Accident forces highway closure
Advertiser Staff
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Kamehameha Highway near the Hau'ula fire station was closed for several hours yesterday afternoon after a car struck a utility pole and brought down three other poles.
The accident occurred about 1:40 p.m. near 53-922 Kamehameha Highway. No one was seriously injured, but the downed poles and power lines forced police to shut down the highway.
The accident also knocked out power to about 250 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers, said Peter Rosegg, HECO spokesman. As of 9 last night, power had been restored to all but 50 customers, he said.
Police last night opened one lane of the highway as a contraflow lane to alleviate the backlog of traffic.
KAUA'I
BRUSHFIRE LARGELY EXTINGUISHED
WAILUA — Firefighters yesterday mopped up the largest brushfire of the year after it burned 400 acres mauka of Kuhio Highway between Hanama'ulu and the Wailua River.
Fire Chief Robert Westerman said the fire appeared to have started along the highway at the southern end of the stretch. It was reported about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
Fire crews from four Kaua'i Fire Department stations, the county Department of Public Works, the Pacific Missile Range Facility and the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife worked the blaze. Westerman said his crews were putting out isolated hot spots yesterday and expected to have the fire out by sundown.
Westerman said a tossed cigarette could have been the source, but he doubted firefighters would be able to identify the specific cause.
KALIHI
MAN CHARGED IN SHOOTING CASE
A Kalihi man has been charged with attempted murder for a shooting on Wednesday in which a man was critically wounded.
Zaldy Doles Tomas was arrested Saturday morning after police received an anonymous tip that he was in an apartment in Kalihi. Police said he is suspected of shooting Bryan Flores, 22, of Kalihi.
Flores was listed in critical condition at The Queen's Medical Center.
Tomas' bail was set at $100,000 and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.
Police said Flores was at his Ahu Lane home Wednesday night when he received a call to drop off a tool at a shop on Owen Street. Flores and a friend drove less than a half-mile to the shop, parked at North King and Owen streets, and walked down a lane to drop off the tool, according to police Lt. Lester Hite.
While walking back to the car, Flores "had a conversation" with a group of people who were drinking near their car. At that point, someone fired at least three shots at Flores, hitting him in the face and shoulder, police said.
EDUCATION CENTER WORK TO BEGIN
Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services will break ground on 100 acres of state park land in Kalihi Valley on Saturday for a planned multipurpose Watershed Education and Active Living Center.
Tentative plans for the site include stream water monitoring, large community garden plots, camping areas and hiking paths, and construction of a hula mound for halau practices and performances. The purpose of the center is to provide residents with opportunities for physical activities in the community.
Funding for the center came from donations from community organizations.
HONOLULU
MEETING TONIGHT ON WARNING SIGNS
New rules for the design and placement of warning signs on state parks and trails will be the subject of a public hearing at 6 tonight in Room 132 of the Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl St.
The 2003 Act 82 established a process for developing warning signs for improved public lands and provides the state and counties with protection from liability for damages caused by dangerous natural conditions.
The legislation was spurred by the Sacred Falls rockslide on Mother's Day 1999 that killed eight people and injured 50.
A public hearing in 2004 offered initial sign proposals and this hearing will deal with the written rules, said Curt Cottrell, with the state Na Ala Hele trail program.
The public will learn more about the signs and be able to give comments.
STATE
GRAVES PANEL MEMBER NAMED
Colin Kippen, executive director of the Native Hawaiian Education Council, has been appointed to a federal review committee that advises on how the federal native burials law is carried out.
Kippen, formerly senior counsel to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs under Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, also served as deputy administrator of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and chief tribal judge of the Suquamish tribe in Washington.
The committee reviews disputes that arise under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Kippen succeeds Vera Metcalf, whose term recently expired, and joins six other members: Garrick Bailey, Willie Jones, Dan L. Monroe, Lee Staples, Vincas P. Steponaitis and Rosita Worl.
NAGPRA was enacted in 1990 to address the rights of lineal descendants, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony with which they are affiliated.
MANOA
WOMEN'S STUDIES TEACHER HONORED
Susan Hippensteele, an associate professor in the women's studies program at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, has received the 2005 Robert W. Clopton Award for outstanding community service.
She combines her teaching with volunteer service for women who are facing potentially life-threatening circumstances of domestic violence or child abuse.
PROFESSOR WINS NATIONAL AWARD
Julia Hammer, an assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development award.
