Newswatch

By Star-Bulletin Staff

Monday, June 8, 1998

Big Isle group objects to
series filmed at park

By Rod Thompson, Star-Bulletin

KAILUA-KONA -- A new television series called "Wind on Water" should not be filmed at Kekaha Kai State Park north of Kailua-Kona, says Friends of Mahaiula, a community group.

A pilot for the NBC show was filmed at the park earlier this year, and the network has decided to make 12 more episodes.

No decision has been made on whether the filming will be at the park, on Oahu or in Los Angeles.

The group, headed by Janice Palma-Glennie and Douglas Blake, says the shoreline park was intended to remain wilderness.

The Friends object to grading of the mile-long, four-wheel-drive road to the park already done by NBC and to an NBC official's remark that the road might be paved.

Filming should be done at any of three other bays on the west Hawaii coast, they said.

Hawaii County Film Commissioner Marilyn Killeri said NBC officials already rejected filming at the other bays.

The group is small and does not represent the West Hawaii community, Killeri said.

Such a representative group, the Kona Coast State Park Task Force, decided the park road should be improved.

Kona residents have told her they want the road upgraded because it is too difficult to drive, she said.

If filmed at the park, the series would bring at least $800,000 per episode to the Big Island, she said.

Power glitch confuses graduation celebrants

Friends and relatives overcame a power failure last night at Blaisdell Center to celebrate the graduation of 462 members of Waipahu High School's Class of '98.

The lights went out in the exhibition hall shortly after the ceremonies ended in the arena.

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said auditorium officials were to meet today to find the cause of the short and to review procedures.

"They tried to start the lights up with the backup generator, but it didn't work," said Lillian Yonamine, a college and career counselor at Waipahu High. "There was a lot of confusion, but the crowd remained orderly."

Yonamine said the crowd eventually went back to the arena, but it was impossible to organize the graduates alphabetically, so everyone was on their own.

Landowners sue city over conversion program

Small landowners are taking the city to court, alleging the Housing Department is illegally miscalculating numbers of applicants under the mandatory lease-to-fee simple ownership conversion program.

The Circuit Court suit, filed Friday by the Small Landowners Association and 25 landowners who own interests in land under Honolulu condominium projects, claims civil-rights violations.

The city's 1991 mandatory lease-to-fee conversion ordinance allows it to force landowners to sell property beneath condominiums at fair market values determined in the courts. To qualify, leaseholders must be owner-occupants who own no other property.

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Police/Fire



By Star-Bulletin staff

Waimanalo man killed in Pali Highway crash

Oahu recorded its third traffic fatality in as many days yesterday when a 20-year-old Waimanalo man was killed in an early morning crash of a pickup truck on Pali Highway near Waokanaka Street.

Speed, alcohol and not wearing a seatbelt may be contributing factors in that incident, say police vehicular homicide investigators.

The man was headed toward Kailua at 6:45 a.m. when he lost control of his truck, was ejected and thrown against a guardrail. He was pronounced dead at Queen's Hospital at 7:37 a.m.

The traffic fatality is the 29th on Oahu this year. Two people died in separate incidents Friday on H-1 near Makakilo and in Kaneohe.

GI arrested after robbery of visiting Air Force man

Police chased down and arrested a suspect early today, shortly after a visiting Air Force man from New York was attacked and robbed of his wallet and watch by four men outside a Nimitz Highway nightclub.

The victim, 22, was not seriously injured in the 1:45 a.m. robbery outside World Cafe.

He had argued earlier with the suspect, a 21-year-old Army man.

The soldier and three other men allegedly attacked the victim outside the nightclub. The Army man had the stolen wallet when he was captured, police said. He was booked, then released pending further investigation.

Waipahu man stabbed at graduation party

A 21-year-old Waipahu man, stabbed in the back last night at a graduation party on Nanu Place in Aiea, is listed in guarded condition today at Queen's Hospital.

The suspect, a 20-year-old Kalihi Valley man, is at large, police said.

The victim was stabbed as he was leaving the party. His friends chased after the assailant, who dove through the passenger-side window of a passing car to escape.

When the driver stopped the car, the man fled on foot. Police recovered a knife in the car.

In other news . . .

Police arrested a man, 38, for second-degree attempted murder in connection with the screwdriver stabbing of a woman at Kawaiahao Church on Saturday. The man, no local address, was the victim's ex-boyfriend, said police. He was arrested at 7:45 p.m. Saturday. The woman, 25, was stabbed 25 times with a screwdriver while she performed community service work. She was taken to Queen's Hospital, where she underwent surgery.

A fire yesterday at the Holiday Surf Apartment-Hotel on the 2300 block of Ala Wai Boulevard, which caused about $75,000 damage to the structure and contents, was deliberately set, police said. The fire in a second-floor unit was reported at 12:40 a.m. A guest, who checked in Tuesday, was not in when security took control of the unit Saturday. He was evicted for violating house rules, police said.

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