Nanakuli park closed for repairs

Another Leeward Coast beach park was closed to campers last night as the city Parks and Recreation Department implemented a plan announced six weeks ago.

The gate at the Zablan portion of Nanakuli Beach Park was to be locked at 10 p.m. for a weeklong project to repair and replace toilet facilities, the irrigation system, picnic tables and park benches and for extensive landscaping work. After the anticipated completion of work on Friday, the park will be closed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. every night.

About 200 people were living at the shoreline stretch of the larger park when the city Department of Parks and Recreation announced the closure Jan. 30.

Most of them have left the site, said Patty Teruya, chairwoman of the Nanakuli Neighborhood Board. She said social service agencies and area residents have been working with the campers to help them find transitional housing.

City spokesman Bill Brennan said early yesterday that parks officials anticipated no problems because campers were given substantial advance notice about the closure.

Solar system subject of free lecture

David Jewitt, with the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and National Academy of Sciences, will discuss “;The New Solar System”; in a free public lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the UH Art Building Auditorium.

Jewitt will describe how the view of the solar system has changed in the past two decades, with much of the work done in Hawaii. He said three major domains now are recognized—the rocky planets, the gas giants and the comets—and astronomers are beginning to understand the interrelations and connections.

The region beyond Neptune, he said, “;has emerged as an unexpectedly rich repository of clues about the formation and early evolution of the solar system.”;