Q. I'd like to know the status of the Kane'ohe Town Plan, a community planning project funded by the city Department of Planning and Permitting. The project was started in 2003 and has not been completed to date. When will the project be completed? Why is it taking so long?

A. City planning officials aren't able to provide a complete answer yet. But Windward Councilwoman Barbara Marshall said her staff wants to know what happened, too.

Here's what she found so far: Consultant for the plan was/is Belt Collins Hawaii Ltd. Last we heard of this was in October 2005 when the last Advisory Committee hearing on the plan was held — after which suggestions were supposed to go to the planning department.

"When we checked in July of last year they were working on traffic plans and we're told the traffic consultant is currently finishing up a traffic study and hopes to submit to the Department of Planning and Permitting in August," Marshall said. She'll be interested in learning more as well as this project began before she took office in January 2003.

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This is the final Bureaucracy Buster column. I would like to thank all the readers for taking the time to write, call or e-mail over the last several years. Many have been very grateful for any help we could offer: gathering information, finding out where projects bogged down, or simply providing phone numbers.

We've been running the column since 2002. At first it was written on a rotating basis by several Advertiser reporters. I took over the column in 2004.

Some of the most popular topics have been recycling, the state's bottle deposit law, abandoned vehicles, anything to do with trash pickup, and that perennial bane of our urban existence, potholes and lousy roads.

I'd also like to thank all the officials from various city, state and federal agencies and organizations who have taken the time to help me track down the answers.

I appreciate the kind words over the years as I've tried to navigate the bureaucracy and come up with answers. Of course, I've been scolded when my answers haven't measured up, but I hope readers have understood that sometimes it's difficult to get answers, even for someone who makes a living asking nosy questions.

The number of readers who have been gracious in sharing their stories has been amazing to me.

I will turn up in the Business section of our newspaper in the fall with a new column that I hope you will also find interesting and relevant. Again, thanks for your time.