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Mauna Kea board
seeks cash from
observatories

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By Rod Thompson
Big Island correspondent

HILO -- The new Mauna Kea Management Board is requesting $2 million in each of the next two years for education of the public and protection of biological, archaeological and cultural resources on Mauna Kea.

The request, approved by a University of Hawaii Board of Regents committee yesterday and expected to receive approval of the full Board of Regents today, would be sent to the Legislature in January.

Money will also be sought from the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii and from observatories on the mountain, officials said.

Environmentalist Nelson Ho, long a critic of university management of Mauna Kea, urged that observatories be required to pay. "I would like you to be really tough on them -- no new money, no new telescopes," he said.

The regents also approved seeking $250,000 for a "visitor entry kiosk" on the road to the summit.

Ho warned that the kiosk should not become a gate that would bar access to the mountain.

The management board, attached to the University of Hawaii-Hilo, was created as part of the new Mauna Kea Science Reserve Master Plan approved by the regents this summer.

Officials yesterday revealed that retired police Capt. Arthur Hoke has been selected as chairman of the seven-member body. Hoke is also a candidate for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.