City picks best 2009 employees

The city honored its best employees of 2009 yesterday at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.

Dale M. Senaga, with the Royal Hawaiian Band, beat 23 other nominees to become employee of the year.

Karen K. Miyake, of the Department of Community Services, was chosen from among eight nominees to be manager of the year. Miyake, chief of the Elderly Affairs Division, developed a new look for the department's publications and a new logo for her agency.

Her division also created a resource center to improve the health of senior citizens.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Gary Takeuchi and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Van Marter won honors as the city's outstanding attorneys.

Three employees received exceptional-achievement awards: Jeff Smith with the Honolulu Liquor Commission, Lorrie Manasas-Liu with the Department of Facility Maintenance, and Rochelle Asao with the Department of Community Services.

Workshops offered at Midway Atoll

The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is offering up to 12 teachers and community leaders an opportunity to spend a week in the reserve in June.

An official for the monument said yesterday that the traveling workshop is designed to get people involved in taking care of the environment.

The group would spend three days on Oahu learning about the atolls northwest of the main Hawaiian islands.

It would then go to Midway Atoll, about 1,250 miles north of Honolulu, for seven days.

Officials held a similar workshop for educators last year.

The monument is home to 7,000 marine species, a quarter of which are found only in Hawaii.

More information about the workshop is available at papahanaumokuakea.gov or by contacting Linda Schubert at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 933-8181. Nominations must be postmarked by Jan. 4.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Council OKs Kenoi's plan for land sale

HILO » The Hawaii County Council has approved Mayor Billy Kenoi's proposal to sell 737 acres of land to help balance the county's budget.

The 6-3 vote came Wednesday. In other action, the Council voted against requiring Kenoi's administration to release terms of the sale or to gain the Council's approval before finalizing land sales.

The administration hopes to sell the Hamakua land mauka of Paauilo for $8.2 million to balance Kenoi's $386.7 million budget.

The county acquired the land as part of a 1994 tax settlement with bankrupt Hamakua Sugar Co.

Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong, who opposed the sale, believes it will not go through because several native Hawaiians claim they are the actual owners of the land.