Question: Why did the city put up “;no parking”; signs along Kekahi Street near the intersection with Puukaa Street in Mililani Mauka? For five years after the houses were built, parking was allowed and there were no problems. Now, we have residents illegally parking there and other residents are rudely parking farther down Kekahi Street in front of other people's houses. In the neighborhood, there are no other “;no parking”; areas like this. If the city requires “;no parking”; for some reason, then they should enforce the law. Otherwise, please return it back to what it was.

Answer: The signs technically were not posted by the city.

In fact, Kekahi Street has not been turned over to the city and remains under the ownership of the developer, Castle & Cooke Hawaii, said Wayne Yoshioka, director of the city Department of Transportation Services.

Castle & Cooke Hawaii posted the signs as part of the city-approved design of the roadway.

According to Castle & Cooke's “;as-built”; plans, the parking restriction signs were installed as the subdivision was built to provide adequate sight distance along the curve of Kekahi Street, Yoshioka said.

“;As such, we recommend that the parking restriction remain on Kekahi Street,”; he said.

If the signs were not installed, the city would not accept the roadway when the time comes for the city to assume jurisdiction, he said.

Under the Revised Ordinances of Honolulu Traffic Code (Section 15-1.1), traffic regulatory signs may be placed on private streets that, for six months or more, have been continuously used by the general public or which are intended to be dedicated to public use.

“;Our department's practice has been to place regulatory signs on the schedule of traffic control devices when the roadway is dedicated to the city,”; Yoshioka said.

The Honolulu Police Department usually begins enforcement when that occurs.

“;However, the signs were installed according to traffic engineering principles and we recommend that residents observe the posted signs,”; he said.

Q: My friend said she tried calling a toll-free 800 number but that her line was disconnected. So I tried to call it and couldn't get through. We both don't subscribe to a long-distance service because we really don't need it. I called Hawaiian Telcom and they told me that I had to purchase a long-distance service in order to call a toll-free number. I was surprised. Is that true?

A: No, it's not true.

“;We apologize for any misunderstanding or incorrect information that may have been provided to this customer,”; said Hawaiian Telcom spokeswoman Ann Nishida.

“;Calls to toll-free numbers may ride on our long-distance network, but there is no cost for making the call nor do you need to have a long-distance carrier selected in order to make the call,”; she said. “;As long as your line is not restricted from making these types of calls, you can call toll-free 800 numbers.”;