I’ve noticed an upswing of abandoned homes around Kona as of late. These homes have turned into major eyesores. The yards are overgrown with weeds and full of trash. I wish there was some way these properties could be cleaned up. However, I don’t see much improvement until the real estate market improves.

The FY2011-2014 STIP should be finalized soon. The FHWA had concerns about the financial constraints of the of the program. These issues should be completely addressed shortly.

“Mr. Stene,

We have recently finished dialoging with FHWA early last week. Looks like we are now on the same page and HDOT is currently working to address the FHWA comments. We will need to re-transmit our STIP to FHWA and FTA, hopefully within the next week. Then it’s up to them to turnaround and approve it (or not). I think it should be approved this time around.

I will be releasing a notice (email, facebook and twitter) when we re-transmit the 11-14 STIP to the feds.

The changes were related to financial constaint of the program. We received late information on financial constraint that FHWA felt we needed to use immediately. Some reductions were necessary in the project listing. We were able to avoid deferring ANY projects by identifying more advance construction (AC) for some of the projects in the 2012-2014 years. FFY2011 was untouched. Advance construction means the project goes forward as scheduled using state/local money. Full federal reimbursement to the state is not available all at once, but rather in the future years that are identified. It is a risk based on cash flow availability. AC was already being utilized on a number of project before these latest adjustments.”

I had an epiphany when I read this WHT article on Sunday. Hawaii County installed pedestrian traffic signals on Kealaka’a Street. I wonder if this could be installed in the roundabout to improve pedestrian safety.

Hawaii County wouldn’t have to borrow 56 million dollars if there was an impact fee ordinance in place.

The never ending Coupe land condemnation litigation certainly has been very interesting. The Hawaii Supreme Court barely upheld Judge Ibarra’s 2007 ruling in 2008 .

The Hawaii Supreme Court also ordered the case back to Judge Ibarra to determine if the public purpose for condemnation two was pretextual. Judge Ibarra reiterated condemnation two was solely a public benefit. The Coupes ultimately decided to appeal this ruling again. This decision resulted in an  unanimous ruling in favor of Hawaii County on November 10, 2010.

Lastly, Big Island Oceanic Time Warner Cable Road Runner subscribers won’t have their speed upgraded to 10Mbps until late 2011.