Kokua Line June Watanabe

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Waipio park faces barrier to new toilets

Question: Why are there no restrooms at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex? It's a beautiful field. When I called the parks department, they could not give me an answer. Maybe they ran out of money. Mayor Hannemann could ask the state for money, since it has a surplus. Then the children and adults don't have to run to the bushes before the Health Department steps in.

Answer: There are restrooms at three different locations within the Waipio soccer complex, but not nearly enough to accommodate the thousands of players and fans who flock to the 23-field complex and 4,000-seat stadium, acknowledged Craig Mayeda, administrator of maintenance and recreation for the city Department of Parks and Recreation.

"It's not a good situation," he said, noting that he has firsthand knowledge because his son is a soccer player who plays there often.

However, relief might be coming, although not in the immediate future.

The long-standing problem is that the complex falls within the U.S. Navy's "blast zone" because of its proximity to an armory at Pearl Harbor. For obvious reasons, the Navy doesn't want any buildings that could be destroyed by a blast.

The majority of the soccer fields are within that blast zone. The existing comfort stations are near the fields that are outside the zone. One is at the stadium, one just outside the stadium, "which everyone ends up using," Mayeda said, and there's a portable -- a minitrailer accommodation -- a little farther away.

The Navy had said "absolutely no" to any permanent buildings within the blast zone and had ordered the city to remove portable restrooms that had been placed within that zone.

However, Mayeda said the Navy has agreed to a compromise: to allow a comfort station if it is built to withstand a blast. The city has hired a consultant to design a building that would meet the Navy's requirements, Mayeda said.

Q: Do stores receive a commission from the post office or government for selling stamps?

A: No.

"Any store could actually go to the post office, buy stamps, sell them to a customer and they could add a fee onto that," said Nancy Wong, retail manager for the Postal Service in Hawaii.

The Postal Service does not regulate that.

It's up to consumers to decide whether it's worth it, for convenience or any other reason, to pay the added cost.

However, there are retail outlets under contract to the Postal Service to provide "stamps on consignment." In that case, "they must charge the face value" for the stamps (sold only in coils or booklets), and they do not receive any commission, Wong said.

For the most part, those who do sell the stamps on consignment do so "as a service to their customers," she said. On Oahu they include 7-Eleven Stores, Tesoro gas stations, Longs, Foodland, Safeway, Star Market, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Costco and selected Times Super Markets.