CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Basilio Navarro bagged and sorted clothes at Albert's Dry Cleaners in Wahiawa yesterday. The business was established in 1943 and remains the only in-house dry-cleaning service in Central Oahu.

Wahiawa businesses
enjoying many happy
returns

Schofield soldiers back from
deployment are fueling a
noticeable increase in the economy

Sometimes you can tell how a town's economy is doing by counting the number of occupied chairs at the local barber shop.

In Wahiawa, when the local barber shop starts hiring more barbers, then you know the economy is humming because Schofield Barracks soldiers are coming home.

About 8,000 soldiers from Schofield Barracks were deployed to the Middle East last year. In the last month, many of them have been trickling back into town.

Throughout Wahiawa, shops have posted banners and signs welcoming back soldiers. And whether they're in uniform or not, they're a welcome sight for a town that took a severe economic hit with their absence.

Barbershop owner Michael Fuse is so busy, he's hiring more barbers to keep up with soldiers in need of a good haircut.

Four barbers clipped customers' hair at Michael's Barber Shop on Wilikina Drive yesterday, with several customers waiting for a free chair.

Fuse said he can't wait for the return of the remaining soldiers. "Then we'll see the Wahiawa town come alive again," he said.

Fuse said business at the barber shop -- and at his Island Tattoo parlor -- has increased 40 to 50 percent. He's not the only one who has seen a jump in business in the last month.

Last year, Fuse said, business was down 75 percent. "You feel the punch right away," he said. "It was pretty hard."

Some small-business owners said they started noticing improvements in mid-February.

"A lot of businesses are (doing) better now," said Dan Nakasone, of the Wahiawa Community and Business Association.

"For them to survive with that kind of loss, you got to give credit to them for their staying power," he said.

Anh Nelson, owner of El'Gant Alterations on Kamehameha Highway, said some employees only worked 13 hours a week last year. Now employees are working 20 to 30 hours in overtime, Nelson said.

"If they go again, we don't know how to handle it," said Nelson, noting that he almost went out of business last year.

Yesterday a steady stream of military personnel dropped off and picked up their fatigues at Albert's Dry Cleaners, across the street from El'Gant Alterations.

Thanh Nguyen, who works at Albert's, said they are very happy with the return of the soldiers. Nguyen said business dropped 50 percent last year. Some employees worked on a few hours a week during the slowdown. About 80 percent of their customers are from the military, she said.

Sgt. Drew Delk of the 162nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment said he and his wife, Tammy, who is also in the military, have been coming to Albert's since they arrived on Oahu three years ago.

"It's good to be home," said Delk, who returned Thursday from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan.

John Eiting, owner of the Top Hat Bar on Kamehameha Highway, described Wahiawa as a "ghost town" when many of the soldiers based at Schofield Barracks were deployed in the Middle East.

Business plummeted 80 percent, Eiting said. During that time, Eiting renovated the exterior and interior of the 64-year-old establishment as he awaited the soldiers' return.

Now, "families are coming back," he said.