Kokua Line June Watanabe

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Light fixed at downtown crosswalk

Question:Why do we have to stop at a traffic light at Richards and Beretania streets, in front of Washington Place, when no one is crossing? I have stopped three times there, and not a single person was in sight. Richards is one-way, heading makai from Beretania.

Answer:The problem was a short in the mechanism that is supposed to activate the stoplight only when a pedestrian pushes a button.

An official with the city Department of Transportation Services checked the location after we forwarded your complaint and reported it was fixed shortly afterward.

Auwe

To the thief/thieves who stole my parents' brass vase at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl. Shame on you! It even had my mother's name on it. Perhaps you'll wonder why your hands become arthritic someday. -- No Name

Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to prevent such thefts, said Gene Castagnetti, director of the cemetery.

"It is a problem that has been occurring many, many years," he said. "We try to do the best we can, but we can't watch all these vases."

As it is, Punchbowl security and the Honolulu Police Department do patrol the cemetery, but they're more on the lookout for automobile break-ins.

That is another unfortunate fact: Thieves will prey upon any unattended vehicle, no matter where it is.

There are close to 20,000 privately owned flower vases at Punchbowl, Castagnetti said.

Not only will the brazen thieves sometimes take a vase and place it "in other locations," they also will take it to sell the metal for a few dollars, he said.

The problem for staff is that it is hard to determine if someone stopping by a plot is a family member.

Castagnetti said he "can't have my people in a position to challenge" whether someone is a family member. Not only would that be "very insensitive," he said, but also just because someone's name does not match the deceased's does not really prove anything.

Castagnetti said that at the time a vase is purchased or installed, a family receives written notice that the cemetery is not responsible for it.

Most families will engrave their names on the metal to try to preclude thefts, but that obviously does not deter some thieves.

This is a case in which "we hope that people have respect for other people's property, especially when it comes to dealing with loved ones who are deceased," Castagnetti said.

He pointed out that Punchbowl is one of the few national cemeteries that allow permanent vases to be installed into the ground.

"On the mainland this is not permitted," he said. On the mainland, also, there is not the high volume of visitors that Punchbowl attracts.

But in Hawaii, because of "a plethora of beautiful flowers," and number of visitors, allowing flower tributes makes for a "beautiful sight," Castagnetti said.