(AP). Hawaii County officials know there are potentially hazardous materials in some of the parks and recreational facilities across the county, but acknowledge they only have enough money to clean up two locations. A county parks department official says after paying $1.15 million to run tests on 123 sites, there’s only sufficient funding to do repair work on two locations considered priorities–the A. J. Watt Gym and Arthur C. Greenwell Park. Elevated levels of lead were found at both facilities, but he department’s deputy director, Clayton Honma, says the levels were not high enough to force officials to close the sites. It’s not clear how many locations were found to contain some hazardous materials, but Honma says the Hakalau Gym is the only county recreational facility closed because of hazardous materials.
The County of Hawaii Department of Environmental Management operates a green wast mulching facility in Kailua-Kona through a contract with Big Island EKO Systems, Inc. EKO will be conducting water system repairs a the Couunty’s Kona Green Waste Mulching Facility located at the Kealakehe Recycling and Solid Waste Transfer Station. In order to protec the safety of the public and complete the repairs in a timely manner, the facility will be closed on Friday, February 26th. Repairs are anticipated to last all day and the facility is ecpected to reopen on Saturday, February 27th. For details, call 961-8554.
The County of Hawaii will conduct Household Hazardous Waste collection events at its Waimea and Pahoa Recycling and Solid Waste Transfer Stations in March. The Waimea event will be held on Saturday, March 6th, and the Pahoa collection will be held on Sunday, March 7th. Both events will provide for residential drop-off of select materials from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. only. Those who cannont attend these Household Hazardous Waste collection events should note that the next collection effort will be held in Hilo on June 5th and in Kona on June 12th. For details, call 961-8554.
The AP Boxing Club has received $1,720 from the “Healing Our Island Community Grant Fund”, a state grant in aid project administered by the Hawaii County Resource Center. Head coach Anthony Pagan says funds will be used to purchase training equipment for young athletes who are interested in participating in boxing competitions and for youth who are interested in working out to be healthy. The club applied for the grant to buy equipment such as protective headgear, boxing gloves, and other supplieds for use by the athletes when they train and for those who just want to become fit. For details, call Tony Pagan at 937-6469.
(AP). Groups supporting opennesss in government want Hawaii lawmakers to pass laws limiting corporate influence. Common Cause and the League of Women Voters said such laws are needed following the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to sponsor political campaign ads.
(AP). A state Senate committee is set for a hearing on Monday on legislation to allow the Hawaii Tourism Authority to withhold more information from the public. The measure would allow the agency to hold back information that would place businesses at a competitive disadvantage or impair the authority’s ability to gather data.
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