Hawaii has a good chance to host next year's Miss Universe Pageant. Isle bid for Miss Universe
Pageant looking betterKieran MacCarthy, vice president of production for the Miss Universe pageants, yesterday said talks are under way about where to have the pageant, with discussions to begin in earnest after today's Miss Teen USA pageant.
MacCarthy said pageant officials remain interested in Hawaii and its new convention center. The pageant is in May.
"Certainly, Hawaii is top on most of our lists, so I wouldn't discount it at all," MacCarthy said. "We would love to have it there. It has a good chance."
But the decision will rest with the pageant's owners, Donald Trump and CBS Inc.
The state's bid to host the pageant began soon after May 16, when Brook Lee of Pearl City was crowned 1997 Miss Universe in Miami. In June, state officials expressed interest in hosting the event to pageant officials while Lee visited here.
Joseph F. Blanco, executive assistant to Gov. Ben Cayetano, said officials from the Convention Center Authority and the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau are preparing Hawaii's formal offer to pageant officials.
If the two-hour pageant is held here, pageant organizers say Hawaii would be featured in 60 nations, with at least six minutes of the telecast devoted to promoting Hawaii tourism and three minutes spotlighting finalists at neighbor island locations.
HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK -- The quarter-mile loop trail at Thurston Lava Tube will receive a $60,000 upgrade during the next month, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park announced. Thurston Lava Tube loop
to receive improvementsNew galvanized pipe handrails will be installed along the above-ground portion of the trail, and the asphalt-paved trail will be widened to four feet, the announcement said.
The state Department of Transportation will begin work in November on a $3.9 million project to resurface H-1 freeway from Waipahu Street to Waiawa Road. Stretch of H-1 freeway
to be resurfacedWork on the 1.6-mile stretch includes reconstructing pavement areas, resurfacing, improving guardrails, and installing striping, signing and pavement markers.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffBurglars have put Da Imu catering operation in Pearl City out of business. Burglaries force Da Imu
out of catering businessBurglars made the biggest strike Aug. 11, when "they cut the lock to the fence and drove in with trucks and they hauled away all the catering equipment," said daughter Hope Ah Loo.
Her parents, Arthur and Helen Ah Loo, own the business.
People who live along the bike path near 2nd Street in Pearl City said they saw trucks driving in and out between 9 and 9:30 p.m. Aug. 11, but they thought the Ah Loos were just getting ready for another party.
Burglars took the burners, cooking utensils that were specially welded for Arthur Ah Loo, even food from the freezer, Hope Ah Loo said.
Kalua pig and boiled luau leaf were taken, she said.
Also, burglars took all the gas tank fixtures to be hooked up to the burners plus a tent about 20 feet square.
She said the thieves also took 14-foot tables.
In other police/fire news:
One person killed in Big Isle wreck
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