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Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, February 2, 2000
Building contracts fall 2% statewide
A plunge in the value of contracts written in December for future construction in Hawaii brought the total for all such contracts in 1999 down by 2.2 percent compared with 1998.Contracts in December totaled $68 million, down 77 percent from the $292.5 million written in December 1998, according to the F.W. Dodge Division of the McGraw-Hill Companies.
For all of 1999, future contracts in Hawaii totaled $1.77 billion, down from $1.81 billion in 1998. There was a 14.6 percent rise in nonbuilding contracts, for such jobs as streets and highways and airports, to $502.7 million from $438.7 million in 1998. However, nonresidential contracts (such as office buildings) were down 11 percent at $723.3 million from $814.1 million, and residential construction contracts were down 1 percent in 1999, at $547.3 million, compared to $552.9 million.
Endowment honors UH's Chuck Gee
The National Tourism Foundation's board of directors, meeting in Honolulu in January, approved a scholarship fund to honor Chuck Gee, who retired last year as dean of the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii. At a meeting of about 60 business and travel leaders, sponsored by the Oahu Visitors Bureau and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., the fund was kicked off with a $1,000 donation from foundation trustee Dave Herren. The fund will be used to help travel and tourism students from Hawaii.
Maui News names new publisher
WAILUKU -- Patrick Saka has been named publisher and general manager of The Maui News. The Wailuku native joined Maui's only daily newspaper in 1986 and served as controller for 11 years before he was promoted to general manager in January 1997. Saka, 38, is a graduate of Baldwin High School and the University of Hawaii. In December, then-publisher Richard H. Cameron announced that the newspaper was being sold to Wheeling, W.Va.-based Ogden Newspapers Inc. The sale was finalized yesterday.