Hat tip to Damon Tucker for blogging about this article which mentions Hawaiian Telcom’s transition problems.

“Bailey said the parallels are less than they seem, however.

“In Hawaii, they knew the systems weren’t going to work when they turned them on. Here, the overall performance of the systems, although it’s not adequate, is better than a complete failure,” she said.

“In Hawaii, they couldn’t even bill, so they couldn’t get any revenue in – their cash flow was nothing.”

This assertion by Kate Bailey (the director of New Hampshire’s PUC) is interesting. I don’t recall any of the newspapers here ever reporting that Carlyle and Bearing Point knew beforehand that HawTe’s new 80 back office systems would not work ? That being said, below is the e-mail I sent to Ms. Bailey seeking clarification what she said.

Greetings,

I’m curious about your comment you made below :

“In Hawaii, they knew the systems weren’t going to work when they turned them on. Here, the overall performance of the systems, although it’s not adequate, is better than a complete failure,” she said.

“In Hawaii, they couldn’t even bill, so they couldn’t get any revenue in – their cash flow was nothing.”

How do you know that Carlyle/Bearing Point knew beforehand that the 80 back office systems would not work as planned.

I’ve been following the HawTel debacle for quite sometime. However none of the newspapers here in Hawaii ever reported what you stated ?

Aaron

The Hawaii Superferry’s Alakai is leaving Hawaii and heading back to Mobile Alabama tomorrow at 1400 [or it could be as early as today, according to this Honolulu Advertiser article].When it reaches Alabama it will be outfitted with a loading ramp and prepared for its next journey. [The Alakai left today at about 3:30PM,according this Honolulu Advertiser article]

On a related note, Young Brothers is seeking a 17.9% increase in shipping rates just as the Hawaii Superferry is is forced to leave Hawaii.Talk about irony there !

It is certainly good news that the Hawaii Senate Ways & Means Committee deferred action on HB 1744.If this legislation passes it will cripple the  counties ability to provide core public services. On top of that, expect layoffs,furloughs (or maybe a combination of the two).

Lastly, Hawaii County’s economic statistics have literally fallen into a black hole, according to this WHT article.I don’t see things improving at least until the worldwide economy starts to improve.

Hawaii County’s economic outlook is rapidly deteriorating at a alarming rate. You can see evidence of this by looking at the weekly unemployment claims report and Hawaii’s rapidly increasing unemployment rate. Our economy won’t turn until our tourism and construction industries recover. Hopefully this emergency action by the HTA and the recently passed federal economic stimulus legislation will help boost both of these critical industries.

There was a excellent letter to the editor in WHT criticizing the Kona Sea Crest condominium proposed to be built on Alii Drive.

PBN had a interesting article about how Aloha Airline’s demise has helped Hawaiian Airlines.

Former Hawaii Superferry workers and their supporters held a rally on Maui. This whole mess has left Hawaii’s business climate with permanent black eye.Which won’t help Hawaii’s economic recovery

KITV had an article about how may EIS’s have been published since the Hawaii Superferry started service in August 2007. I think this is a bit misleading report as a Hawaii Superferry EIS was being worked on per Act II.

I was thinking more about what I blogged about yesterday in regards to the Hokulia bypass litigation. As far as I understand, Judge Ibarra has to make a determination how much damages will be awarded to the Coupe’s and if there is a valid public purpose with the second condemnation action. I would figure that the Coupe’s attorney’s can appeal Judge Ibarra’s findings to the Hawaii Supreme Court again. Thus I figure the legal cloud preventing the completion of this roadway won’t be lifted for the foreseeable future.

[Hawaii County's & Coupe's findings of fact briefs are available here]

I was reading the reader comments to this WHT article about the continuing Hokulia bypass litigation. One of the reader comments is urging Hawaii County to redirect  the  federal stimulus money slated to be used to build the Ane Keohokalole Extension to complete this road. This what I wrote in response this comment below :

” I would like the last 2.07 miles of the bypass completed. However I don’t see that happening with the Coupe’s continuing to litigate the condemnation their land. If the latter was not an issue, I would be urging to the county to complete it now too.

