NELHA has finally broken free from DBEDT’s micromanagement. It is now a division of DAGS.This absolutely great news indeed. Especially since DBEDT’s bureaucratic procurement rules delayed needed repairs to NELHA’s deep seawater pipes damaged by the 2006 earthquake for 2 1/2 years.
Lastly, Hawaiian Telcom is closing down five of their eight retail outlets by June due to lack of revenue and a shift by customers to paying bills or conducting business with Hawaiian Telcom online.
When I went to that talk story session hosted by Representatives Coffman & Evans on Thursday it was mentioned that the Palamanui project was dead in the water. I inquired about the status of the project via their website.This is the response I received from Palamanui’s project manager.
“Aloha Aaron,
I am the development project manager for Palamanui . Guy Lam and I would be happy to tour you around the project and update you on our progress .We are working very hard on the UH West Hawaii Center , hoping to have real construction drawings soon.We have not been working hard with construction equipment in the field for the past year as all required engineering plans are not yet approved and we are watching the economy .”
I’m going down to Palamanui next weekend to meet with the project manager so I get a better idea of where this project stands.
I had forgotten to mention that the Coupe’s have 30 days from the entry of final judgment to do any appeals. Judge Ibarra issued the final judgment on May 15th, 2009. Thus they have until June 15th, 2009 to file an appeal.
It is certainly a good sign that the West Hawaii Civic Center is on track.This facility will be a huge benefit to the community by consolidating all county services currently spread around West Hawaii into one location.
The parent company of Hawaii Superferry filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Saturday.This is another huge black eye for Hawaii. Sen. Sam Slom is right that it will be very long time before anyone takes the risk to invest money here in Hawaii again.However this could’ve been avoided if the State of Hawaii followed the law and didn’t exempt the Hawaii Superferry from doing a EIS.
But unfortunately that didn’t happen. Thus Hawaii’s taxpayers will likely be on the hook for the 40 million in harbor infrastructure improvements specifically built for the HSF and paying for the the impending lawsuits to be filed by the Hawaii Superferry investors.
The FBI is still targetting the backers of Royal Hawaiian Treasury Bonds. These financial instruments are being issued a Hawaiian Sovereignty group Ko Hawaii Pae Aina to allegedly eliminate outstanding debts because the bond holders are a part of the Hawaiian nation and exempted from U.S laws.These shenanigans make the overall Hawaiian sovereignty movement lose creditability and make it even harder for the groups legitimately trying to redress what happened in the past.
Lastly, the head of the HGEA is again urging that the State of Hawaii increase the GET to make up for the state’s new projected budget shortfalls.You don’t raise taxes in a middle of a painful recession to balance the budget.The latter should be done as a last resort. In lieu of raising taxes, the bloated size of state government should trimmed along with furloughs and layoffs of government workers.
I found the website for the buyer of the Discovery Harbour Golf Course. It seems South Point Investment Group LLC‘s plans came out of nowhere. I was especially surprised that Larry Dolan is again involved. He has been a part of repeated attempts to buy this golf course.Larry ultimately permanently backed (at the time) last January when the current owner refused to extend the due diligence period. Thus his purchase fell out of escrow.
That left the door open for this other entity, Discovery Harbour Entertainment & Resort LLC, to come into the picture. John Michael Thomas,the principal behind this company, asked me to be a paid consultant to help assist with their purchase. It seemed things were moving along normally. Then all of the sudden the bottom fell out. Thus I had assumed that the golf course’s future was going to remain in limbo until I received that e-mail yesterday.
I checked the status of the HDOT’s appeal of the Office of Administrative Hearings first ruling in the Queen Kaahumanu widening bid award fiasco.The first circuit court on Oahu has scheduled oral arguments for this appeal (#1CC0910832) on September 9, 2009.
However Hawaiian Dredging has filed another bid protest.Hopefully the Office of Administrative Hearings will adjudicate this latest protest sooner than that (maybe within 2 months). Thus this critical highway project can finally move forward.
Lastly, It seems Kona Auto Center will also be doing General Motors vehicle warranty repairs. I spotted this help wanted ad in the WHT classifieds today
“GM Trained technicians wanted at Kona Auto Center. Apply in person Monday- Friday, 8:00am- 4:00pm.”
This is very good news for GM car owners in West Hawaii. They won’t have to drive to Hilo to get their vehicles serviced.
I went to the legislative talk story session held by Representatives Evans and Coffman last night.It was a overall very interesting meeting. The WHT reporter who covered it only touched the surface with her article.Both representatives were rightfully grilled and were asked the hard questions why the legislature again failed to address the laundry list of issues facing Kona.
However Hawaii County Councilman Kelly Greenwell did no one any favors with his questions and comments. He advocated civil disobedience to force the government to recognize the need for a new Kona hospital. On top of that, he stated that he is filing a lawsuit to block the construction of affordable housing surrounding Kealakehe High School because of the danger posed by the closed Kona landfill.
The other aspect of the meeting I found enlightening was when the discussion turned to the poor state of health care in Kona. The costs associated to improving Kona’s health care to the level of Oahu’s is out of sight. In a nutshell,it is likely that economics will likely prohibit significant improvements until the population of Hawaii County increases.
Hawaii County is facing yet another scandal. This time the real property tax division made an error that benefited relative of Deputy Corporation Counsel Gerald Takase. I found this reader comment to this article rather amusing :
” Yet another sneak attack by the Bento Bandits, where will it end Kenoi. Mushubi politics run deep in the anals of county goverment. No reprimands, no demotions, no furloughs, no layoffs, there’s nothing that Kenoi has done to stem the tide of corruption on his watch. Anything less than beheadings is unacceptable. FIRE THEM NOW !! “
I found this commentary questioning the US Air Force’s plans to build a new runway at Kona Int’l for C-17 training.If Bob Jones looked farther beyond his nose, he’d find that there is a lot of legitimate reasons for the USAF to do this project.
Lastly, I received this e-mail in regards to the future of the Discovery Harbour Golf Course.
“To: Members of the Discovery Harbour Concerned Citizens Group
We received confirmation this morning. The buyer is South Point Investment Group.I believe that Larry Dolan is the project coordinator. We will wait until the Board of Directors receives their proposals. At this point, we can only wait and see. The Board should consider forming a Golf Committee to work with the new owners.
I feel quite sure that the new owners will be contacting all property owners in the near future.
That is all I have to report at this time.
Thanks for your participation…”
Hawaiian Dredging’s latest Queen Kaahumanu highway bid protest was heard by the DCCA-OAH yesterday.This latest protest by HDCC is asking the Office of Administrative Hearings to award the contract to them and have the HDOT pay damages and costs resulting from that bid award.
I hope the Office of Administrative Hearings doesn’t do the latter. It would be utter travesty if HDCC is ultimately awarded the contract to do Phase II. Their track record on Phase I was less than sterling. Thus it would be better if Goodfellow is awarded the contract.They have a much better track record of completing projects on time than Hawaiian Dredging.
The Hawaii Council on Revenues has further revised their State of Hawaii revenue forecast further downward. It is a no brainier that this forecast will likely force deeper cuts to the state budget, the possibility the legislature may have to go into session, and government workers will have to take pay cuts, furloughs and layoffs. There is even a possibility that this may revive efforts to strip the counties of their share of the Transient Accommodation Tax revenue if the legislature has to go into special session to deal with this budget crisis
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