One of the county’s SMTP servers, which is outsourced to Pacific Pro-Tech, was red flagged as an originator of spam. This prevented anyone working for the county from e-mailing me between January 3rd and January 11th, 2012.

The manager, who is overseeing the Makalei Fire Station project, ran into this problem. He tried e-mailing me twice during this time, but his e-mails weren’t delivered until Tuesday.

This is the latest construction update for this important public safety facility:

“Work is progressing quite well, we’ve since gotten approvals from both HELCO and DWS for their utilities and been following up w/ Cable and Hawaiian Telcom on their utilities (need to get a pole relocated in the new driveway). Building interior work (drywall, plumbing, AC and electrical) are all progressing along. Waterline work down to the highway is almost completed and contractor is meeting w/ State Highways to do trenching work on the highway. Landscaping work has just started with temporary irrigation lines being installed and tree excavation starting.”

Kamuela attorney Margaret Wille has announced her intentions to run for Councilman Pete Hoffmann’s District 9 seat. I’m happy she decided to run. She’ll add much-needed perspective and intelligence to the council, if elected.

Lastly, Hawaiian Telcom still faces a lot of challenges despite successfully exiting Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For starters, their aging last mile infrastructure needs to be improved, if they want to remain a viable competitor to Oceanic Time Warner Cable.