Thus if you really want the bypass to be built focus your attention on the Coupe’s dropping their litigation.Their attorneys are on record stating that they’ll take this all the way to the USSC. ”

This HTH letter to the editor brings up a excellent in regards to HawTel paying 6 million dollars in bonuses to their employees. They should use their money to expand their high speed DSL coverage to under served areas like Hawaiian Paradise Park in Puna.

Larry at Disappeared News blogged about this interesting Maui News article here.Young Brothers tried to refute assertions made by local businesses and Hawaii Superferry that they didn’t have to do EIS,that it takes longer to ship (and cost more) via YB versus the Hawaii Superferry.

Attorney Robert Thomas did a excellent in-depth analysis here about the Hawaii Supreme Court’s ruling invalidating Act II.

The HTH had a article about the legislature attempt to suspend paying the counties their share of the Transient Accommodations Tax for 6 years. I blogged about this yesterday here.

Lastly, I would urge everyone to stay away from Internet Explorer 8.It caused a lot of strange things to happen on my computer. On top of that, it really slowed down my computer. Thus I reverted back to IE7. Which run a lot faster and doesn’t crash.

Hat tip to Kamuela attorney Margaret Wille giving me the heads up about this upcoming committee hearing in regards to HB 1744 This proposed legislation would suspend the distribution of the counties share of the Transient Accommodations Tax for six years. If this latter legislation passes, this will make it impossible for Hawaii County make up their budget shortfall.In other words expect layoffs,furloughs (or maybe a combination of the two) by the county.

I cannot believe that yet another condo development is planned for Ali’i Drive. There simply has too much inventory built in this area over the past couple years to warrant another condo to be built.On the upside they’ll build a build a mauka-makai connector road. Which will be helpful in a event of a emergency.However I think the downsides of building this project negate the upsides. [The Final Environment Assessment for this proposed development is located here].

This is the latest updates in regards to the Queen Kaahumanu highway widening and the Queen Kaahumanu highway extension resurfacing projects :

“The highway lighting at Makala Blvd. and Police Station Rd. Intersections is fully activated. 8 highway lamps were off at the Police Station Rd. Intersection and Leleiwi Electric is correcting it today and should be operational tonight. We are montioring that work.

Paving by Grace Pacific will start tomorrow and finish Friday for the Palani Rd. mauka section. The two HELCO poles by the Fire Station is awaiting relocation by HELCO. We will paving around these poles, which is across each other at that location.

Pacific Preferred Contractors Corp. is finalizing the striping from Henry St. Intersection to Police Station Rd. Intersection and, hopefully, be completed with that section by Monday, March 30, 2009.

The right turn lane on both sides of the highway (mauka and makai) from Palani Rd. Intersection to Henry St. Intersection will be opened on Monday, March 30, 2009. These right turn lanes run continuously from Palani Rd. Intersection to Henry St. Intersection on both sides of the highway.

In preparation of the change in speed limit from Makala Blvd. to Kealakehe from 35 mph to 45 mph, new roadway signs will be installed along that section. GP Roadway Solutions will replace the old signs starting today and be completed by March 31, 2009.”

“I’m waiting for Ross on an updated schedule. We are probably looking at an April or May 2009 completion. After HDCC completes the sign installation and gets the street lights working from Makala Blvd. to Kealakehe we will be increasing the speed limit in this area to the designed posted speed limit.

Grace Pacific has started preliminary work on the Lako Street project (construction signs installation), but we have asked them to make the QK paving a priority so they will not be paving the Lako Street project if it conflicts with QK paving.”

There will be community meetings which will discuss the dangers Mauna Loa poses to the surrounding communities.

General Growth Properties is inching closer to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.It seems now GGP’s bond holders are now pushing for immediate repayment. This latest turn of events comes after Citigroup foreclosed on one of GGP’s shopping centers.

Hilo Living made some interesting observations about why West Hawaii’s economy seems so busy when the numbers say otherwise.

Lastly, the Punaweb Kona Blog hater thread continues. I’ll let it speak for itself. However I don’t know where Bob Orts got his information about the Saddle Road project from. He claims the military is paying for almost all the improvements. But as far as I understand, the military is only paying for the roadway improvements within Pohakuloa only. The rest of this project is being jointly funded by the State HDOT and the FHWA. This response from Dave Gedeon (who is project manager for the Saddle Road improvement project) supports this assessment.