Kokua Line

By June Watanabe

Thursday, January 29, 1998

Governor’s office adding
service for calls at night

Why is it that every state representative and senator has an answering machine available to constituents and others who may want to leave a message after hours, but the governor and lieutenant governor do not?

There is an answering machine for the lieutenant governor's office which accepts messages during nonoffice hours. Call 586-0255.

The governor's office is in the process of installing a message system. It should be ready in the next week or so, said press secretary Kathleen Racuya-Markrich. Callers will get a message if they call after hours or when all lines are busy.

However, you will not be able to leave a message. Instead, you will be advised to call back during regular office hours.

The reason is that "we receive so many calls," Racuya-Markrich said. "The volume of calls after hours would make it difficult for the staff to get back on a timely basis."

The governor's office number is 586-0034. You can also call the information office at 586-0221 or 586-0222.

There is what I believe to be a utility switch box that was hit by a car more than two years ago and never removed nor repaired. It's on Wailua Street, near Hawaii Kai Drive, adjacent to the Mawaena Kai condominium. There are construction barriers around it that say "Sun Industries" along with an unreadable phone number. Would you please help contact the responsible party for this long overdue repair and/or removal?

The damaged cross connector box belongs to GTE Hawaiian Telephone.

"We were awaiting approval for an easement" to relocate the box to a less hazardous location at the intersection of Wailua Street and Hawaii Kai Drive, HawTel spokesman Keith Kamisugi said.

The damaged box is supposed to be removed in early February and a new cross connector box installed shortly after.

Auwe

To the newspapers for not having the correct information about express buses. They said the express buses wouldn't run on Jan. 19, the Martin Luther King holiday. I called up TheBus and also was told the express buses wouldn't run that day.

Yet I caught the express bus to work. Some of us are dependent on the bus system. Please make sure the correct information is printed.

(William Haig, manager of customer service for Oahu Transit Services, which oversees TheBus system, had "no explanation" for the misinformation from OTS, other than a probable "miscommunication." The best bet still is to call OTS at 848-5555 or GTE Hawaiian Tel's 24-hour hot line, 296-1818, code 3977, to find out the express bus schedule.

(Three express bus routes -- 201, 202 and 203, between Waipahu and Waikiki -- are in effect seven days a week, year-round, holidays included. Other express buses may run on a limited schedule on certain holidays, as happened on Martin Luther King Day.)

Auwe

To transportation officials who schedule road work during the day. Being a commercial driver, I am stuck in traffic all hours of the day. Problem places are H-1 West/Halawa Interchange, Dillingham/Waiakamilo, Ward/Kapiolani, etc. Everyone knows it makes more sense to schedule road work at night. If workers complain about overtime pay, tell them they're lucky to have jobs in the first place. -- N.T.

Mahalo

To several passers-by on Alakea Street and to James, a security guard at Alii Place, for their help and concern when I fell on the Friday before Christmas. I'm fine except for broken glasses and a broken tooth. -- C.S.