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Newswatch
Star-Bulletin staff and wire service
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Council OKs Kulana Nani proposal
The City Council approved a deal Wednesday to ensure a Kaneohe affordable-housing complex remains affordable in the future.
This is the first of the 12 city-owned affordable-housing complexes that will be sold or leased. Under this deal, the city will pay $3.5 million out of its Affordable Housing Fund to Kamehameha Schools, which owns the land under Kulana Nani.
The city will also swap $4 million worth of land on Ilalo Street in Kakaako to Kamehameha Schools.
The 4.26 acres of land under Kulana Nani, a 160-apartment affordable-housing complex located at 46-229 Kahuhipa St., costs an estimated $7.5 million.
The City Council unanimously approved the measure, but several councilmembers were concerned that there is no policy established on spending from the city's Affordable Housing Fund.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann is also proposing spending $2 million on repairs to the complex so it can be sold or leased for a private company or nonprofit organization to manage.
State fines recycling company
The state has levied a fine of $32,140 against Rolloffs Hawaii Inc., doing business as RRR Recycling Services Hawaii, for skirting state deposit beverage container requirements.
The violations occurred at multiple RRR Recycling redemption centers in Honolulu from February 2006 to May 2007, a Department of Health news release said.
According to the Health Department's Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch, RRR Recycling accepted customers' container counts without verification.
The company also failed to inspect containers for the required HI-5 label, take containers out of bags for inspection, post refund rates for containers and display hours of operation, according to a release.
Rolloffs Hawaii has requested an administrative hearing to contest the complaint.
Habitat hosting session on homes
Habitat for Humanity Leeward Oahu will hold an information session Monday for families who hope to build their own homes starting this fall.
Volunteers will help the families construct their own affordable homes in Leeward Habitat's 31-home subdivision Kaukamana Hale near Maili.
Anyone interested in applying must have attended a previous information session or Habitat's forthcoming session on Monday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Kamehameha Schools Community Learning Center at Nanakuli, 89-101 Farrington Highway.
Families are eligible if they have a steady income, earn 50 percent or less of the median area income, are willing to volunteer with Habitat for 500 hours and are willing to pay back a zero percent mortgage.
For more information, visit www.leewardhabitat.org or call Leeward Habitat at 696-7882.
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Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff
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Man accused of molesting boys
A Salt Lake man was charged yesterday with six counts of sexual assault and one count of promoting child abuse after he allegedly molested at least two boys.
Kaulana F. Hirakawa was arrested Tuesday at Oahu Community Correctional Center, where he was being held on unrelated sexual assault charges.
According to court documents, Hirakawa molested at least two boys under 14 between 2006 and January 2007 and made pornographic material of a minor.
In January 2007, Hirakawa performed oral sex on a boy, touched a boy's genitals and made pornographic material of a minor, according to court documents. It was not clear in court documents, which had names of minors blacked out, whether the assaults were on the same boy.
Throughout 2006, Hirakawa allegedly performed oral sex on another boy under 14. It was not clear whether the assaults were on more than one boy that year.
Hirakawa was charged with four counts of first-degree sexual assault, two counts of third-degree sexual assault and one count of first-degree promotion of child abuse.
He is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Man is accused of damaging bar
Big Island police charged a 37-year-old Holualoa man yesterday who allegedly trashed a Kailua-Kona bar on Tuesday.
Anthony Gallacher was charged with first-degree criminal property damage, first-degree terroristic threatening and two firearm charges. He was being held yesterday at the Kona cellblock on $12,000 bail.
At 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, police found that someone had entered the bar after it closed at 3 a.m. and had destroyed nearly all the liquor bottles, damaged furniture, smashed toilets and destroyed other items.
Police said Gallacher had been in the bar earlier and threatened to destroy it. At 1 p.m. Tuesday, police arrested Gallacher at his home and found a firearm that was not registered to him.
CENTRAL OAHU
Victim reports Wahiawa robbery
Police are looking for a man who robbed a 39-year-old man at gunpoint yesterday in Wahiawa, taking $2,000 in cash.
The victim, an employee of Reynolds Recycling, had exited a Bank of Hawaii on California Avenue and was carrying the company's money in a bag while walking down Westervelt Street at about 8:45 a.m., police said.
A black Chevy Monte Carlo pulled alongside him, and a man in the passenger seat told him to hand over the cash, showing a .25-caliber handgun, police said.
The victim handed over the money, and the Monte Carlo drove off. The robber was in his 50s.
Family accuses teenager of threats
Police arrested a 16-year-old boy who allegedly threatened to kill his family members.
Police said that the boy got back to his Wahiawa home drunk at about 11:50 Wednesday night. Police said family complained about his disruptive and obnoxious behavior toward them and asked him to stop.
The suspect then allegedly grabbed a kitchen knife and threatened to kill a 32-year-old woman at the home. Police were called and arrested the boy on suspicion of first-degree terroristic threatening.
WAIKIKI
Man turns self in on abuse charge
Police arrested a 44-year-old man after he allegedly choked his girlfriend.
On Feb. 4 the suspect and his 33-year-old girlfriend were arguing at their Waikiki home, police said. The suspect then allegedly choked the woman until she could not breathe, but he fled before police arrived.
On Wednesday the suspect turned himself in and was arrested on suspicion of abuse of household member.
Robbery suspect:
He is accused of robbing a woman at an ATM in Hawaii Kai
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EAST OAHU
Suspect sought in robbery at ATM
Police are looking for a man who robbed a woman at a Hawaii Kai automated teller machine.
At about 5 p.m. March 9, the man shoved the woman and grabbed her money as she finished her transaction at the Hawaii National Bank ATM, 266 Lunalilo Home Road.
The man, in his 20s, was last seen fleeing on foot in the parking lot of Koko Marina Shopping Center. The man was wearing an orange T-shirt wrapped on his head, and board shorts. He is 5 foot 8 inches tall and 160 pounds.
Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME from a cellular phone.