Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Question: I live on Nanamoana Street in Kaneohe. In back of my property, up on the slope, is an easement for a drainage ditch. On the other side of this ditch are homes on Kahinani Way. The slope on the Kahinani Way side of the ditch is overgrown with weeds and trees over 6 feet high. As a result, leaves, weeds, etc. keep falling into the ditch. I've been cleaning it up at times, fearing it will clog the ditch during heavy rains and overflow into the yards on Nanamoana Street. Who is responsible for trimming the weeds and plant growth on the slopes bordering the ditch? Will the city or state be monitoring the ditch to be sure that it is cleared of debris? Is it possible for inspectors to instruct homeowners on Kahinani Way to cut those weeds? Homeowners must
clean Kaneohe ditchAnswer: An inspection of the open ditch, which connects to a 36-inch drainage pipe, showed it is covered with vegetation, confirmed the city Department of Facility Management.
City records show the ditch to be a drainage easement owned by several lot owners on both Nanamoana Street and Kahinani Way. Thus, it is the owners' responsibility to maintain the ditch area, officials said.
"We will be contacting the owners where the ditch has to be cleaned," Larry Leopardi, chief of the Road Maintenance Division, said last week. The city has the authority to either levy fines against the owners or to do the work, then "back-charge" them, he said.
"But what we'll do first is to contact them and try to get them to clean the ditch before we take the action," Leopardi said.
Q: I was just curious: I went to Punchbowl on Memorial Day, and it was a beautiful sight, with all the flags waving. However, in one side, there were some graves with flags and some without. I was wondering, are the flags only for World War II veterans or Korean War veterans or whatever?
A: You must have visited the cemetery before all the flags were set up, said Gene Castagnetti, director of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl.
The tradition is to decorate all the graves with flags and lei on Memorial Day, he said.
The cemetery relies on Scouts to help with this task, Castagnetti said, but somehow they missed Section U the Sunday afternoon before Memorial Day.
His staff noticed the oversight, and those graves also were decorated with the flags and lei.
Auwe
We have plots at Diamond Head Memorial Park. On Sunday, May 27, an elderly woman was walking there and having her dog do his thing among the graves. It was very disrespectful to the dead and the living. I hope this can be prevented. -- No Name(If you witness this again, call the park at 734-1954. Diamond Head Memorial Park's regulations do not allow pets in the cemetery.)
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