Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Question: What's happening with the open market that used to be at Sunset Beach Neighborhood Park? We were told that it had to be discontinued because the city had taken back the permit to run it, but that it was going to move to another location. It's been weeks and still no word. North Shore open
market returningAnswer: The open market you refer to is run by the North Shore Country Market, a non-profit community development corporation.
Plans are to reinstitute the twice-monthly market in early November, about a half mile away from the old location, on the mauka side of Kamehameha Highway, adjacent to Kahai Road, said executive director Bill Howes.
City deputy managing director Malcolm Tom said last week the city had asked Howes to review a draft agreement regarding use of that site. Howes said he signed a new contract just yesterday morning.
Site improvements still need to be done before the market can get back to business as usual, but "we're pretty happy," he said.
The community had asked the city to set up a city-sponsored People's Open Market in the area about six years ago. When that didn't happen, community members decided to do something themselves and, armed with a permit from the city parks department, began holding open markets at the Sunset Beach Park twice a month in 1995, Howes said.
In October 1998, the city told the group that it wanted to relocate the market to a new 2.5-acre vacant site at Kamehameha Highway and Kahai Road.
The group was told "there would be no problem and the transition would be easy," Howes said. But on Aug. 31, the parks director informed the group it could no longer use the Sunset Beach site, but the new site was not immediately available.
Tom said it's taken time to effect the move to the new location because, although the city owns the land, it had to be transferred from one department (parks) to another (community services).
About 25-30 vendors sell at the market, which was the first one on the North Shore, Howes said. There are now open markets in Kahuku and Waialua.
Artist revealed
Christine Joy Pratt is the free-lance artist who came up with the drummer figure for the banners and logo created by the advertising firm, Ogilvy & Mather, for the recent American Dental Association convention. Pratt and graphic artist Carolyn Stafford were primarily responsible for the design, but it was a "cooperative effort" involving many people, said Richard Tillotson, the agency's creative director.
Auwe
To Consolidated Theatres. It opened theaters recently at Koko Marina Shopping Center and didn't accept GMT tickets at all four of the movies shown. What's the point of buying those tickets if we can't see the movies we want to see? And why can't we just pay the difference between the GMT ticket and the full price of the movie? -- Ruth(A Consolidated employee said the policy of not accepting discount tickets or passes for certain movies during the opening weeks is dictated by movie companies, not Consolidated or other local theater operators.
(She also said Consolidated's registers and computer system are not set up to handle accepting discount tickets plus extra cash as payment. There haven't been many requests to do that, she said, but that the possibility of doing so in the future will be discussed.)
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