laid off on November 13th. Tsuji said he
and Chang met with governor and her senior policy advisor for more than an hour. Other topics discussed included the closing of the Kulani Correcitonal Facility and health care issues.
The County of Hawaii Planning Department is now accepting applications to fill vacancies for the Kona Community Development Plan Action Committee. The Action Committee is a volunteer working committee established to serve as a proactive, community based steward of the plan’s implementation and update. For more information, call Deanne Bugado at 327-3510. The deadline to submit applications is September 4th.
Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong has scheduled three community “talk story” meetings to discuss a variety of
island issues. The meetings will be held
on August 10 at the Papa’aloa Gym; on
August 12 at the Papaikou Community Center; and on August 14 at the Pa’auilo Gym. All meetings start at 7:00 pm. For information, call 961-8538.
(AP). Five Air Force Reserve aircraft have arrived at Hickam Air Force Base to track Hurrican Felicia. Known as “Hurricane Hunters”, the WC-130J aircraft from Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. They landed Friday as Felicia continued to churn through the Eastern Pacific toward Hawaii.
If you have any ideas for one of our extended podcasts or community focus programs on the weekend, please e-mail me at rroberts@pacificradiogroup.com. Indicate whether you would be willing to be interviewed for the programs. You can also submit public service announcements to the same address. Please submit your announcements two weeks ahead of your event.