Kokua Line
Kokua Line
What is the status of the homeless problem at Honolulu Airport? I was there recently and it was just as bad as can be. They're excluded when the shops are not open. It should be the other way around. Can't they get some locks and clean that place up? Airport’s homeless now
number ‘fewer than 10’The airport is a public facility so "we cannot prohibit anyone, including the homeless, from using (it) during nonclosure hours," said Airports Administrator Jerry Matsuda.
However, he said closing portions of the airport from about 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. has reduced the homeless population there significantly -- from about 75 to fewer than 10.
That action, implemented last summer, plus administrative rules, have been effective "in providing for a safe, secure and clean facility," Matsuda said.
RMY Construction is using a vacant residential lot at the corner of Hunnewell Street and Halulu Way in Manoa as an off-site construction yard. This neighborhood should not be subjected to this industrial use. We want the office/trailer, wooden shed (with graffiti), portable toilet, machinery, dump truck, backhoe, pipes, piles of dirt, gravel and other materials removed, and any further use for nonresidential purposes discontinued. Can you help?
The Board of Water Supply approved the temporary office/storage site, after checking to make sure no zoning codes would be violated and that the site was close enough to the project, said spokeswoman Denise De Costa.
The BWS apologizes to area residents, but said the site was necessary to enable RMY Construction to do the job as quickly as possible.
The only consolation to you now is that the work to replace aging waterlines will be completed by the end of March.
Some streets in the area have been subject to chronic water main breaks and the concern was to improve the pipelines expeditiously, said BWS manager/chief engineer Clifford Jamile.
RMY owner Russell Yamamoto said he's always left the door open for people to call with concerns.
"We always deal with the public directly; I think most contractors do," he said. "On occasion, we may have problems but we try to resolve them as smoothly as possible. We try to work with neighbors."
That's what De Costa said you should do -- contact the contractor directly. "If the contractor is not addressing (the complaints), then we would step in," she said.
Can you help us get our 1099 for tax services? Last year, the state required Hawaiian Electric municipal bonds to be turned in to First Hawaiian Bank for a refund, which we received. We contacted First Hawaiian when we didn't receive the 1099 by the end of January and were told it would be issued by the Bank of New York. It's now the last week of February.
You should have received it by now, said First Hawaiian spokeswoman Lisa Halvorson.
The bank sold its municipal bond corporate trust business to The Bank of New York in 1995, but since some bonds were local issues, such as Hawaiian Electric, First Hawaiian remained as a co-paying agent to facilitate the redemption (bond call) process.
The Bank of New York is responsible for preparing tax reporting documents, just as it was in 1996 and 1997, Halvorson said.
She said The Bank of New York had some technical processing problems with the 1099s this year, which caused the delay in mailing.
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com
