Maui mayor seeks funds
for helicopter ambulance
WAILUKU >> Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa and a Valley Isle delegation will travel to Honolulu tomorrow to ask Gov. Linda Lingle to release state funds for helicopter ambulance service.
The Democratic state Legislature overrode Republican Lingle's veto of a bill that authorized about $1 million to fund the first year of the service, which would mainly serve remote areas of Maui, Lanai, and Molokai.
The County Council has authorized spending about $650,000 toward the service.
Arakawa, a Republican, said although the bill is scheduled to take effect in July 2004, there still is the question of whether Lingle will release the funds for it.
"That's why we have to talk with her," he said. "I believe she wants to work with us. I think everybody's on board. It's just a question of how to get it through."
Arakawa said the delegation will include county officials and representatives of health groups who lobbied for the helicopter ambulance, including John Schaumburg, chief executive of Maui Memorial Medical Center.
Arakawa said the "real sticking point" is the Lingle administration's worry about exposing the state to lawsuits if funds are provided to helicopter emergency service for Maui but not for other neighbor islands.
Arakawa said his administration believes that they have a solution to the liability problem. He declined to elaborate.
Arakawa said during three weeks of mayoral budget meetings in various parts of the county, many residents expressed the need for an emergency helicopter service.
The West Maui Taxpayers Association, a nonprofit organization with more than 3,000 members, has asked Lingle, a former Maui mayor, to release the funds.
Association officials have noted that the west Maui region, including Lahaina, Kaanapali and Kapalua, lacks an emergency medical facility.
Association Executive Director Ezekiela Kalua said a person who has a life-threatening illness such as a heart attack in Napili would have difficulty getting to Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku in less than an hour.
